Cursed Child Part II

Well, the second half of the play was just as incredible as the first, but we'll get to that.

The next day was less eventful than the first. We had all stayed up late after the play, hanging out at a nearby pub and chatting with Casey and Kjelsie. And Niko and I both stayed up after that till nearly 2 AM to wait for Nick to arrive from Germany. But now he's here, and nothing could be better! A Harry Potter play and the arrival of Nick all in one night, pretty sure it was one of the best nights of my life.

We all slept late into the morning, and then while the others went off to see Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Camden Market, Nick and I spent some time together, wandering around the area to buy things Nick needed, and just walking and talking. We tried to meet up with the rest of the group at Camden Market in the afternoon, but just missed them.

At Camden Market, we we spent the rest of the day in a desperate search for a blanket. Due to a miscommunication with Nick, he hadn't brought a sleeping bag with him to London. Since our room is technically only booked for 4 people (shh, don't tell!), one person was supposed to be sleeping on the couch with his sleeping bag. But at 2 AM in the morning in the morning, with nothing at all to use as a blanket, we ended up using one of the bed blankets on the couch and taking down the curtain from the window and using it as a makeshift blanket for the night. Needless to say, we were determined to find a blanket the next day.

When we eventually did fine one, it wasn't in Camden Market at all, but at a store called Argos down the way, where you "shop" on an in-store iPad, while workers retrieve your items from the massive storehouse in the back. 

But it ended up being such a wild goose chase that we had to buy it and then head straight over to the theater. Dinner was some delicious Thai food, and we had just enough time to stop by a tiny Harry Potter pop-up shop/museum and then onto the show.

As stated before, the play was just as wonderful as before, with some moments that truly moved me to tears near the end. While I’m glad the script is being released for everyone to read, but there will be so much missing by just reading the words: the emotions of the actors, the indescribable experience of seeing magic unfold on stage. Of course, I’m sure the play will go on tour, and I would have seen it eventually, but to see it like this with no preconceptions or expectations was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Right before the show, too bad Nick had to wait outside!

After the play was finished, we all went out to wait by the stage door. We all got autographs from most of the actors and pictures with some of our favorites. They were all very patient and warm, taking the time to talk to every single fan who had lined up. That’s one thing I love about British theater: the actors’ appreciation for their audience. You could tell they knew how much this play meant to some people, and acted accordingly.

Me with Harry Potter

Lindsay and Albus

Lindsay and Hermione

Brittany and Scorpius Malfoy

After that, we found another pub (a difficult endeavor on a Friday night in London), sat and chatted for a while, and finally went back to our AirBnB around midnight…which brings me back to our AirBnB debacle. Let me fill you in on the ongoing saga of our pit of a room.

First was our arrival. When we came inside the building, we were exhausted from so much travel and were greatly looking forwards to some much-needed rest…only to find that all of the doors were locked. After wandering up and down the stairs for a while, finally we found someone who turned out to be a kind of live-in helper at the building. He seemed VERY confused about our booking (not a good sign) and ended up having to call the manager. Turns out, they did not have a room ready for us at all and told us to come back between 6 and 7 PM to get into our room.

We went out, hung out beside the canal, ate some dinner, and returned just after 6 to find our room empty, but they hadn’t even begun to clean it yet. Great.

An hour later, our room was finally ready, and guess what? It was actually better than expected! Four separate beds, meaning that Nick wouldn’t have to bring a sleeping bag, and an ensuite bathroom! Sure, the bathroom had a little black mold growing in it, but we could live with that. But I’m sure you know this is not where the story ends.

When Lindsay came back early the next day because of her knee, she was lying down to take a nap when there was a knock on the door. Outside was a confused looking Swedish family saying that they had this room reserved. Sure enough, on their reservation was a big “Room #3” which WAS the room we had been staying in. Turns out, the hosts had put us in the wrong room. After talking with the manager, Jonathan (and he acted totally surprised we were in room #3 even though that’s the room he told us to go into), we were moved into a room on the first floor. A tiny, depressing pit of a room.

Some of the highlights: a chirping, low-battery fire alarm right outside the door. Sheets with tiny blood stains on them. Nail heads popping out of floor boards. No openable windows except for a tiny square high in the corner of the room. Only two beds and a couch, thus the need for Nick’s missing sleeping bag. But even all this we could live with. We figured that we were really only sleeping in this room, and out and about all day long. Everyone seemed to take everything in stride, and we settled in to our new abode.

And that’s when the leaking began. Two separate spots in the ceiling leaked water whenever someone used the shower or the sink. We had to move all the furniture to the center of the room just to avoid our beds being dripped on, and this is not just a small little drip, it’s a steady, constant, dripping all along a whole line of wall. This was finally the breaking point.

I called the manager in the morning, demanding that we either be moved or get a full refund for our time here. Nails, we can deal with. Dripping water soaking our stuff? Not so much. And so later today we’ll be moving rooms. Thank goodness!

Now, we’re on our way to Chiselhurst caves, a series of tunnels underneath East London which were dug by the Romans and Saxons, and used during WWII. Should be interesting!