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Published: June 13th 2009
What I did on Saturday, May 23, 2009:
The first thing I did was head off to Portobello Road market. I have known about this market for a good while now, since I started doing research on visiting London. It takes place on weekends, maybe even mainly Saturday actually. I knew I wanted to go there, and it wasn’t too far from the hostel either. It was a long road that was lined with tables and tents and people selling various goods. There were fruits and vegetables, jewelry, clothing, etc. Also on Portobello Road were some clothing shops, so I checked a out a few. While I was walking along the street I saw a plaque stating that Oliver Cromwell had lived in a certain building, so I took a picture of it.
The only thing I bought from the actually market was a 1-pound coin from the early 1980’s that had Princess Diana and Prince Charles on it. I bought it for 1 pound. Fair enough. I did buy breakfast along Portobello Road, as well. There were little places set up where girls were making crepes. It was interesting to watch; they would pour whatever batter that was onto
a hot, round skillet-type object, then flip it, and so on. I took a picture, but first I asked if I could. I had never had a crepe before, that I remember at least, so I decided to get one. The strawberry and chocolate one sounded good, so that’s what I ordered. Yes, it was good, but oh…my….GOSH. That was probably one of the messiest things I have ever eaten in my life! It was embarrassing. It was a sunny day, and the chocolate, which was already in liquid form, was melting. They had given the crepe to me inside a paper plate, and I’m certainly glad they did. However, that did not prevent it from being an absolute mess. I held it and took bites a little bit away from me so I wouldn’t get it all over my white shirt. Great day to wear white. I stood there at a certain spot, and watched all the chocolate and strawberries drip out the end of the crepe onto the sidewalk with each bite I took. People were walking past me. My fingers were covered in chocolate, and there was a huge mess forming on the pavement. When I was
finally finishing, an older man walked by and pointed to the ground. “Yeah, I know,” I said, smiling. As I walked a few steps to the trash can (didn’t even finish the last couple bites…it just wasn’t worth it), I dropped by jacket (which I was aware of, but getting to the trash can was more important and I knew I could pick it up in a second), a guy picked it up and handed it to me, and the older man handed me a napkin. Tada! I tried to get all the chocolate off my fingers by pouring bottled water onto the thin napkins that I had. I looked like I didn’t know how to eat properly. I was glad to be done with my first crepe experience. After that, I traveled over (by way of tube) to Leicester Square, where I bought a ticket for the movie “The Tormented.” If you remember, that was the movie whose premiere I attended…ha. The movie had just come out in theatres the day before.
I got a student discount for the ticket, and I bought a regular Coke and regular popcorn. The girl who worked there asked if I wanted
it sweet or salted or…”What were the 3 choices?” I asked her. No, it was just the two: sweet or salted. I chose salted, and once I paid and looked at my plain, white (natural-looking) popcorn, I got her attention and asked if they had some butter. She said they didn’t. “Oh…” I replied, quite taken aback that they in fact had no butter at all. I figured that’s just how they do it here in Britain. Who knows. Of course, I was only given like 1 or 2 napkins (like I’m finding everywhere!), but then again, without butter on my popcorn, what was the real use in napkins anyway? I guess the British people sure save some calories at the movies, that’s for sure. The popcorn actually wasn’t so bad.
There were tons and tons of escalators, or at least it seemed that way. Each floor apparently had 2 rooms (for playing movies), and “The Tormented” was at the top, in room 9. So I would arrive on one escalator and then transfer to the one to get to the next floor, over and over again. I was one of very few people in the theatre; it was,
after all, early afternoon. There was a huge, fancy curtain (like you would imagine there to be in old times) closed across a stage, and for a second I wondered if I had stepped into a room meant for an actual live theatre production. You just don’t see those in Texas. At least in Bryan/College Station, you have this big screen up high on the wall.
The movie was good; I liked it. There was a lot of cussing and violence and death, etc., in it, though - pretty much all the bad things you can have in a movie, actually! Maybe I wouldn’t have liked it had it not been for the fact that I just saw all these people up close a few days before. The whole cast was young, and it was set in a school. It was basically a film about bullying; that’s what I got from it. There had been this boy who committed suicide because he was bullied so much. Then he somehow appears from the dead and starts killing off all the students who teased him. Yeah, sounds like a great film, I know. The murders were really heinous, too. I barely
recognized a few of the actors because their hair and makeup and clothing were really different. For instance, one guy was dressed up as a goth in the movie, and one girl (who was really pretty in person; she’s the one wearing the blue dress in the pictures I posted), was dressed way down in the movie.
Anyway, at the end of the movie, I was not sure where to exit the theatre. In England, you always see these green signs with a little human stick figure on it, and he looks like he’s running. It says exit, but many times it also says “Fire exit.” So sometimes I’ve been a bit confused…is an alarm going to go off if I open this door? I sat in my seat as the credits began to roll, unsure of what to do. There were 2 exits up ahead, on either side of the stage/screen, and I remembered where I had entered the theatre as well (well I should hope so!), so that was an option, too. But, what if I could only enter that door and not exit? So I sat there, thinking that I could just follow whatever the guy
a couple rows behind me was doing. He sat there as well, and it started to creep me out. I got the feeling or maybe got a glimpse of him and thought he was middle-aged. He wasn’t moving, and after a scary movie, it was a little bit annoying and disturbing to me. Finally, I got up and went to the back of the theatre, where I had come in. The man also did, which creeped me out. I was kind of glad when I slipped into the bathroom! If the movie had been a comedy, or if there had been more people in the theatre, I probably wouldn’t have felt that way. Good thing I only bought a regular-sized popcorn, because I think I only finished like half of it.
Ok, so after the movie I rode the tube over to Regent’s Park. I hadn’t been to that park yet; it’s in the more northern part of London. The London Zoo is in the park, and Madame Tussaud’s is right outside the park, as well. I stepped inside the park, but I really didn’t spend any length of time there. I do want to go back because up
at the top of Regent’s Park is an area called Primrose Hill that’s supposed to have really nice views of the city. I decided to check out Madame Tussaud’s, even though I hadn’t been sure that I would go there. It’s expensive (like 21 pounds), but they had all kinds of ways to (or so it says) save you money, by buying tickets to 1 or more other attractions: London Dungeon, London Eye, and London Aquarium. I stood outside for a while, looked at my notes I had typed up, did some silent figuring and calculating, and decided it would be best if I got a ticket for both Madame Tussaud’s and the London Eye. I would actually save about 4 pounds that way. The line was very long, but I guess that makes sense since it was a Saturday. I was in line for probably 30 minutes, and it was getting closer (1 ½ hours or so) to closing time.
If you don’t know what Madame Tussaud’s is, it’s this sort of museum where they have wax figures of celebrities, which are sometimes very life-like. There were numerous rooms, and one of the first rooms had really famous celebrities
in it: Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt…People were taking pictures of each other (ha…no, the wax figures were not taking the pictures), but I had no one. *cry* Just kidding. I started asking people to take my picture, and I would try to get different people each time to take it so I wouldn’t be burdening one person. I took a shot of George Clooney and myself by holding the camera in front of us, and I was going to do that with Drew Barrymore, when an employee walked up and offered to take one. He asked if there were any others I wanted to take, but I said no. I had already gotten a few taken, and I was only picking out ones that I’d actually be interested in. Naturally, I got someone to take a picture of me with Leonardo DiCaprio; that was the most important picture in that room, since Titanic had been my favorite movie since I was 11. Leonardo was extremely popular with girls when I was 11 and 12. Actually, in 6th grade, I had 4 main friends at the school, and so the 5
of us made up a little group. We started a little band (ha, I wouldn’t really call it that, but whatever), and we started to write songs. All we did was write the songs and then sing them together. Remarkably, all of our songs happened to be about Leonardo DiCaprio! Isn’t that something…
There was a room of sports stars, but I wasn’t very interested and didn’t even really see many that I knew of. Another room was dedicated to the royal family, past and present. There was Queen Victoria, King Charles I, and King Henry VIII, among others, and of course…William, Harry, Charles, the queen, Prince Phillip, the Queen Mother, and Camilla! Pretty much the most important picture in that room was Prince William; I’m a fan. But I got my picture taken with all of them. Princess Diana didn’t appear until some rooms later, and that was a very important picture as well.
There was a room with old celebrities (well, celebrities of the past) like Audrey Hepburn, John Wayne, and James Dean. Another room had music stars in it, like the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and Beyonce. Elvis appeared in a later room. On the
other side of that room were political figures, like George W. Bush, JFK, Winston Churchill, and now, Obama. By this time, there was an Indian man whom I had met, and we were starting to take each other’s pictures. He was there alone as well, and it was his idea to trade off and help each other out. Not sure why, but one of the people he got his picture with was Hitler. I didn’t want my picture with Hitler. No, thanks. Just doesn’t seem right.
Toward the end, you were given a choice of walking through a scary area (having to do with ways people were tortured in past times I guess), and I decided to go for it. I was the only one at that time who would be going, but I went anyway. As I walked up to the entrance, some guy with paint on his face said in his Australian accent, “You’re about to see people who look like me and are going to try to scare you. Don’t touch them, and they won’t touch you.” I smiled and said ok. It was pretty dark in there, and I was on the lookout for people
hiding behind corners, ready to jump out and scare me. There were people blowing air on my neck as I walked past, and they jumped out and stood in front of me, talking to me for a second. There was this one person who I could see before I even got up to them, and just looking at them was scary. I think it was a girl, and her hair and makeup were creepy.
So after Madame Tussaud’s I went back to the hostel, and ate while I watched Britain’s Got Talent in the basement. It was a good episode, and I told Mom that she would like it. It was cool to be able to watch it in Britain; I had heard about it and everything, and of course heard of Susan Boyle, who was a contestant on the show this season. Simon Cowell (the “mean” judge from American Idol) is a judge on Britain’s Got Talent. I guess he stays pretty busy. Ok, that’s all!
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Mom
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Hi, Courtney! It's been so nice skyping together! (is that what you'd call it?) You mentioned in your last email (dated 6/14) that I should look at your other pictures. I don't see any other ones besides the ones included with your 8th (overall) post/blog. The last photo I saw has the dog on it (needing to be on a lead). I wonder why they don't say leash? Love, Mom