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.

               

Being Productive. Sort of.

                Sarah and I don’t have work until Thursday (her) and Friday (me). We had hoped to work Tuesday and Thursday but things didn’t pan out that way. But the six eight hours or more days in a row absolutely murdered me so I can’t say I was too upset to have four days off. It also enabled us to get some stuff done (and a lot of sitting around).

                On Tuesday we finished up our flat application. We both had to fill out an application form that the landlord sends to his referencing company. It’s a little stressful because there’s so many variables. At the end of the day, though, it is the landlord who makes the final decision based on information received from the referencing company about how risky they consider Sarah and I to be. He keeps talking about filling out paperwork, though, so he obviously thinks this is going ahead. I hope it does. I’m tired of living on a couch. I’m ready to start settling. Besides Sarah and I both filling out the application form and sending it off, we also had to pay £150 for the referencing. It seems like a lot but we have learned over the last few weeks that in the grand scheme of things they can charge you for, that’s not that bad.

                We thought paying the fee would be difficult. For some reason we were overcomplicating it. Our original plan was to put the money on Sarah’s UK bank account then go back to the flat and transfer it to the landlord via the internet. In reality all we had to do was hand the bank teller the money and they put it right on the landlord’s account. Duh. We’re stupid. It was so easy and it transferred really quick. By Wednesday morning I had an email from the landlord saying he had received the payment. After our visit to the bank we stopped by a couple discount stores to start picking up some stuff for our eventual flat. We know that it will take some time to make wherever we live feel homey but we need to start grabbing some stuff. Most important is sheets and we managed to buy some sheets and a blanket for incredibly cheap. We literally walked up and down the aisles grabbing essentials you wouldn’t normally think of, like garbae bags, toilet paper and soap. They might not be as important as pillows but could you imagine going to wash your hands and having no soap? Ew.

                We spent the rest of Tuesday binge-watching Gossip Girl (we’re several episodes into season 4 now). Wednesday we had booked the day off of work because we had tickets to Clarence Darrow, a play starring the greatest actor to ever walk the fact of the earth: Kevin Spacey. He is mine and Sarah’s favorite actor. The play was a one-man play at The Old Vic, where Kevin Spacey is the Creative Director. The stage is just a small piece of floorboard in the center and the seats go full circle around it. This was the Dress Rehearsal, as the opening night was later that day. Our tickets only cost £10, as the theater reserves one hundred seats for under 25’s.

                The play itself was just okay. It’s about an American lawyer, played by Kevin Spacey, who basically just narrates his life and his court cases. Some parts were interesting, like when he fought for teaching evolution in school or against racism. Some parts made me want to fall asleep. Kevin Spacey was fantastic. I imagine doing a one-man play is incredibly difficult. He’s just an absolute legend. So he was great to watch but the play itself it boring. Oh well, at least I’ve seen him live.

                After the show as we were walking to the bus we ran into a girl we had worked with all weekend. It was funny because I kind of forgot that we know people besides each other now, and running in to people we know is an actual possibility. It makes me feel more settled here. We took the bus back to the flat and waited for Sandra to get back. Last week Sandra decided to brave the crazy and come to the One Direction concert next weekend with Sarah, me and my parents. She even suggested we watch my One Direction movies to warm her up. Well you don’t need to ask Sarah and I twice, we are more than happy to watch ALL THE THINGS.

                And so Sandra came home and we watched This Is Us, their documentary, their Up All Night concert and most of their music videos – some of them several times. We also ate Chinese food. It was kind of a perfect day: Kevin Spacey and One Direction. And now I’m super excited for the concert June 8^th. Right now Sarah and I have June 6^th off so if we don’t get work we’ll go on StubHub that day and see if we can get super cheap tickets and see them TWICE! IT’S PERFECT!

A DAY OFF!!!

So after a crazy six days of exhausting work in three different locations Monday was my much-needed day off. The day began with sleeping in. Yessss. I’ve had to get up at 6am for the last four days and work nine to ten hours on top of that so sleep has been necessary. After catching up on Mad Men (this week’s episode was really really good – watch it) Sarah, Sandra and I caught the bus to Surrey Quays to see X-Men: Days of Future Past.

                I have an Odeon Film Fan card so I got 25% off today, because they have Film Fan Mondays. It’s pretty sweet. Unfortunately, the movie kind of sucked. I love the X-Men film franchise. I have seen every single one of them, including those terrible Wolverine movies. X-Men: First Class was brilliant and I am a diehard Michael Fassbender fan. I have voiced my concerns over the newest film combining the new and old casts but I still held out hope that it would be good. It’s just…blah. They try so hard to bring in as many cast members as possible that there’s no focus in the story and the entire thing seems disjointed. They should have kept to the new cast. They also lose track of the canon, majorly. One of my favorite things in the film series – that isn’t in the comics – is the relationship between Magneto and Mystique. I love it. The actors old and new have this intense chemistry and it’s so great to watch. In this movie they just throw that all away. The best part was Evan Peters as Quicksilver. And he wasn’t even in it that much. Side Note: Props to the filmmakers for that little inside insinuation about Magneto being Quicksilver’s dad. I hope he has a bigger part in the third one. Michael Fassbender is a better actor than this movie deserves. He elevated the first one to a really high level but couldn’t save this one. I know you’re probably thinking this is just me being hard to please but Sarah and Sandra didn’t like it very much either. In fact, Sarah’s exact words after the movie ended were “Evan Peters was the only good thing about that movie.”

                After the film we bid adieu to Sandra and headed to Waterloo. We had both put our names in to a draw to win tickets to Graham Norton and Sarah had won. We had found out last week that the guests for our episode were insane: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Seth MacFarlane, and Coldplay. Wow. They said someone would meet you at 5:15pm and we showed up an hour early and there was already a huge line. We stood in the rain for an hour before they gave us wristbands with numbers and warned us that they didn’t guarantee entry. We had numbers 110 and 111 so we figured we would be pretty safe. They told us to come back at 6:00pm, for when they would let people in. At that time we realized exactly how many people were hoping to get into the audience. Seemingly all the employees had brought friends and family and there were 180 people with priority tickets. Then they started calling our wristbands ten at a time. It did not look good. A guy started sending everyone with numbers over 250 home. Fortunately, Sarah and I got some of the last spots. Phew.

                I’ve only ever been to one other talk show taping, The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon, and the audience here is much bigger, as is the stage. Before the host comes out a warm-up comedian comes on. His job is to get the audience laughing and clapping. Then Graham Norton came on and continued to warm us up. His first guests were Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, who are starring in The Edge of Tomorrow. Everyone went nuts for Tom Cruise, obviously. He is a funny one. On the one hand, he’s insane. On the other hand, he is actually a very mild-mannered person. In fact, I would go so far as to call him boring. He answers questions very simply and directly. He doesn’t tell any funny stories or anything. But he seems like a genuinely nice person. He knows he’s lucky and he doesn’t take it for granted. He interacted with the other guests who came out and was really excited to see Coldplay. Like, leaning forward in his seat for a better view excited. He also was the only guest who stopped and shook the hand of every single person sitting in a floor seat before thanking the entire audience for coming. I was impressed. Emily Blunt was surprisingly funny. She does a spot on impression of an African American woman (she was talking about her daughter she gave birth to not too long ago).

                Then came out Seth MacFarlane and Charlize Theron. I love Seth. Everyone knows this. I was so excited to see him and he did not disappoint. They were promoting A Million Days to Die in the West, which I really want to see. For someone known for his crude humor, Seth is one of the most charming people I’ve ever seen. He just oozes charisma. You can’t help but want to pay attention to him. He also can whip out his impressions without hesitation. He did everyone from Brian and Stewie Griffin to Kermit the Frog. The best one, though? He sang the ‘Thunder Buddies’ song from Ted! As for Charlize Theron…she was there. I don’t really know what to say about her.

                The musical guest was Coldplay. I don’t like them but it was enjoyable enough. Their set was beautiful. Chris Martin is actually really cool. I thought he was going to be a bit more hipster douchebagey but he was interacting with the audience before and after the song and really put all his energy into performing. He was also interviewed briefly with a band member and they were pretty funny.

                All and all not a bad day and just another reason why living in London is so cool.

Flats Flats Flats

                So we’ve ticked getting jobs off of our list and now face one big obstacle: finding a flat. We’ve been hoboing it up on my aunt’s couch for a month and a half and it’s time I start sleeping by myself. The only problem? Finding a flat is really hard and expensive. The BritBound Facebook page frequently has people advertising rooms but it’s never what we want. Either it’s only one room available or you’re sharing with too many people. I kid you not, I saw someone offering a room in a 3-bedroom flat where each room has three girls sleeping there. NINE people in a 3-bedroom flat. I actually am pretty sure that’s illegal.

                We had already toured our dream flat, the one in West Kensington, but it was time to get realistic. Today was the second day of our weekend and we had purposefully set it aside for flat viewing. We saw three places today. The first two we viewed through an agent. The first flat, in Sydenham, was okay. It was a bit old – the furniture looked very worn – and the second bedroom was basically a closet. We moved on to one in Forest Hill. It was a 3-bedroom but the price was ridiculously cheap. This is when we realized that we would not be using an agent. To get a flat through an agent you have to pay £150 each for referencing. Then you pay a £200 holding fee. All this before you even move in, at which point you surrender ten weeks’ rent. We were expecting a deposit but all those extra fees are just ridiculous. Not to mention you have to prove your combined income equals rent times 30. As in, a combined income of 36-39K. It’s ridiculous. There’s only 12 months in a year, why do we need to prove we can pay for two and a half? The second flat was nice-looking but I hated the building. It looked very estate-like and not very homey until you actually got inside. It’s also smack in the middle of two train stations and picturing walking home late at night, I didn’t feel safe.

                We were feeling pretty dejected about the whole thing when we went to our third viewing in Gants Hill. We had found this one through Spareroom (www.spareroom.co.uk), a flat website where you pick your requirements. The rent was ridiculously cheap but the flat is quite far out of the city: in zone 4 (we were hoping for zones 1-3). The road it is situated on is quite nice. I could definitely picture myself walking it late at night and not worrying about getting raped and murdered. It’s also about five minutes from the tube station. The night bus is excellent, with stops through all the major points of central London. Did I mention the rent is cheap? It’s furnished and two-bedroomed, like we wanted. We would need to buy a couch and a TV but we’re saving so much money it doesn’t matter. It looks like that might be what we do. I just have to find out what the utilities cost and then we’ll give them permission to reference us. Hopefully we don’t get screwed there. We still can’t make times 30 (we’re more like times 28) but I’m going to hope for the best. Who knows? I could have my own flat in the next week or two!

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?