For my birthday I rounded up a few friends and we went to conquer London for a day. This is our adventure, in a nutshell.
1. A great card and a small Toblerone chocolate from my Gordon friends: The card is currently on my wall. The chocolate, however, we devoured on the coach ride into London.
2. Roasted Chestnuts: I had never had these before, and since it was a day of 'firsts', I thought it worth the 1.50 to try them. Three of us went in on them. After a little trouble figuring out exactly how to eat them, we finally managed to polish off the paper bag. They were different; slightly sweet with an almost potato-like consistency.
3. Piccadilly Market: After buying half-price tickets to a show, we started a slow, meandering walk to Hyde and Kensington parks. On the way we stopped at a little open air market near Piccadilly. There was a lot of jewelry and art, some of which was good, and some of which was just terrible. I bought a wooden ring that halfway through the night cracked and chipped, which was very disappointing. I should have gone with the ivory one. . .
4. La Maison Du Chocolat: Since all the people with me were girls, we were naturally drawn to the store claiming to be The House of Chocolate. After a quick peek around and wishing we could drown in some of the pieces they concocted, we decided to put together a little bag of truffles and ganache for ourselves. The pieces had names like: Othello (honey infused), Romeo (coffee mousse), Bacchus (rum blazed raisins) and Yoko (tea infused).
5. On the Hunt: Now, although the drinking age in England is 18, and I had already consumed alcohol, a 21st birthday for an American is just not a 21st without some sort of drink. The plan had been to picnic in the park, but we got into London late and so had already eaten our lunches, so the new plan was to find some Champagne and drink it with our chocolates in the park. Unfortunately, the walk from where we had been to the parks was along the most fashionable road in London, an unlikely place to find cheap bottles of anything. We finally make it to a market and promptly buy the cheapest, and rather large, bottle of Champagne we can find.
6. Peter Pan: The destination of Hyde/Kensington Park was chosen because it houses the famous statue of Peter Pan. I love Peter Pan, and detest the idea of having to grow up and be a responsible, working adult. So it seemed fitting that on the day I turned 21, the day I finally pass wholly and completely into adulthood, I should visit the everlasting child, Peter Pan.
7. The 'Picnic': We walked a little ways past the statue and found a nice, protective tree to sit under. We pulled out the bottle of Champagne and, for the first time in my life, I legally popped off a cork. Then we all proceeded to sit on a rather unforgiving and slightly prickly ground and drink champagne and eat gourmet chocolate. It was a very simple, very wonderful way to celebrate. I'm very thankful for the friends who chose, like me, to ignore the pressing deadlines and celebrate instead.
8. A New Scarf: After leaving the park and taking the underground back to the West End we wander China Town for a while. One little store had very cheap scarves outside, to the tune of 2/3 for 5 pounds. Elizabeth and I both found blue ones we wanted and did not hesitate to buy them, since I had not already spent enough money on myself for my birthday. Blue was one of the colors I was missing though, and it is in a style very popular at the moment but which I did not yet own. (This now brings my total scarf count to 13.)
9. Zorro- The Musical: When we bought tickets that afternoon there were only a few shows left still at half price. So it came down to either Zorro or Sound of Music. If ever given a choice between something you are familiar with or something completely random and mysterious, go with random and mysterious. We managed to get 4 seats next to each other in the 12th row, center, of the theater. Right away we knew it was going to be a fantastic show; the stage had wooden ladders on both sides, a rope ladder on one, various other ropes hung around, and a black and red slashed curtain.
10. Zorro-cont'd: Within the first two minutes of the show was singing, flamenco dancing and fire. How could that not foreshadow a great time? As it turned out, the dancing and fire would be joined by spanish guitar and swordfighting as the best aspects of the entire musical. The script desperately needed work and some of the songs were just beyond ridiculous.
11. Zorro- still: The actors were fairly decent, but one character in particular was just fantastic. She was a gypsy and while leaving the theater we were wondering how we could become gypsies as well. Not only were the skirts great, but their flamenco heels in bright colors and be-flowered hair were just amazing. Then we decided that a salsa outing was much needed, so we could stomp around and wave our skirts in the hopes of imitating the dancers.
12. Zorro-again: By the end of the play as the actors were receiving their ovations, we were all dying of laughter and riotously happy for having chosen well what show to see. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you can get half-price tickets. It would make a great melodrama, and would probably be improved by it, but the two best songs by the main heroine were serious and would have no real place in a melodrama. I certainly had a great time though, making my birthday just that much better.
13. Theater: British theaters are so unlike American ones. They serve alcohol before the play starts as well as during intermission. You can drink and eat during the play as long as you do it quietly. We broke out the little bit of champagne we had left, surreptitiously concealed in a water bottle, at intermission. This was accompanied by a few chocolate digestives and caramel squares to the great satisfaction of all.
14. Cheap Chinese Buffet: Since we hadn't had any dinner and sugar isn't very filling, we headed back into Chinatown after the show. We ducked into a small restaurant we had passed on the way in and decided to stop. It was an all-you-can-eat for 4.95. It smelled like sanitizer and greasy food. But that's half the fun, right? The food was alright, nothing special and pretty much what you ask for when you're paying under 5 pounds. Most of the meat dishes were heavily supplemented by onions and my chicken wing still had a few residual feathers sticking out of it.
15. Coach: The walk back to the bus station was eerie; there were very few people on the roads and it was very dark. It wasn't unsafe, but it felt a little surreal being in London yet not surrounded by masses of people. When we finally made it back to the bus station we plopped ourselves onto a stone bench and started waiting. The buses run continually between London and Oxford, but not on a set schedule. Luckily we were only there for about 30 min before our coach arrived.
16. Home Again: The ride was spent mostly fast asleep- the dead kind, where you wake up feeling like lead and with gooey eyes. The walk back to Crick from the station was more refreshing though. It was misting and cold but the leaves we shuffled through made it worth it.
17. Notes: When we got to the front door there was a little sign for me, duct-taped and telling me to go into the kitchen. As I walked up the hallway there were more, telling me I was getting closer. When I arrived in the kitchen there were-
18. CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES!!! One of my most favorite things in the whole world and something we had been discussing earlier that day (in conjunction with the champagne). And...
19. Snickerdoodles!
20. I went to bed completely content and totally wiped. It had been a fantastic day, a great day of celebration and I am so thankful for all my friends! I checked my facebook before finally falling into bed and saw that tons of people had wished me a happy birthday! My one wish didn't come true though, but that was to be expected. (It was for snow...)
21. Feels a lot like 20. I can't wait to get home and celebrate with all my other friends though. But I think I'll hold on to my Peter Pan dreams a little bit longer.
