One Wicked Day

Day Six

We left Francis and Trevor's house and Surrey all together and made our way over to Newbury Park in London for the remainder of our stay in England.

Newbury Park doesn't LOOK far away from central London on the map. Guess what? About an hour's train ride outside the city. Luckily, our hotel there was quite nice and the train ride was fairly interesting because of this one cemetery. In fact, I'm going to try to Google it and see if I can find pictures or something online. You'll have an update tomorrow.

Anyway! Once we figured out how to ride the trains with our massive suitcases and got settled into our room in Newbury Park, we made our way into downtown London. After discovering that the two different sets of directions we got from the Receptionist in Newbury Park were dreadfully wrong, we found what I was looking for: the original Hard Rock Cafe. There was a crazy wait, but it was worth every juicy bite.

After our VERY late lunch, we headed to Portobello Road for souvenirs and so that Mum could watch Bedknobs on Broomsticks and say she'd been there! Another tip if you ever plan on traveling to London: do all of your souvenir shopping on your last day and do it on Portobello Road. Blocks and blocks of street vendors selling everything imaginable at fair prices (for fairly good quality) - most vendors will even haggle with you and are more apt to haggle the closer they are to closing down (5PM). You're welcome.

I bought presents for practically everyone in one stop. Among the gifts: scarves for 6 women, 1 pair of earrings, 2 different pendant watches, 1 necklace, and a magnet for Lizzie.

Once our shopping was done, we headed to the Apollo Victoria Theatre right outside the Victoria Station (right next to Buckingham Palace) to see Wicked!! I have no words to describe the show. I had chills from the moment the show began until the very last person stopped clapping at the end. The show was riddled with understudies and it was still that mindblowingly stellar. It is coming to LA in December, but I doubt it will live up to the high standard the London cast set.

Things that induce laughter/smiles/happy feelings in me today:

1. I'm in love with the guy who played Fiyero; what a twirling, singing, stud.

2. People watching on the Tube. 'Nuff said.

3. Shauna. You are one amazing person.

4. The best thing about being a nerd? Randomly finding other nerds through your nerdy shirt collection.