Nice is Nice

My dad left on Thursday to go golfing in Scotland and Ireland for ten days or something. My mom isn’t the biggest London fan (she’s a bit better now that she’s realized it can be sunny on occasion) so before coming she had debated whether to stay in London for a few extra days or if she and I should go on holiday. After getting my current job, which has flexible hours, I was able to go away with her. We had looked at deals offered on sites like Groupon before settling on British Airways. They can be expensive but they also have a thing called Last Minute Deals, where you have to go away that month but it can be really really cheap. Then it was a matter of choosing a location: there were deals everywhere from Barcelona to Copenhagen. Ultimately we chose Nice, in the French Riviera. Ironically, almost a year ago I had suggested Nice to her in passing.

                I had to wake up really early to get to Gatwick Airport to catch my flight. I had cancelled my shift the night before (good call) but it didn’t make me any less tired. I had originally requested a minicab to pick me up at 4:15am, which I later changed to 4:45am, when I realized I didn’t have to be at the airport until 6:30am because I had carry-on luggage. I took a minicab to East Croyden station, to catch a train to the airport. Because it was so early, I had to get a cab there or else leave on a nightbus at 3:00am. Easy decision. Funnily enough, I caught the train I would have been catching had I been picked up at 4:15am. Unfortunately, that meant I arrived at Gatwick just as my parents were leaving their hotel. I sat and read for awhile before I began getting nervous at my parents’ absence. They both had to check baggage and neither of them were there. They came in running just past 6:30am and we had to rush to security. My dad’s flight was boarding at 7:05am and it was really busy. We thought he would miss the flight so our goodbyes were very rushed. My mom and I actually got through security before him, because they decided to swab his iPad. Security is so lax in the UK. I accidentally left my sunglasses on my head and the only reason I got a pat-down was because the machine randomly selected me. On the way back I would leave coins in my pocket and walked through just fine. We all made our flights. We had a hen party on ours. It’s a bachelorette party. All the girls were dressed the same and were obviously really rich because when my mom asked them were they were staying they said St. Tropez. You know who goes to St. Tropez? Beyonce.

The flight was a quick two hour trip (yay for Europe!) and customs was a nonevent. Another stamp in my passport and not a word was spoken. We then had to catch a public bus to our hotel, because there aren’t shuttles. It was a little confusing trying to figure out where we were supposed to get off. I eventually asked the driver. Just in time, too, because he told me it was the next stop. We got to our hotel, the Beau Rivage, around 11:30am. Check-in wasn’t until 3:00pm but we thought we would try our luck. The girl at the front desk was really nice. Not only did she give us a room right away, she changed it from a queen bed to two twin beds. The floor in the hallways has pebbles in the design, which makes it look like you’re walking on the beach (Nice, if you don’t know, is famous for its pebble beaches rather than sand). It was really cool! Our hotel room was nicer than I expected. I always think that when you can get flights and a hotel for so cheap it’s probably going to be a bit ghetto but it wasn’t at all. It was, however, very hot. We couldn’t get the air conditioner working.

                I had been to Nice before, four years ago, but this was my mom’s first visit. Our hotel was situated in a great location, right on the Promenade des Anglais and just two minutes from Place Massena. Our first stop was the Hard Rock Café. I am one of those crazy Hard Rock people. I love going there. I love watching the music videos and I love the food. I’ve been to Hard Rock’s all over the world. My parents hate it but humor me. This one was quite nice. There was a patio area (too hot) and an upstairs, indoor area (meh) but there was also some tables inside slightly but still with the breeze from the patio and a view of the water. My mom actually really liked it. She took the seat where you could see the ocean and people and I took the seat facing the TV (I seriously like the music videos, okay?).

                Their menu is slightly different than the ones in North America, so I ended up trying a new drink. Usually I get their sangria but it wasn’t there. My mom and I both tried a drink called Pickled Tink. It’s strawberry something, vodka and pina colada mix. It was so good! We also had spinach dip for an appetizer, which they don’t usually have on their menu. My main, of course, was hot wings. I love their hot wings in general but the chef must be really good here because they were even better than usual!

                After lunch we tried walking down the Promenade des Anglais some more but it was so hot. I could feel my skin burning and even my mom was complaining about the heat. We got down as far as the Negresco Hotel before turning back. Once at our hotel we had little day naps but were very hot, even in our room. We had a tour booked for 7:00pm so we eventually had to get ready. The tour was to take us to Monaco. I have been to Monaco before and absolutely love it in the evening. There were just four of us on the tour: me and my mom and an Australian couple. Our guide was very nice. He first took us through the Old Town of Nice before heading up the coast to Monaco. I love that drive, especially as the sun is going down. Unfortunately he did not take us to the palace in Monaco, which was disappointing. The view is spectacular. All the multi-million dollar yachts in the harbor and the whole city. Oh well, at least I’ve seen it before. He did take us around Monaco a bit. He even took us on the entire Monaco Grand Prix track, which goes right through the city! Going to the Monaco Grand Prix is on my bucket list, so I thought it was awesome.

                As part of our package we had booked the tour with a three course dinner. It was an okay Italian restaurant. The Australian couple did not book with dinner but ended up joining us anyway. It was not as awkward as I thought it would be. She was a big talker and her husband was one of those adorable men who just sit there thinking to themselves while their wives talk forever. Dinner came with ¼ bottle of wine each. My mom doesn’t drink wine so I got hers too. It was actually half-decent wine. For our starter we both got ravioli which was really good. For our mains we had a choice of fish or veal. I don’t like either but figured I’d be safer with the fish. I was disappointed. Salmon is growing on me but I still am not a fish fan. I don’t like the texture. For dessert my mom had a tart and I had crème brulee for the first time. It was so good! I’ll definitely have to get it again sometime.

                Dinner took ages and by the time we had finished we only had about an hour left in the city. We headed up to the famous Monte Carlo Casino. I actually really remember my way around Monaco from last time so I was able to lead everyone up there without any difficulty. We had to go past the hairpin turn from the race track, then up through some gardens, before finally finding the casino. It is truly a spectacular building. The architecture is just breathtaking. Even if gambling isn’t your thing, go in for a drink or something, because it is really something. The Australian lady had forgotten to bring any ID so she and her husband didn’t go in. My mom and I did. It costs €10 to enter and you must have ID. I knew this from last time so it wasn’t a big deal. Last time I won €40. I wasn’t as lucky this time. I played until I was back at even, but we didn’t have a whole lot of time to do anything else, so I just played some more and eventually lost it all. I wasn’t playing with very much so it wasn’t exactly devastating. The second time I played I at least acknowledged that I was going to lose and my mom was okay with it.

                We had a little bit of time before we were being picked up so we walked around looking at all the fancy cars parked out front. The people of Monaco literally drive their cars up there so tourists will take pictures of it. There is so much wealth in Monaco it’s ridiculous. On the drive back we got to see a town called Eze all lit up. It’s on the hillside and looks really beautiful at night. We got back around midnight to our hot room and would only have a few hours sleep before our next tour.

                The one thing I missed out on on my last visit to Nice was going to Cannes. I love movies (duh) and Cannes is famous for the Cannes Film Festival. I didn’t know enough about Cannes to go on my own so we booked a tour that would take us to Cannes and through Provence. Pickup could be any time between 8 and 9am so we didn’t get much sleep. Especially since it was SO HOT. We basically sweat from the second we landed in Nice to the second the van picked us up. Even with breakfast (one of the better hotel breakfasts’ I’ve had) I still felt crappy. For the first leg of the tour it was a struggle to stay awake. I was tired and I’m fairly certain I had mild heat exhaustion. We first stopped in Antibes for twenty minutes to look at the harbor. You should see the size of these yachts! They are bigger than houses! I want one. I want a big one, because you won’t feel the waves as much. And, because, of course I’d want the big one. They were insane. From there we headed to Cannes.

                My biggest complaint about this tour is that we didn’t have a lot of time in Cannes. Only about forty minutes. For someone who really wanted to see Cannes, it was not enough time. We were very rushed the whole time, basically running from spot to spot, taking a picture and leaving. We were dropped off at the Festival Palace, where all the film premieres take place. We walked into the shop where I bought a cool-looking t-shirt about the film festival. They had handprints outside in the cement, like on Hollywood Boulevard. Had we had more time, it seemed like we could actually go inside. Instead I just took a quick picture of/on the steps to the cinemas, like in all the premiere pictures at Cannes. We then headed to a kiosk nearby. I needed to get my body temperature down, and to have some caffeine. I grabbed a Red Bull and some Diet Coke, which actually did the trick. We walked towards the beach and found the spot where the stars do their photocalls before their premieres. I took a few pictures. There was even a cruise ship in the background, like in a lot of the photos I see! We were about ten minutes away from pickup time so we had to get walking down to the pickup point, which was kind of far. We got to walk past all the hotels along the beach, where they have posters for the films premiering at Cannes. There were none right now, of course, but I could picture it.

                After our way too short visit in Cannes we headed to a village up in the hillside of France. We would get two and a half hours there, which was annoying considering how little time we had in Cannes. It was a cute village but we could have done it in an hour. First my mom and I walked around, trying to find a place for lunch. I wanted escargots but she really wanted something with carbs, so when we found a restaurant overlooking the hillside that had a club sandwich for her and ravioli for me, we decided to eat there, figuring we would be able to find escargot in Nice that evening. We grabbed some ice cream for dessert at a little shop and bought a macaroon. My mom had never tried one before. I really like them! Then we sat around waiting for our pickup time. Seriously, they should have given us ninety minutes in Cannes and ninety minutes here. I don’t even know how the other six people on our tour killed time, because they didn’t even have lunch.

                We then headed up through the hills of Provence. We saw a village made out of stone, which was pretty cool, and drove up to Gourdon, which is a village famous for gingerbread. My mother decided she spoke French better than me so when I insisted a shop sold gingerbread she didn’t believe me. It was actually really funny. The shop owner gave us a taste of the gingerbread which I really liked but my mom didn’t because apparently only gingerbread men are good. She’s weird. We then drove to Grasse to visit the Fragonard perfumery. I could have visited that before but I am really sensitive to smells so last time I sat outside with the hungover people I was with. This time I decided to go in. It was included in our tour so I figured if I got sick I could just leave and it wasn’t like we had bought the tickets. I made it through the tour. It was interesting, kind of. They showed how they make and bottle the perfume. As someone who can’t really wear it, I don’t really care. That was the last stop on our tour and we headed back to Nice.

                After a quick rest in our hotel my mom and I went walking through Place Massena to find a nice place for supper. Remember how I had ravioli for lunch because I figured we’d find escargot for dinner? My mistake. Nice is full of Italian restaurants (I guess because of its proximity to the country). Had I wanted ravioli I could have eaten at any number of restaurants. We did have a nice walk through Old Town during our search, though. We had resigned ourselves to return to the Hard Rock (my mom, ironically, was encouraging this – apparently because she really wanted another Pickled Tink). I had seen a restaurant on the same block that looked promising earlier, so we checked out their menu first. It had escargots! Decision made. It was called Balthazar. It’s typically a piano bar but today it was set up to watch the World Cup, which had started the day before (I saw some of the opening ceremonies in Monaco). I seem to always end up in Europe during the World Cup and always watching the games at some restaurant or bar. It’s kind of fun, because everyone gets so into it. My escargot were delicious! They were very traditional, which meant I had to pull them out of the shell. For my main I got some duck, which wasn’t very good. But I had my French meal and that’s all that mattered.

                Saturday was our last day. We had originally thought to stay until Sunday, but it would have been harder for my mom to get back to Calgary. We didn’t really need the extra day, anyway. Maybe if we had been in Barcelona or someplace, but I felt like three days was enough. The tricky thing was that our choices were limited to a 7:30am flight (to early) or 7:30pm (a little too late). We laid in bed until check-out time, which was noon. Then we headed to the Hard Rock for lunch. We tried the bruschetta for our appetizer this time, which was probably the best bruschetta I’ve ever had. We ate in the upstairs section this time. We chose poorly, because for some insane reason there was a birthday party happening for a five year old. What five year old has a birthday party at the Hard Rock? Anyways, there were a dozen screaming children running around. It was annoying and loud. But the food was good.

                We still had time to kill before heading to the airport. We weren’t really sure what to do. We had seen these trams on the Promenade des Anglais the last few days so we went to check it out. It turned out it was a little hour-long tour of the Old Town and up to the ruins of a castle. It wasn’t too expensive and we had nothing better to do, so we took it. It was actually really enjoyable. The audioguide was actually quite informative and the views of the city from the top of the hill were breathtaking.

                From there we walked down the beach and through the streets for a bit before heading back to the hotel to get our luggage and get on the bus to the airport. We were two hours early for our flight which turned into even longer because the plane was delayed. I only brought one book and their free wifi was terrible. I also missed my last train in London, so I didn’t get back until 1am. Sigh. But it was a nice trip with my mom, who headed home the next morning to Canada.

 

The Weekend and Also, My Parents Came to Visit

Friday

I had to line up a lot of work because my parents were coming to visit so it was a pretty busy week. I started on Saturday and had applied for work for the next week. My job apparently decided I was working too much (I see I’m taking time off the next week, they see a really tired employee come day six) so I ended up getting the Friday off before my final Saturday shift. Sarah and I saw this possibility coming (she also had Friday off) and had decided to use the magical world of StubHub (www.stubhub.co.uk) to see if we could get half-decent, day-of tickets to see One Direction. That’s right. We woke up to find that tickets had dipped to our pay limit (we were going Sunday already so we weren’t going to pay more than a certain amount to see them Friday). The boys were playing Wembley Stadium for three nights and this was their first show. Our tickets were in Standing Yellow, which was in a back corner of the football pitch.

I met Sarah at Oxford Circus at 3:00pm to go grab the tickets. In Canada, when you get tickets off StubHub you get them emailed to you and you just print them off. Here you go to StubHub’s last minute ticket center. Which meant we got actual tickets! They were really cool. They had One Direction’s faces on it! We then walked to find some food which ended up leading us on the scenic route to Baker Street, where we eventually settled for some little cafeteria. I got some crappy lasagna (my mom makes the best lasagna all other lasagnas suck) and fries. Sigh. Then we headed up on the train to Wembley. You can always tell who is going to a One Direction concert because they are female and probably wearing their faces everywhere. We weren’t, but only because I left my hoodie in Calgary (and Sarah’s One Direction duct tape). The scene at the train station was madness. There were girls everywhere. The gates wouldn’t open until 5:00pm so we had half an hour in the craziness. That being said, the view from the train station was pretty cool. The stadium is in full view across the pathway, there were double decker buses riding on the bridge in front of it, and a giant One Direction billboard plastered across the front.

We waited outside longer than necessary, until Sarah realized that Wembley Stadium was outside. It was organized chaos to get in. We all had specific entry gates and they would only let about fifty people in at a time. The arena itself is huge. Normally the area with concessions is jampacked but it was so big in there it didn’t seem very busy. We sat on some couches we found and listened to a radio program that was recording from the stadium. Everything got pushed back half an hour so it was a lot of sitting. Their opening act, 5 Seconds of Summer, also opened when we saw them in Vancouver. We skipped them then, too.  Finally, at 8:00pm we went to our standing section to wait for the concert. They played some really fun music while we waited, like Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven, which definitely made the waiting easier. Then it started. I screamed and danced and freaked out. It was good times. I love Harry Styles. And I’d get to see it again Sunday!

Saturday

The next day was a bit rough, mostly because we didn’t get in until late as we missed the last train and had to take the night bus. I had to get up at 10am to work. When I’d finished at 8pm, Sarah and I headed to Trafalgar Square to meet my parents, who had just come in from Canada. They were jetlagged and tired and had been walking around all day so all we did was walk to Covent Garden so I could grab some Shake Shack to eat. It was a tasty burger.

Sunday

                Sarah, Sandra and I had all cleared our schedules to hang out with my parents all day. We started off with Sunday buffet brunch at Babur, the Indian place Sarah and I had eaten at nearly two months before. We were cautious not to fill up (Sarah and I have learned from our mistakes). From there we took the train down to London Bridge. My parents really like walking, and I don’t, so I tried to find a happy medium. The walk from London Bridge to Waterloo takes about forty-five minutes and has a lot of nice things to see. On the walk you pass Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, Oxo Tower, ITV Studios, BFI, and more. My dad wanted to see The Old Vic, so we walked a little past the station so I could show him. I also freaked everyone out by pointing to a restaurant and giving the exact date Harry Styles ate there. Oops.

                From Waterloo we headed to my parents’ hotel, the London Edition. First we stopped to pick up our second round of One Direction tickets. We were in the stands this time, in Club Wembley. Everyone but me and Sandra had a nap at my parents’ hotel. We got to Wembley Stadium around 5:30pm this time and there was far less of a crowd waiting outside. We walked the whole arena again before grabbing some surprisingly tasty pizza and some not so tasty popcorn. We skipped 5 Seconds of Summer again. They announced that the boys would be coming on at 7:45pm, but it was more like 8:30pm again. This time Sarah and I could see the whole stage, though the boys themselves were very very small. That’s the problem with arenas. There’s not really a good seat. If you’re close, you can’t see all the action. But if you’re in the stands, you’re far away just because of the size of the place.

                This concert was even more fun than Friday’s. I danced around and screamed and acted like a fourteen year old. It was really great. Did I mention I love Harry Styles? We had to catch the train because everyone needed to get up early. Again, it was organized chaos. They didn’t want everyone rushing the station so they held us back until everything was clear. The police were so well-prepared. They brought a microphone and a record player and started playing One Direction songs through the mic! It was funny and thoughtful of them.

 

Monday

                I was working Monday night but I had the morning and afternoon off to hang out with my parents. My dad had booked a Rock & Roll Tour of London in the morning. It was very informative. It took us all around Soho, Highbury & Islington, and Camden, showing us many sights of the British music scene. They tailor the tour to your interests, which is good and bad. Nobody said they liked The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, so we, unfortunately, did not hear much about them. I said Joy Division, though, and they actually found a way to incorporate them into the tour, which was impressive.

                Our tour finished around 12:30pm in Trafalgar Square. We went to Covent Garden to meet Sarah and introduce my parents to the wonders of Nando’s. They were impressed. Afterwards Sarah went back to the flat and my parents and I went shopping briefly, before I went back to their hotel to get ready for work and they walked down to Harrod’s.

 

Tuesday

                Another early morning as Sarah, Sandra and I headed to Victoria to meet up with my parents. We had booked a coach tour of Stonehenge and Bath. The coach wasn’t completely full, which was nice. Everyone mostly slept on the drive out to Stonehenge. Even our guide stayed quiet, after acknowledging the fact that everyone was probably going to fall asleep. Good call. We got to Stonehenge in about an hour and a half and had an hour to look around. The tickets were included in our tour, as were the audio guides. You have to take a shuttle partway up to Stonehenge and then walk for a bit. Sometimes I really like audioguides but today I was just not in the mood to listen, so Sarah and I just walked around. You’re not allowed to get close anymore, because people suck. They would try to push the rocks over or deface them in some way. That, and the ground is unstable after all these centuries. Stonehenge has actually been a tourist attraction since the 17^th century or something like that.

                It was pretty cool to walk around something so old, but it’s also kind of overrated. I thought it would be bigger or more imposing; that I would somehow feel insignificant when standing there. But honestly, it’s just some old rocks in a cool pattern. My dad thought we were going to Easter Island and kept asking where the giant heads were. After we took the shuttle back down to the Visitor’s Center and went in the exhibition. It was basically a museum dumbing down what was said on the audioguide. What is Stonehenge, why did they build it, etc. My favorite room was a room of theories about Stonehenge’s existence. It’s up for debate and I like conspiracy theories like that. Then we were back on the bus to head to Bath.

                The ride to Bath took another hour and we sometimes drove through some countryside villages. I was more excited to see Bath than Stonehenge. The city is beautiful. The buildings are a mix of Roman and Georgian architecture and it’s a really cool combination. They also primarily use these kindof gold-beige stones which are so pretty. When we got off the bus our guide took us on a walking tour of the city. We saw the exterior of the Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent (which I found really cool) and some other famous landmarks. Mostly I just really liked walking around the city, taking it all in. I don’t think I could spend more than a day there, but it sure is nice to look at.

                We had forgotten to book tickets to the Roman Baths with our tour except for Sandra who booked separately from us. By chance, there was one token to enter left over, so Sarah and I used the two to see the baths. They were really cool. It’s basically the ruins of a spa. After walking through it they have a miniature of what the baths would have looked like. It was really cool to see how it would have looked. It really did look like a spa with a bunch of swimming pools and hot tubs.

                After we finished at the baths (we skipped the audioguide again) we met up with my parents and went looking for a bite to eat. We visited a pub which actually had some really good chicken wings. It’s really hard to find good hot wings in England. They are my favorite. But these were fine. We did a quick walk through the shopping area which turned into us almost missing our bus. There wasn’t anything left to the tour after that, just the drive back to London.

Wednesday

                Sarah and I spent the morning at our new flat (more on that in another post). I met my parents to show them the new neighborhood and then we headed to Camden. My parents had taken an interest in it after our Rock & Roll tour so I took them to the high street so they could check out the markets. It, unsurprisingly, wasn’t really their scene. We did shop at H&M for a bit and grabbed some lunch at Wetherspoon’s. My dad tried the veggie burger and loved it. My mom tried the purple drink and loved it. Then we headed down to Oxford Circus where we shopped at H&M (again), Debenham’s and TK Maxx.

                Sandra met us down at Oxford Circus and we went to supper at Belgo, the mussels restaurant. I’d been to the one in Bromley with Sarah but this time we went to Covent Garden. The food was just as good (my mother is hard to please and she really liked the mussels) but the restaurant was really crowded and loud. Oh well, it was still a very satisfying final meal with my parents.

               

I Has A Job!

                Finally, after sending out an insane amount of job applications with no response (or at least no good responses), I was starting to lose hope. How long can Sarah and I stay in London if we are unemployed? On a frustrated whim, I applied for a job advertised on the BritBound website Wednesday morning. That afternoon they called me and we had a phone interview. I was invited to attend a group interview Friday at their offices. Finally! Some progress. The only frustrating thing was I had to purchase their standard uniform before the interview. Which meant Thursday Sarah and I ventured into Bromley to visit The Glades Shopping Centre and pick up the articles of clothing. Sarah was getting some too, as she had applied for the job shortly after I received my phone call.

                Before we began hunting for clothes we ate at a restaurant recommended by Imogen several weeks prior, called Belgo (www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk). I love mussels, which some people know better than others (my Mexico peeps) and I have been talking about wanting mussels for awhile now. It was the perfect opportunity. They have a ridiculously cheap lunch deal where you can get a half-kilo of mussels and a drink for £7.95.  Needless to say, it was delicious and I will definitely be going back. After a satisfying lunch we started looking for the items we needed: a black tie, a black long-sleeved collared t-shirt, and black pants. The pants and tie were found easily at Marks & Spencer. The shirt was difficult. First, it took forever to even find a men’s plain black t-shirt. Then we had to figure out the size. How do guys do it? And how do girls figure out their guy’s shirt size? I am not built like a man and I have these things called boobs. So after three different stores we found some passable shirts at Debenhams. They are rather bulky in places but I didn’t have time to get a fitted shirt. I had been dreading the price tag on the shirt since the last time I picked up a men’s shirt was when Sarah and I dressed like Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson for Halloween two years ago and it was expensive. Much to my surprise, the shirt was actually the cheapest item!

                Friday was interview day and I wasn’t actually that nervous. I am quite confident in my interview skills and I have had a group interview before. Sarah returned the company’s phone call (they called while we were shopping Thursday) and ended up being placed in my group interview, which alleviated the pressure even further. We had to head all the way to Knightsbridge for the interview and, as we tend to do, arrived quite early. We wandered around Hyde Park for awhile before heading in to the interview.

                I would talk about the job but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. Sorry. Suffice it to say that we both got through the first part of the interview and were invited to attend an all-day assessment – the final stage of the interview – Saturday. From 9:30am to 5:00pm. In Camden. And the trains weren’t running again this weekend. Sigh. So we woke up really early and took a bus, a tube and another bus to get there. Early again. We finished at 3:30pm which was earlier than anticipated and nice. What was even better was that we both got the job! Yay for no longer being unemployed! The best part of the job is that it’s flexible and you pick your hours, which means we can continue our job search and even get another job on the side. It’s actually kind of perfect for right now. And we can find a flat!

                When we got back to the flat we both got emails scheduling us for shifts for the week. I’m more nervous about the first shift, which Sarah is not working with me, than I was about the interview. It’s also intense – I work two shifts in two different parts of London Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I guess I’ll really be getting the hang of public transport. And Sarah will have to figure out how to find places on her on. We should really probably get phones…

You would think we would celebrate getting jobs but we were exhausted after three days of preparation and interviewing and whatnot so we just ordered some pizza and watched Gossip Girl and went to bed before midnight. Because we are the coolest.

Sunday we stayed in the flat enjoying our last day of doing nothing. Monday we technically weren’t working but it was still a very busy day. We had to go to Camden for 9:30am again to do a training course required for our job. It was supposed to go from 9:30am to 4:30pm but fortunately ended at 2:00pm and was ridiculously easy and boring. After the session Sarah and I, along with our friend Jeremy who also works with us, went to Camden Market to try and find the last remaining uniform items. We were semi-successful and ended up wandering the entire market trying to find things. I’ve heard about Camden Market and it lives up to its reputation. They have the coolest shops and stalls. If I had money I would buy so much stuff.

Sarah and I were booked to view a flat at 7:00pm and we finished our Camden wandering around 4:00pm. We decided to pop into a pub to wait and we chose The World’s End. I don’t know if I mentioned this from the day we went to the zoo but we died when we saw it. For those of you that don’t know, The World’s End is a movie about an alien invasion pub crawl. It’s British, obviously. So the first time we saw a pub actually called The World’s End we died of shock. So it made sense to pop in there and have a couple drinks while we waited.

We then hopped on a bus to West Kensington. It was a bittersweet flat viewing. We knew ahead of time that, realistically, we couldn’t afford it. We were hoping it wouldn’t be that nice or it would be too small and we could justify it. We were wrong. The flat was gorgeous and all the furniture, bedding, utensils, etc. was included. We wanted it so bad but at the end of the day, do we want to be able to eat out or go to clubs or go to movies? Because if we got this flat it wouldn’t be happening. So the search continues…

Tuesday was my first day at work. Like I said, I can’t talk about it because I signed a confidentiality agreement. But it was not as worrisome as I originally predicted. The guy they had me working with is kind of my favorite person ever and most of the people are really nice. By Wednesday I was put in a position to boss people around, which I liked. It’s pretty exciting but I hadn’t worked in two months and worked ten hours the first day so I was exhausted by the time I finished. I’m shocked I managed to get back to the flat.

How I Spent the Bank Holiday Weekend. And Tuesday.

                It was yet another Bank Holiday weekend in England so we were once again faced with a long-weekend. Unlike Easter Weekend, however, we found ourselves in the position of actually having things to do every day.                

                Friday marked our one month anniversary of being in London. Things haven’t worked out exactly as planned. We are both still unemployed. Contrary to everyone’s opinions in Canada, it isn’t because there are no jobs available. There are thousands of new jobs listed every day. The issue is that the competition is fierce and we lack experience. Who knew that getting a university degree would actually hurt your employment chances? But Friday was also the day of Sarah’s first job interview. I am still an unemployed couch hobo so I went down to Kew with her. We left ridiculously early but it was a good thing because there was a lot more walking involved than we had originally thought. I can now say I’ve walked the entire exterior of Kew Gardens. Originally I was just going to hang out at a pub while Sarah had her hour-long interview, but the pub next door was closed. Fortunately there was a shop across the street called Ceramic Café. It’s one of those shops where you can paint pottery. I love doing that so I painted a butterfly jewelry box while I waited.

                On Saturday we planned to see the new Seth Rogen movie, Bad Neighbours. We originally meant to attend the 1:00pm showing but we were bequeathed with the delightful news the trains weren’t running. We were instructed to wait at a bus stop for a replacement service. After about ten minutes of waiting with a growing crowd but no sign of the bus, I remembered there was a neighborhood bus that took us exactly where we needed to go. The only problem? It would take an hour to get there, which meant we would be seeing a later screening. Then the bus wouldn’t go past the second last stop as the driver had gone over their allowed driving time. Fortunately, the very first time we’d seen a movie there we had taken the tube to Canada Water, so we knew the walk. Had we not, though? We would have been super lost and definitely would have missed the movie. For the record, Bad Neighbours was hilarious. We then had to take another hour-long bus ride back. Doing two hour-long bus rides really makes me appreciate the ten minute train rides it usually is. Never not work again, trains.

                Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. At least I knew in advance the trains would be down on Sunday. We planned to go to Shake Shack and take pictures of us crying over burgers. Because we love this actor Dane Dehaan and he was on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon telling a story about a time when he hadn’t had a burger in four months and then started crying in a restaurant. So, with Sarah and I being as weird as we are, we were totally going to replicate that. The bus was only supposed to take thirty minutes to get to Covent Garden but it took more like an hour. Once again, the driver was going over their time. It didn’t affect us at all but there were people on the bus absolutely freaking out, saying it was because she was driving too slow. The bus ride was slow, yes, but from what I could tell it was because there was loads of traffic, not anything to do with her. So we had our delicious burgers from Shake Shack and we took our crying pictures nobody understands and then we went to the British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org). It was a quick walk there from Covent Garden. We didn’t stay there very long. The museum is huge and it was a weekend, which meant tourists everywhere. Especially Asian tourists who just stand around in huge groups taking pictures of literally everything. We definitely went around the back side of the Rosetta Stone and made funny faces as people were taking pictures. Photobombing is fun. We kind of sped-walked through the museum. We saw the Egyptian, Mexico and mummy exhibits and some cool exhibit about money. But ultimately we decided to leave. We had a quick drink at a pub before hopping back on the bus to head back to the flat.

                Monday was an unexpectedly awesome day. Last week when we were in Liverpool I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite music artists, Ed Sheeran, was playing secret shows on Monday. I had made a joke to Sarah about how wouldn’t it be cool if we could go but there’s no way we will get tickets. Then I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Friday afternoon Sarah was sleeping on the couch when my phone went off: a twitter notification with the link to the tickets. I clicked it and saw they were only £6. Without even asking Sarah I grabbed two tickets. When she woke up twenty minutes later I told her she owed me money…because we were going to an Ed Sheeran secret show Monday afternoon.

                So Monday arrived. The secret show is to promote his new album, Multiply. The premise of his secret shows was exactly that. He played a thirty minute gig in Ipswich at 11:30am, followed by an hour long show in London at 4:00pm, followed by a full concert in Dublin at 9:30pm. The doors for the venue, Koko, were to open at 2:00pm. Sarah and I headed down there early to grab some Nando’s before the show. We got to the venue around 1:30pm and the line was huge. This was my fifth time seeing Ed Sheeran and every time has been completely different. The first show was in Phoenix last February. He was just starting to get famous but had already announced his tour and ticket prices. I figured paying $25 to see him in a smallish venue was fair. The next two times were in Edmonton where he opened for Taylor Swift. I met him at the second concert, which was amazing. The most recent show was in New York, when he played to a sell-out crowd at Madison Square Gardens. I’d gone to that one because I thought it was really cool to be able to say I saw him for $25 at the beginning of the year and at MSG at the end of it. And now here I was, having paid £6 to see him play in front of about 500 people. It was insane. I have now seen him more than any other musical artist with the exception of Alexisonfire. He’s catching up to them. But what was really cool was the crowd. For Phoenix and New York City it was 80% people who like The A-Team and nothing else and for the Taylor Swift shows it was all girls who liked Taylor Swift. But this crowd was different. It was 80% diehard fans, like myself. Lots of us had t-shirts from the different shows we had attended all over the world. People were sharing stories about the different concerts. It was really cool to be surrounded by people as passionate about the music as myself.

                The doors were supposed to be opened at 2:00pm but we actually didn’t get in until more like 2:45pm. We grabbed some drinks and checked out the t-shirts, which were disappointing. I definitely would have picked one up if it had the date on it. But I really could care less about a generic t-shirt. I’m only shelling out money if it’s got the actual event on it. We could have been halfway to the stage but I like to be able to move, so we found a pole in the middle of the room and hung out there. It worked out perfectly because nobody tried to take our spot, we could take turns leaving to grab drinks, and we had a perfect view of the stage. We also know where to look in all the pictures his manager posts of the audience.

                Ed came on promptly at 4:00pm with a shortened version of my absolute favorite song of his, You Need Me I Don’t Need You. You want to appreciate his talent? Watch a live version of that song. I’ve seen him play a twenty minute version before but obviously that wasn’t going to happen if he only had an hour. He then moved on to Lego House followed by one of his new songs. He then played I See Fire from The Hobbit movie, which I was really hoping he would play. I recorded it on my phone because artists don’t tend to play their movie songs very often in concert. He then played what is so far my favorite song on his new album, One (the album drops June 23^rd). Sarah had run to grab drinks during that song and all of a sudden he started playing her favorite song, Drunk. This was Sarah’s third time seeing him live, but the first by himself (she came to the Taylor Swift shows with me). He never played that song with Taylor. I started freaking out and she made it back just in time. He then played Give Me Love, which he always used to open his shows with. I love hearing that live because he changes the way he sings the course and it’s just heaven in my ears. He next played The A-Team, obviously, and finished the hour with his first single from the new album, Sing. I don’t really like that song. It sounds very Justin Timberlake-y and like he’s trying to get his music played at nightclubs. He’s still crazy talented, though. He is probably the best artist to see live. His albums are great but him live is just insane and indescribable.

                The show took exactly one hour, just as Ed said it would. It was still definitely worth £6. I’d pay twice that just for one song. He’s playing the O2 arena in October so I’ll definitely see one of those shows. Or all four. We’ll see. After the show we went to a pub to grab some food but the kitchen closed at 6:00pm. How is that a thing? The kitchen should be opening at that time, not closing. Ultimately we ended up back at Nando’s because we have a problem.

                After a lazy Tuesday morning we had to head back to Kew to pick up my pottery. It’s not the greatest work of art in the history of the universe but it will do for something I hadn’t been planning on doing in the first place. The walk was a lot hotter than anticipated and I ended up getting heat exhaustion because I’m awesome like that. It was actually kind of freaky. I thought I was just hungry but when I tried to get off the train at Waterloo I had the shakes. We ran in to a Costa Coffee at the station and I sat in the shade and had a drink and a muffin. It worked and we were able to continue on with our day.

                We were seeing a play at The Globe that night so we decided to kill the hours before then exploring the South Bank. We first walked through the Royal Festival Hall. It was very posh and I bet it’s gorgeous when there are events. There are six levels to explore but it was quite intimidating. We couldn’t really tell where we were allowed to be. Also, there are bars literally every few feet, which I found amusing. Then we found the greatest place ever, the British Film Institute (www.bfi.org.uk). I am seriously considering a membership, because it’s only £40 and you can go to all sorts of screenings and get tickets to the London Film Festival in the fall and they have all sorts of monthly members-only events. For example, next month there is someone coming in to do a lecture before a screening of 2001: A Spacey Odyssey. The second I have a job and am making money I am getting this membership. The building is really cool. There’s a couple bars and several screening rooms. There is a library full of film literature. I really want to check it out and see how much of it I had to read in school. It’s free! There’s also their mediatheque room. They have thousands of film titles from the National Archive that you can watch. FOR FREE. You can go every single day but you can’t stay longer than two hours. It’s pretty much become my goal to watch every single title. We got a ticket for half an hour so we could check it out and I put on 24 Hour Party People for Sarah to watch while I checked out the different titles available. It’s pretty cool. We definitely don’t have stuff like that in Canada.

                After our movie ended we continued walking down the South Bank before eventually reaching the Globe shortly after 5:00pm. Our show wasn’t until 7:30pm but we were both fairly hungry so we started looking around for a place to eat. We first checked the menu at The Swan (www.loveswan.co.uk), which is the restaurant attached to The Globe. It looked pretty tasty and smelled delicious but we had time to debate our options so we continued down the sidewalk. We didn’t find anything that seemed as appetizing as The Swan so we quickly returned. We were a little disappointed initially to find that the menu they had shown us was not available if you were attending the play. We had to order off of a pre-set three course pre-theater menu. We decided to just go for it and definitely did not regret it! For our starters Sarah had pea soup (which I did not try because ew) and I had some salmon with bread and pickles. I don’t usually eat salmon but I thought it sounded the best out of the options. For our main Sarah picked her selection solely based on the fact she felt like eating broccoli. It ended up being served alongside some kind of fish. I tried a piece of it and it was actually really good! I had macaroni and cheese, which sounds childish but I have found that macaroni over here is delicious. It was served alongside a salad that was bitter and somehow very addicting. For desert Sarah had a strawberry something and I had chocolate mousse. It was such a large serving of something so rich it made it a little less enjoyable than the rest of the meal had been.

                Overall dinner was amazing, though, and we had a great time. The restaurant is situated right on the Thames and from my seat I could see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the bridge from Harry Potter. I ordered a half-bottle serving of wine so as to avoid having to order by the glass and save some money and Sarah and I laughed at how the waiter poured two glasses. Because I am so Canadian I didn’t want to bother him so I just took turns drinking out of both. It was pretty funny. We also enjoyed eavesdropping on our table neighbor, who we nicknamed Dr. Shakespeare. He decided to give a complete synopsis of the play we were about to see to his dinner companions while adding his own personal tidbits of (false) information. Seriously, I studied Shakespeare. He was so wrong.

                We still had some time before the show so we went and grabbed our tickets from the box office before it got busy and had a drink outside while we watched the sun go down. For our drink we went to the outdoor section of The Swan, which is only for ticketholders, as it has direct access to the theatre. It was a really cool set up in the courtyard. They have it themed like the theatre would be in Shakespeare’s day, with cleverly named substitutes for burgers and beer. It kind of reminded me of A Knight’s Tale, to be honest.

                Ten minutes before the show they opened the doors and let us in. The show we were seeing (Sarah’s first at the venue) was Titus Andronicus. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays I have not read or seen some version of. We always knew we wanted to see a show at The Globe, sooner rather than later. When posters advertising the production made comparisons to Quentin Tarantino films, it peaked out interest. We still neglected to buy tickets, however, until after the show opened last weekend and it made the news because audience members kept fainting. Because that is what seals the deal for us. I have seen a play here before, Henry VIII, several years ago. I got standing tickets for that show. It’s a cool idea. Basically, because poor people in Shakespeare’s day stood in the center of the theater, they sell really cheap tickets if you feel like standing. I’ve done it once and I really don’t need to do it again. Standing for three hours or more is hard work and even if you can do it, it’s still in the back of your mind that your legs are getting cramped and tired. For a sold out show they put nine hundred people in the standing area. Sorry, but I will pay the extra £10 to sit. Which is what we did. We were right on the side of the stage, in seats referred to as ‘restricted view’. The thing about The Globe, though, is that all the seats are restricted view in some way or another, because it’s almost a complete circle. You will never be able to see the full action. In our case, there was a pole holding up the roof of the stage that was in our way sometimes. Not a big deal.

                The story of Titus Andronicus is not one of Shakespeare’s best. I like my tragedies with some substance, personally. Titus Andronicus returns from war with a former queen who marries the Roman emperor. She’s basically the devil and her sons rape Titus Andronicus’ daughter and cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Titus Andronicus decides to get revenge but cuts off his hand because that’s apparently helpful. There’s also a black guy who is having an affair with the psycho queen. And a bunch of people die at the end in a scene that definitely can be described as Tarantino-esque. Mostly because there’s dancing involved in the murder. All it really needed was Stuck in the Middle With You. That’s what I would have done. But we weren’t really expecting substance (I’ll save that for Hamlet). We did have four people faint in the audience so we got what we came for. I think North Americans must be really desensitized to violence, though, because Sarah and I didn’t even bat an eye at the parts that made people faint. I didn’t even realize people had fainted because it seemed so tame compared to what I was expecting.

                Side Note: When the show ends all the dead people get up and do a dance. Seriously. Slumdog Millionaire style. Fortunately Sarah and I knew about it because they told us on our tour of the Globe last month. Apparently it is done because, in olden times, people were really upset. And if people were upset they wouldn’t recommend the play to their friends. So it had to end on a happy note, even if everyone was dead.

 It was still a fun experience, though.  I think this is when it finally hit us how awesome London is. Where else in the world can you see an Ed Sheeran Secret Show for £6 on a Monday afternoon and the next evening see Titus Andronicus performed in an exact replica of Shakespeare’s Globe? 

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." - The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever

                Last Friday Sarah and I decided to take a break from job-searching and get out of the city for a day or two. We ultimately decided to go on an overnight trip to Liverpool. In the UK they have this company called Megabus (www.megabus.co.uk) who offers ridiculously cheap fares on bus rides all around the country. They’ve even expanded to include some European destinations! I had taken them several years ago to Manchester and back. We were able to get return tickets for Liverpool for only £14 which was pretty sweet.

                We decided to go up on Tuesday which meant waking up at the wonderful time of 5:30am to catch the bus. We didn’t go to sleep early the night before either because why would we do that when we could have an Andrew Garfield marathon? The London Tube was striking Tuesday and Wednesday which meant the train the Victoria was going to be crazy. We were lucky enough to get on near the start of the line and actually got seats but it filled up fast and I felt like the devil for having a suitcase. To be fair, I was trying my best to keep it out of the way but when there’s a million people crammed on a train it’s going to feel like an elephant. After a torturous thirty minutes we arrived at the Victoria train station. We had forty five minutes before our bus was due to depart but I would definitely rather be early than late, especially on tube strike day. Our bus ended up leaving fifteen minutes late because of European driving laws requiring that drivers rest for forty five minutes (the previous bus had gotten in late). It wasn’t a big deal but one lady going on a bus to Nottingham was flipping out. Seriously, if fifteen minutes is affecting you that much, maybe you should have planned better.

                I was pleasantly surprised to see that Megabus has updated a lot since my trip to Manchester. The first time I took them it was a double-decker bus, completely full. There was very little leg room and no amenities besides a washroom. This coach had seats with extra leg room, plugs to charge laptops/phones/etc. and free WiFi! It was great. Sarah and I watched the saddest movie ever, a Belgian film called The Broken Circle Breakdown that I absolutely love. Then I read half of The Fault in our Stars, because obviously the previous movie had not upset me enough. The bus made two stops, one in Leicester and one in some university town, before arriving at Liverpool One Coach Station at 1:35pm.

                Before touring we went to check in to our hotel, The Sir Thomas (www.sirthomashotel.co.uk). Originally we had planned at staying at a hostel. I’ve stayed in hostels before and they are fine as long as there’s no curfew but it’s still a pain having to share a washroom and bring your own bedding and stuff. I had checked out the hotel deals on Expedia for fun and we actually got this hotel for just £3 more than the hostel! I’ll take that. The hotel was lovely and if you go to Liverpool I definitely recommend seeing if they have cheap rooms available. It’s perfectly located just off the main shopping district, at the corner of the Cavern Quarter. We literally never had to take transit because everything was walking distance. The staff were really nice and the rooms are clean. Yes, they are small, but it’s what we expected. We also got two beds! We have been sharing a couch bed for so long it was nice to have a night in a bed to ourselves. There was wifi in the hotel and really good curtains (it’s the little things that help).

                We’d been travelling since 7 that morning and hadn’t eaten at all so before heading out we grabbed lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. They were having a lunch deal of one course and one drink for £7.95 so we took advantage. I had some penne pasta that I think confused itself with a salad but was still pretty tasty. Finally, we were ready to head into the city. Tuesday’s stop was The Beatles Story (www.beatlesstory.co.uk), which is basically a museum dedicated to The Beatles. You can get an added package taking you to some Elvis museum but we really could care less so we got the cheaper ticket. You get an audio guide and it takes you through several rooms. It starts from their early years to how they all met. They go into detail on their various managers and drummers and acquaintances. Then it’s the stuff we all know about: Beatlemania, the break-up, etc. It’s really interesting and we were fortunate enough that it wasn’t very busy. After we were done we headed back up to the hotel. We got to walk along the Albert Dock, which is one of Liverpool’s most famous landmarks. We took a different route back to the hotel which allowed us to walk down Matthew Street, the self-proclaimed ‘Home of the Beatles’. That’s where The Cavern Club is located.

                We rested for a bit at the hotel while trying to plan our night. We hadn’t gone out for a night on the town since arriving in England so it was really fun to be able to get all sparkly and put a skirt on. We went to a restaurant down the road called The Living Room (www.thelivingroom.co.uk/liverpool). It was supposed to be kind of posh but relatively affordable. They actually had a really good supper deal going on but I wanted something outside the selection. Sarah and I split a bottle of some amazing Italian Cabernet (Banfi or something is what it’s called). I had duck spring rolls to start followed by gnocci as my main. Both were delicious. For dessert I had chocolate fondant with some Bailey’s on the rocks. The restaurant itself was very nice, though it was quite empty when we were eating. But, to be fair, it was only 7 on a Tuesday. They were incredibly quick: we were on our main course by 7:30!

                From there we headed to the legendary Cavern Club (www.cavernclub.org). You know the place. If you’ve ever seen a picture of The Beatles playing, you’ve probably seen the Cavern Club. It’s not just famous for The Beatles. Many other bands have played there over the years. Nowadays it’s more of a tourist attraction, unfortunately, though that’s to be expected. It’s so cool being able to stand in such an epic spot and everything is just like you imagine and then you look next to the bar and they are selling t-shirts and postcards. The bar is mostly populated by tourists who wear backpacks and are just there to say they went in. There were a few people who were doing like we were and clearly had put effort into going out. We actually picked an excellent time to go. We arrived shortly after 8pm, which is when these two young guys with guitars who call themselves the Nowhere Boys (haha, you’re so clever…) started their two hour set. They are a Beatles cover band, in case their name didn’t clue you in. You’d think I would find that lame since I find everything touristy lame but I actually loved it. There was no better way to experience The Cavern Club than by listening and singing along to the songs of The Beatles. They played a wide variety though sometimes they confused us (like saying they didn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’. Who doesn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’?) but ultimately it was a lot of fun. Sarah requested that they play ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ and they did and we were freaking out and singing all the words but nobody else seemed to have any clue what the song was. They should be ashamed of themselves.

                When the set was over we left and headed closer to the center of town to go to a club called Popworld (www.popworldliverpool.co.uk). Now, we chose to go here because it was the closest club that was open on a Tuesday night and not a gay bar. We were very disappointed. We showed up around 10:30pm and it was empty. Like, we had been expecting it to be pretty quiet initially, since we assume when clubs are open until 4am people probably don’t really start going until midnight. But this place was empty. Literally just us, a DJ and a depressed bartender. We actually felt sad for the place. Things were not boding well for our night out, after such a good beginning.

                We left after about ten minutes and started heading up the street where lights were flashing. We didn’t want to stray too far and fortunately we found a place at the top of the road. It was called Soho and it doesn’t even have a website. The music was Top 40 which is what we expect on a night out. It wasn’t busy but there were at least people. We sat outside until it got busier around midnight and then went inside to dance. One of the things I’ve always loved about going out in Europe is you meet so many people. Sure enough, I met some really cool people like Sasha and her boyfriend Chris who were, like us, coming up from London for the day out of sheer boredom. I also met these two guys from Switzerland, Danyal and somebody whose name I forget. They were actually at The Cavern Club and said hello when they recognized me from earlier. I talked to them for quite awhile, about everything from travel to music. It was really fun. We did not want to stay at the club until 4am so we tried to leave around 2am, like back home. We got back to the hotel at 3 so we were partly successful.

                The next day we awoke feeling good (I’m not being sarcastic) and got our stuff together to check out of the hotel at 11am. Our coach wasn’t leaving until 3:10pm so they were nice enough to let us leave our suitcase and backpack with them for a few hours. We had booked a tour at 11:30am. The tour was, of course, The Magical Mystery Tour (www.cavernclub.org/the-magical-mystery-tour). As one can guess, it was a two-hour Beatles tour. We got on the Magical Mystery Tour bus and our guide took us all over the city. It would be really hard to see these places outside of a tour, as they are quite spread out. We saw Penny Lane, George Harrison’s birthplace, Strawberry Fields, John Lennon’s home with Aunt Mimi, Paul McCartney’s childhood home (one of them, anyway) and much more. It was really informative and definitely a good way to kill time. The tour dropped us off at Matthew Street shortly after 1:30pm. We’d already done the Cavern Club so we grabbed some lunch, grabbed our suitcases and boarded the coach back to London.

                The only problem with Megabus is, at the end of the day, you are stuck on a coach for five hours. And that gets boring, even when you bring a book…and a laptop…and a DVD player…I watched Rebel Without a Cause and slept and messed around on the internet and everything but the time did still drag. It probably gets easier over time; it’s been nearly four years since I last spent that much time on a bus. I’m out of practice.

                That’s what is so awesome about living in Europe: you can decide last-minute to go on holiday somewhere for a day or two or a weekend and there’s always great deals. We don’t get opportunities like that in Canada, since there’s very limited ways of getting places. So Liverpool ended up being our first jaunt outside of the city. Can’t wait to see where we head next.  

The Last Four Days

                This week we are going to start buckling down and stop our touring, for the most part. On Monday we stayed in the flat literally all day applying for jobs. We also did laundry which meant we had to buy laundry detergent and not break the machine. We didn’t and our clothes are okay. Hurray for adult life! We accomplished quite a bit amidst watching around six movies over the course of the day.

                The one other important thing I got done Monday was transfer my money to my UK bank account from my Canadian one. I was putting this off as long as possible because I thought it would be difficult, but it actually turned out to be quite easy. I used a company called CanadianForex (www.canadianforex.com). You tell them how much money you have to transfer and they give you a rate. Once you hit Okay, they prepare to transfer the money to you. In the meantime, you go on your Canadian bank account and pay them the money, essentially giving them money to give you money. Because I’m with RBC they actually show up as a Payee so it was relatively painless. It takes them about three days to get the money and about one day after that for me to receive the funds in my UK bank account, which is why I really wanted to do it at the beginning of the week. I did leave some money in my Canadian account, just in case. The only issue I ran into was minor. They have to call you to confirm the deal. Of course, they have my Canadian number. So they sent me this panicked email saying they had to get ahold of me before processing the transaction. So I gave them a call on my landline. The girl I spoke to, Hilary, dealt with everything swiftly and it was completely painless (I hate making phone calls). 

                Tuesday was another day at the flat spent watching movies and applying for jobs. The thing that nobody tells you is how hard it actually is to find a job. Your university degree is basically useless. Everybody wants experience – even entry level jobs. It’s a bit disheartening. And everyone is a telemarketer masquerading as an actual job. Sorry, but I know how my parents treat telemarketers and they are probably nicer than some people. Not happening. On the bright side, I received a phone call from Google to discuss future job opportunities. Not immediate, but maybe future ones. It at least broke the ice in terms of actually talking to a professional so no matter what it was a good thing.

                We decided to put pants on and go to dinner at a restaurant down the road called Le Querce (http://lequerce.co.uk/). It’s an Italian restaurant and not too expensive but what it ever delicious! I got the ravioli and some fries and Sarah got lasagna and we both were very satisfied with our meal. I also got some wine in a gracious amount, which is better than I’ve seen at most pubs. We got dessert. Sarah had ice cream and I had cheesecake. My cheesecake could have been better, to be honest. We definitely want to revisit this restaurant, and hopefully soon.  

                On Wednesday we took the train to Surrey Quays to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which we get a couple weeks before the USA. That doesn’t happen very often so we made the most of it. I loved it. Definitely better than the first and Dane DeHaan (who I love) was so good as Harry Osborn. A million times better than James Franco.

                Thursday we decided to actually go do something before our self-imposed isolation on Easter weekend. After we got up in the morning we went to Nando’s for lunch. I got the actual chicken this time instead of chicken wings and was not disappointed. I also had a caramel cheesecake for dessert which was just to die for! We then tried to visit the National Gallery (www.nationalgallery.org.uk). We wandered around for a little while looking at the art but it was quite crowded with tourists and school groups so we didn’t stay for very long. I’d really like to go back on a quiet day and spend the whole day there with an audio guide just completely nerding out.

                Side Note: I started watching American Horror Story because they have it on Netflix and I’m completely obsessed. I watched the entire first season in less than 24 hours. Evan Peters is amazing. That is all.  

The Day of Hiddles

"Oh, Hiddlesticks!" 

- Me, always

Today was one of my favorite days in London so far. Sarah woke up freakishly early but then passed out again but the damage was done – I was awake. So I took the time to find the season premiere episode of Game of Thrones, which was awesome, obviously. I forgot how much I can’t stand Jon Snow, though. How can anyone so pretty be so annoying…Anyways, getting off topic. Actually, much of this topic has to do with attractive men so maybe not so much. Getting there.

                At 12:15 we walked around the corner to eat at Babur (www.babur.info). It’s an Indian restaurant that offers a really nice Sunday buffet brunch. I ate there the last time I was in London and Sarah needed to taste some of that famous British Indian cuisine so there we were. It did not disappoint. I can’t possibly tell you what I ate but there was a lot of food. I grabbed a bit of everything to start and went back for more of what I really enjoyed. Overall it was delicious.

                After lunch we headed up to Covent Garden to see if we might be able to get spots on the red carpet for the Olivier Awards. Think of them as the British Tony Awards. We weren’t overly optimistic after Spider-Man on Tuesday but figured we should try anyway. If it was crowded we’d go home. It didn’t help that today was the London Marathon and the city was supposed to be mental. We needn’t have worried. We got number 186 and 187 and lined up for an hour before being led onto the red carpet. And we were not only right next to it, but also very close to the venue entrance and across from the international press. Specifically, Hello, so look for us.

                We waited around for another ninety minutes before things got started. We saw so many stars. We got autographs from Kristin Davis (Charlotte on Sex and the City), Bjorn from ABBA, Samantha Barks (Eponine in Les Miserables), Martin Freeman from The Hobbit and Sherlock and James McAvoy, to name a few. Some of the celebrities didn’t have time to stop as the red carpet was quite hurried but I did have brief conversations with Mark Strong and Ruth Wilson.

                Then there’s Hiddles. Oh, Tom Hiddleston, my future husband…he showed up late and had to give interviews so I did not get to speak to him. He did wave. He got pretty close. I can say he is actually even better looking in real life. The second I saw him down the carpet I absolutely freaked out. Like, people turned and looked. It was kind of funny. I was completely unaware of what I was doing. I just went to Crazy Town for a minute.

                Overall it was awesome. I love entertainment and stuff but I’ve never been on an award show red carpet before. There’s a lot you don’t see on TV, like the massive wave of people who enter at the beginning, as if just dropped off by a bus. They are non-celebrities who worked on the plays and musicals. I felt a little bad for them but also a little jealous. I just want to get dressed up and walk the red carpet once.

                We may have stood for over four hours but it was most definitely worth it, even if I didn’t meet Tom Hiddleston or Gemma Arterton (who is also breathtakingly gorgeous in person). Oh, and Hayley Atwell.  I’m making Sarah have a Hiddles marathon with me now.

A Day of Art and Shake Shack (Which is Basically Food Art)

"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing." - Giorgio Morandi

                Today was another rainy day. It was technically our last day of ‘freedom’ (since tomorrow is our orientation meeting which means we will actually have to do stuff after that, like get a bank account and a job) but the weather put a bit of a damper on it. To begin, we went to Leicester Square to get some show tickets for the night. There is a booth that sells discounted tickets called TKTS. I know it because they have it in Times Square in New York City, as well. Fortunately, the line is much smaller in London, and they open at 10:00am. We got there around 11:00am and, after a short wait, got tickets to War Horse. I’ve seen it twice at Lincoln Center in New York but never in London and Sarah has never seen it period. Our tickets are in the tenth row and should have cost us £62.50 but because we used TKTS they only cost us £26. We had budgeted for £30 so we saved some money! Yay! If there hadn’t been tickets to War Horse we were going to look at Once and Wicked. Not all shows are available at the booth. Some, like The Lion King, you have to buy at the box office because they don’t need to sell discounted tickets: everyone goes anyway.

                After getting our tickets we walked to Covent Garden so Sarah could finally try Shake Shack! And it was delicious! It tastes just like it does in New York. We had burgers, fries and milkshakes. If there was any reason to complain about Shake Shack it’s that they don’t adjust the prices for being in pounds, so it’s a bit pricey for fast food. Oh well. Totally worth it.

                When we finished our lunch we headed to Trafalgar Square. The original plan was to visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, but we ended up just visiting the latter. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.ork.uk) was the first attraction I ever visited in London. I really like it. We spent almost two hours there. It’s basically portraits from the last five hundred years. Sarah and I laughed at all the self-portraits, because they are the original selfies. My favorite gallery is actually the first gallery you see: The Tudor Gallery. It has portraits of Henry VIII and most of his wives and his three children. I love that period of English history so it’s really cool seeing their pictures. Sarah had remarked earlier that it was too bad people didn’t do portraits anymore…and then we found one of Kate Middleton. Oops. The last exhibit, which is always changing, was on Vivien Leigh. I love Vivien Leigh so I definitely looked and read every single thing in that room. I just love her so much.

                As I mentioned, our initial plan was to then visit the National Gallery, but we felt a little too museumed out and wouldn’t appreciate the art enough. It’s free so it’s not like we can’t go back another day. Originally I had thought if we didn’t feel up to another museum we could use our Historic Royal Palaces membership card to get into Banqueting House, located down the road, then wander around Green Park and up to Buckingham Palace before grabbing some supper and heading to War Horse, but when we got out of the National Portrait Gallery it was raining and pretty miserable out. We had six hours to kill so we ultimately decided to head back to the flat. We had been saying for a few days that we wanted to organize our suitcases better (instead of the panic packing gong-show they all currently were) and we wouldn’t feel like it tonight, since we wouldn’t be back until after 11:00pm. So we took the train back and did just that, while watching Gone With the Wind (inspired by the Vivien Leigh exhibit, of course). Sarah’s never seen it before now. We couldn’t get through the whole thing, of course, because that movie is four hours long and we did not have that long, but we will finish it tomorrow.

                After some research, I decided the quickest way to the theater was by bus, and even that was going to take an hour. Somehow we managed to get on and off at the right stop. Yay us. We had an hour before the show so we stopped in at a pub next door and had some chips and garlic cheese bread. Supper of champions right there. It got freakishly busy at one point but then they all realized there was an upstairs section and disappeared. Afterwards we headed to the show (well, walked past it, technically). After buying some overpriced wine we went in to sit down. We had row K, on the right hand side of the stage. The theater is an almost semi-circle so there’s no actual bad seat. The show was great. There were a few small changes from the New York performances I had seen, which was interesting. The show originated in London (with Kit Harington aka Jon Snow as the main character) so I guess they know best. One thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t give out any programs. I’m so used to perusing through Playbills when I see Broadway shows that I really noticed their absence. The show lasted two hours and forty minutes and at the end you could hear everyone sniffling in the audience and I guess the lady next to Sarah was absolutely freaking out and her husband had to hold her down. I’m sad I missed that. All I got was some American lady who thought clouds were smoke from an explosion.

                After the show we went to get the bus back…but the road only went one way. So we went to look for a bus stop going in the right direction. We walked for a bit and eventually realized we were walking over Waterloo Bridge. Oops. Fortunately, we did find the bus in the end. After a bit of a wander. We didn’t get in until around 11:30pm so there went our plans for being well-rested for our orientation meeting tomorrow…