Tuesday was St. Patty’s Day. Bridget and I had to go on a walk for her “Literary London” class. We were being pretty silly anyway (and not really wanting to do the assignment anyway) but the highlight of the entire walk came when we were about 1/3 of the way through and we spotted a BELGO (If you remember, Belgo is the Belgian restaurant with the FABULOUS beer)! Belgo has 4 locations around central London and we had found the 3rd one, Belgo Kingsway! We were excited. We decided to stop in for a framboise (Raspberry beer). We realized it was only 3:30 in the afternoon, but after all, it WAS St. Patty’s Day and we ARE both Irish, so we didn’t really hesitate too much in the decision making!
After leaving Belgo, we continued with the walk and then came back to eat dinner before we headed out to celebrate the holiday. We both had classes the next day and promised not to stay out too late but felt that we should at least go out for a little while.
All set to go out! You can't really tell but we are wearing our Guinness and Ireland track jackets!
We couldn’t decide where to go. O’Neill’s, the Irish pub we usually go to was going to be packed…but then again, so was anywhere we were going to go that night. We hadn’t been to Waxy O’Connor’s or Waxy’s Little Sister, both Irish pubs, so we headed toward Waxy’s. When we turned the corner, the line was out the door for about half a block. To Waxy’s Little Sister it was! There was no line! So we went in – and got stuck. We couldn’t move in ANY direction and were just STUCK. Of course the impatient people who didn’t care who they tripped, knocked over, stepped on, hit, etc. just plowed through people spilling beer all over as they went (first off – what a waste of beer!). “Get me out of here!” I said to Bridget who was closest to the door. We headed towards the door and saw that there were stairs to an upstairs which wasn’t so crowded. Since most of the bars here are multi-levels and have bars on all floors, we decided to try. No go. There was no bar upstairs and the second we got in there we were surrounded by creepsters galore. Goodbye Waxy's Little Sister.The line for O’Neill’s was wrapped around the corner at this point, so back to Waxy’s it was! We waited on line and coincidentally found our neighbor Maureen and her friend Melissa. We all waited together and then went in. While it was a little bit better than Waxy’s Little Sister, it was still crazy! We moved quite a ways in and then got stuck. After about 10 minutes of this, the 4 of us looked at each other and decided to get out. Since I was right on the edge of a stair hanging on for dear life so I didn’t fall down the stairs as people plowed past me pushing everyone and everything out of their way, Bridget and I grabbed hands and proceeded to make our way out. Since I am much shorter than Bridget and was about a full arms length behind her, this was bound to cause some dilemmas for the people around us who couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t get past her. At one point these two guys who were trying to break through our arms got really confused and finally one shouted to the other, “Dude! They’re connected!” I looked up at him and nodded and once they realized that we weren’t going to let go of each other, they finally let us go…after all, that was the only way they were going to get anywhere too.
We finally got out and waited outside for Maureen and Melissa. When the girls came out they said they were going to try O’Neill’s. O’Neill’s is (regardless of its 3 floors) generally PACKED on a Thursday – Saturday night and Bridget and I wanted NO part of this. We decided to go to T.G.I. Friday’s. The MOST American place you could go in London on St. Patty’s Day!
We went and sat at the bar and ordered ultimate (like cereal bowls on top of stems) Long Island Iced Teas. As we were drinking them a rather cute guy came up next to us and ordered the same. We began talking about how good they are and found out that he was a US Marine from Florida who was stationed at the US Embassy in London for the year. We talked for a few more minutes and then said goodbye. Bridget and I finished our first drinks and decided to order another…it was okay we said to each other, this would be our last…
So Bridget ordered a Paradise Punch (a drink I had a few weeks earlier there) and I ordered a Beverly Hills Iced Tea. It was AWFUL! (I KNEW there was a reason that NY was better than CA!) hahaha. Seeing that we had ordered different drinks, our Marine friend, whose name was Chris, decided to come back over and chat. After he left, Bridget and I decided to get one more drink. Strawberry Daiquiri’s it was!
We tried to order for a while but the bartenders seemed to also be serving as the waitstaff in the restaurant or something so we waited and waited. Finally we notice that Chris managed to get served across the bar. So Bridget jumped up and went over to “order our drinks” (Uh huh, yea sure). Anyway, as soon as she left the bartender came and I got to order (hahahahaha) and once I was able to actually get her attention I informed her. Of course she still left me there sitting by myself for a while (even AFTER our drinks got there) because she was still busy “ordering our drinks” or something like that….
Anyway, while we were drinking our last drinks (really this time!), Chris came over again and we were all talking. He told us about his fiancée and we started talking about the US Government and how great it is to be Americans, etc. It was random, but it was a conversation with someone other than ourselves and each other, so Bridget and I were happy. It is funny the topics and conversations you can randomly get in with people about stuff.
So anyway, after a fun and interesting St. Patty’s Day, we made our way back to school and headed to bed.
Wednesday
Wednesday night we had tickets to go and see Wicked! I hadn’t really known what it was about (other than that it was the witch from the Wizard of Oz) but since I love musicals, it was excited! We got there and the theatre was just gorgeous! On top of it, we had gotten seats in the stalls and were in the 4th row (a bit off to the side, but not too bad and still the 4th row!!). The show was FANTASTIC! The voices of the women who played Elphaba and Glinda were out of this world and I was just in awe! It was also really cool because the story took place BEFORE the Wizard of Oz. BEFORE the witches were witches and HOW they came to be that way. It also highlighted the friendship between the two witches before they were good and evil. It was a PERFECT show about friendship to see with my best friend and there was nothing about the show that I didn’t like (except for the people sitting in front of me but I tried to forget them!) and I just had such a good time. I would go again in a heartbeat!
WICKED!!!
The stage! The curtain is a map of Oz!
We tried to go for a “big kid” picnic but failed miserably! It was nice and sunny and WARM so I decided to put some shorts on and we packed blankets to sit on and snacks and drinks and books and headed toward Hyde Park. Well I had forgotten that any time I go outside with Bridget the sun magically disappears and doesn’t reappear until we come back inside…
So we left school and the instant we did, the sun went away. Of course being in shorts, this was not ideal, but I am from Upstate NY…it wasn’t really that bad (the looks I got from the people still in their winter coats was worse than anything…). Bridget was cold but we still had hope that the sun would come back out. Then the wind started to blow. We decided instead of going to Hyde Park, we would just head into our own park (Regent’s Park) and have a picnic there. That way in case the sun didn’t come back out, we were closer to school. Not to mention all the shit we had packed was really heavy and I wasn’t looking forward to trudging through the tube and what not with it.
We went back into Regent’s Park, set our blankets down and what not and sat down. It wasn’t even 3 minutes before Bridget said, “I’m really cold.” “Let’s go back,” I said. “But we weren’t even here for 5 minutes,” she replied. “I know, but you’re cold!” I stated. To make a long story short we had a big kid picnic in our room instead (the damn sun came back out when we got inside by the way!) and just hung out.
Friday
Lazy day. Homework. Watching movies and what not.
We also borrowed the soccer ball from the front desk and went into the park to play. It was fun just kicking a ball around and being silly. I always knew that I missed soccer and playing sports, but I guess I never realized just how much I missed soccer until we started messing around. Since Bridget feels the same way, we talked about joining a league down at school next semester. That would totally be fun and good for us to combat some of that senior year stress, so we will see what happens!
Saturday
Another mostly lazy day. Laundry. Skyped the parents.
Around 4PM we decided we should get up and do something. So we headed to Piccadilly Circus and then Leicester Square. We were going to go to the TKTS booth to try and get cheap tickets for a theatre show but we decided to look at movie times instead. We wanted to see He’s Just Not That Into You so we bought our tickets for the later show and had some time to just walk around and eat dinner, etc. To Covent Garden it was! We stopped in a few stores and looked at some cute stuff and it began the search for my birthday outfit since I turn 21 in about a week and a half (O-M-G moment…how scary!!)! Now normally I don’t actively search for a birthday outfit, I generally wake up and find something I like and wear it. But this is 21, so on goes the search. We went into H&M and I found some really cute and CHEAP items (a shirt, a skirt, a dress) which can be used for work/casual/going out this summer and decided to get them.
After a short shopping trip, it was time for dinner. Ed’s Easy Diner it was! Only we found a new one! A bigger one!
When dinner was done we headed to back to the movie theatre. It was really cool! Instead of playing the “movie games” that most of the ones in the US do while you wait for the previews to start, this theatre made it almost like a dance club. There were red lights and cool music playing. Also, before the previews (which there are significantly less of) there are a bunch of commercials for products and stuff.
Anyway, He’s Just Not That Into You: AWESOME MOVIE! It was soooo funny/cute and yea…great movie, I loved it!
After the movie finished we headed back to school and called it a night.
Sunday
We went into the park and laid out in the sun tanning a bit and it was FANTASTIC!!! The rest of the day was spent doing homework and such and then we gathered on my bed for our weekly Grey’s Anatomy watching party. Since we can’t get it on abc.com because we are not in the US and have to wait until it is posted on youtube, Sunday just became the Grey’s night to catch up on the previous Thursday’s episode. In reality, this works out perfectly because it gives us a chance to relax before school starts and hang out with each other a bit (I know cause we never do that…) before Monday because due to my CRAZY newspaper class, various meetings associated with said newspaper class and 3 hour musicals class we don’t see all too much of each other (despite the fact that we live together) on those days.
So all in all, it was a rather WICKED week! =)
No comments:
Post a Comment