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!
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