20120706 - 07

Alrighty! So, Friday the 6th classes were cancelled, as well as Monday, making this a four day weekend. Honestly, Friday was mostly me running around Central London, scouting out the lines we would be taking to get to the Phantom of the Opera and figuring out the area. We had a fire alarm at 7:15am which threw off my sleep schedule and I ended up sleeping in until around 10. When I did finally get up I spent the rest of the day with Doug hunting for Phantom of the Opera tickets. Doug and I hit up all of the half price ticket places that we could find at Leicester Square. Every one of them had tickets for more than what the ticket prices were at Her Majesty's Theatre. We actually ended up finding 4 seats together for tomorrow once we finally went to the theatre. We are going with Rachel and Tiffany, all three of whom I have gotten particularly close with. The tickets were £50 a piece! Rough... But it is the last thing I promised myself I would do while I was here. Once we had gotten our tickets we were pretty hungry so we headed back. I stopped at Sainsbury and grabbed some groceries before heading back to the flat. On the way though, Doug and I bumped into Tiffany and Rachel and we ended up going out to eat. I had the Snickers bar I had been toting around in case I got hungry and when they had all eaten I finally made it back to the flat and made dinner before having a drink and playing some carpet bowling with Rachel, Tiffany and Doug and heading to bed.

Saturday the 7th we had made plans to rendezvous at 9:30 to head down to Portobello Road to check out the open market. Again I woke up late. That damned fire alarm... I'll have to remedy this very soon. I actually woke up around the same time I got a text from Doug asking me if I were ready to go or not. I told him to go on ahead and I would catch up so they headed into Surbiton. I got my self prepped and was running out the door as I got another text saying that Tiffany had forgotten her travel pass and they were coming back. Sweet! Snacks! I rushed back to the flat and made several PB&J sandwiches for the road and when I came outside Tiffany was just coming out of her flat as well and we were actually ready to go! On the walk to the train we decided that we were going to have to dress up for the opera. I should interject here that Rachel had been at the London Pride event since 9am and would have no idea that we were going dress casual. When we got to the station we met up with Ashley who wanted to come with us to Portobello Road and we took off.
Train ride, tube ride, and a short walk later we arrived at a cacophonous strip of shops running down an alley and cutting right down a street making it walking room only. It was really cool to see all these little tents with different things inside them! I found some amazing teas that I have yet to try but just pick up and sniff every now and then. I also ended up picking up a vest and a fedora for the opera tonight. Again, spending money that I would rather not, but on things totally easy to justify. I will use the vest forever since it actually fits perfectly and the hat is a freaking fedora, how can you go wrong? After Portobello Road, we returned to the flat to make some food and get dressed for the opera!
Tiffany, Doug, and myself met up in the yard at 6pm, cutting it a little close. Rachel was at Pride all day and was just going to meet us at Her Majesty's Theatre. This was a rush! We walked down to the train to Waterloo, sped walked to the tube to Leicester Square, jogged across the street, down an alley, across another street, and finally ended up at HMT! Whew! Rachel was waiting for us when we got there and we arrived about 7 minutes early so I popped out for a pipe before the show. After the pipe I joined the others who had found our seats for me, this made me feel very clever though it was completely unintentional. ;) THIS SHOW WAS AMAZING! I ended up getting the DVD and a Phantom Mask as souvenirs. After this we hit up the ATM and grabbed some gelato from a little italian ice cream shop across from the tube. Probably the best sorbet I have ever eaten!
The tube ride was packed! Turns out that every major show in London is in Central and every one of them gets out at around the same time. The trip to Waterloo was like being a sardine in a can! After we got off in Waterloo I ran ahead of the group to scout out the train to Surbiton. I found the express, jogged back, grabbed everyone and we rushed to catch it. We hopped onto a car just as the doors closed and it took off. What a brilliant night! Everyone was feeling pretty pumped from the evening so I invited them up to watch a movie. We started Lost in Translation with Bill Murray on Netflix (which is different in England, by the way) and I fell directly asleep, ha ha! I remember everyone getting up to leave, readjusting, and then nothing until this morning when I got up, started some laundry and had some breakfast and here I am catching up on my blogging!

I hope you're all having as much fun reading about this adventure as I am having it!!!

Now, off to do homework!

Location:Burney Ave,Surbiton,United Kingdom