Last Friday, the entire castle shipped out to a required excursion to Berlin. This was a lovely and extremely tiring haze of museums and walking tours. Some memorable highlights were being led around by our history professor and getting to spit on the site that Hitler was burned (thus officially making my history class the coolest there ever was), having a hotel room with only 2 beds (although they were pushed together I Love Lucy style for reasons I don't understand) AND OUR OWN SHOWER, finding a shop that was just like Beadles in Chelmsford but in an indie Berlin sort of way, getting really cheap ethnic food and delicious bubble tea, going to an "Authentic Irish Pub!" in Germany that turned out to include a live Irish band, and going to a bar with OSA.
MEGA highlights included going down a giant snow slide with the quad, on tubes, backwards. Yeehaw!
Lowlights included that time Z and I booked the flight for the wrong day without noticing, and had to sleep in the airport. Oops.
We made the best of our extra day by going back into the city and seeing Skyfall to get jazzed up for London (Berlin theaters are so much nicer than US theaters could ever hope to be), getting Orange Mochas (serious Zoolander flashbacks), and having an insanely long lunch that included pumpkin raviolis (!!!!!), free WiFi, and Irish cider. mmm. I loved Berlin more than I thought I was going to, the vibe was very chill and there seemed to be history everywhere you looked. Not to mention, the layout was very logical (coming from "our-streets-were-designed-by-cow-paths!" Boston makes this an exciting thing for me). Then, we headed back to the airport to wait, and wait, and wait.
Being abroad on election day is a strange feeling. We finally made it to London Stansted Airport, and on the bus on the way into the city, I spent the entire time refreshing the CNN homepage. Tragically, there were no updates of significance before I had to give up and crash back at the hostel. I woke up at 6 AM in a panic, refreshed the page again, saw the first headline - "Obama's Acceptance Speech" - and went back to sleep happy.
Wednesday, we headed off to the Warner Brothers Studio to visit the Harry Potter set!
We spent 3 and a half hours here, and we had to reflect on the fact that we had been to dozens of museums, but this was the only one we read every single plaque at. I'm a little afraid of what that says about us.
We got to see Dumbledore's office and the Weasley Burrow, sit in the flying car, walk across Hogwarts Bridge, see the Sorcerer's Stone and all the original costumes, and oh god you guys it was so amazing.
(Flawless concept art gallery. This stuff was museum quality)
(Scale model of Hogwarts. ahhhhhhh)
(Here I am on the Knight Bus reunited with my one true love, Butterbeer)
(Here I am at #4 Privet Drive, loving life and stuff)
(Here I am looking pensively off the Hogwarts Bridge, because any time they show it in the movies, someone is contemplating on it)
We even found this at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes
And I knew I needed it for the blog, haw haw.
We went into Leicester Square that night and decided to pop in to the theater and see a show! We got 10 pound tickets to a musical called Loserville, which was fun and hip and nerdy all rolled into one, and then got CHIPOTLE! (!!) With real guacamole and everything (a hot commodity in Europe). It tasted like home.
The next day, we woke up at the crack of dawn to wait in line for 2 of the 8 student tickets they release daily to Matilda the Musical. We made it in time, and scored 5 pound seats! Then we jetted off to the Zoo!
We saw penguins,
and giraffes,
And not-so-pygmy hippos (not pictured, because I was so mad that they were so gigantic). We did a quick trip through the Camden Market, which was overwhelmingly full of deals (I scored 2 dresses for 22 pounds after some impressive haggling on my part), and stopped by Primark, a 24-hour Black Friday wonderland. I ditched my horrible shedding blue Cookie Monster coat for a sherpa-lined bomber jacket, and all was right with the world.
Matilda was beautiful, technically impressive, and really touching and nostalgic. Trunchbull was pitch perfect, the child actors were so impressive, and there were truly hilarious moments for adults and kids alike. The song "When I Grow Up" may or may not have brought a tear to my eye. Matilda has been one of my favorite books since I was a kid. She just really resonated with me (the reading and storytelling part, not the absentee parents part) and this rendition did the book so much justice. I just really like Roald Dahl.
(This doesn't do the set justice - it was scrabble pieces, and the ones on the floor lifted and turned into desks. Amazing).
We hit the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum the next morning. There was lots of pretty scenery to be seen,
And we got to see pretty jewels, and learn about executions and murder mysteries, which are my favorite things to learn about. The Natural History Museum was required for class, and we were painfully exhausted, so it called for a quick run-through. We did encounter this poor hygienically challenged T-Rex along the way:
(Their plight is a serious one).
We spent like 3 hours in a Starbucks desperately trying to recharge, then rallied for a pub crawl that night. In a very strange twist, we met 2 girls from B.U. who were friends with someone back at the Castle! Small world. Apparently, London's nightlife scene varies very drastically from quiet pubs to clubs made out of old horse barns whose private booths are stables equipped with mounted deer heads with signs hung over them that say things like "RED RUM". The crawl decided we should see the whole spectrum.
Z had one goal for this trip: London's first Warped Tour in 15 years. That hasn't really been my scene since my early teens, but I thought it might be fun for nostalgia's sake. And hey, it was! We jammed out to the Used, 3OH!3, New Found Glory, Family Force 5, and my old favorites Bowling for Soup (who have a really strong following across the pond). It was overcrowded and there wasn't enough food, but it definitely brought me back to the good old days of mosh pits and ugly black and neon clothing.
Our trip ended with an excruciatingly long second night in the airport, but we made it back super tired and in one piece! My legs are ready to formally secede from my torso, but I'm so glad I got the chance to explore such an amazing city.
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