This morning I woke up and got breakfast with Cody before our second attempt to go window shopping down Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus. We went down Great Portland Street to Oxford Street to Charing Cross, stopping at carious lilttle stores. Then we made our way to a tea store where I sampled and bought a few English teas. After this, we stopped in a bookstore and continued browsing around the area.
We made our way down to Shaftesbury Ave. where we were hoping to check out a costume shop called Angels, which was apparently a big deal in London. I guess it is the only costume shop in the city. We thought that this would be something festive to do for the holiday. Halloween isn’t as big of a deal here as it is in the states. In fact, I’m told that if you walk around in a costume around town, you get funny looks.
Anyway, we waited in line outside of the store for about 15 minutes before the bouncers (that’s right, they had bouncers) let us in. The window displays were cool, but once you got inside, ti was nothing special. There was a Spartan Helmet that I though Nick would think is cool. Other than that- lame. So- we left soon upon entering. It was more, look through a catalog and get fitted, which could have been cool had we actually intended on purchasing anything.
Just 2 blocks away was China Town, which Cody and I had wanted to explore for a while, so we decided that was next on the agenda. We walked through the arched gateways into the pedestrian only streets, checking out all the kinds of authentic Chinese restaurants. They all had ducks hanging in the windows. We had lunch at one of them, with the staff and everyone all yelling back and forth in Chinese. Cody and I shared a duck and pork platter with rice, along with some soup and a spring roll. After an interesting, but delicious lunch, we browsed some shops, and went into a medicinal shop that we originally thought was a Chinese tea store. Whoops…
After we were done in China Town, we continued our loop over to Piccadilly Circus to go in some more cool stores. We kept walking and made our way down past Regents Street to Hamleys, the biggest toy store in the world. Every time I have walked past, on the way to other destinations, there have been people inside blowing bubbles, and playing with toys everywhere. Today there were people dressed in all kinds of costumes outside, playing with bubbles and other toys, and jamming to ‘Thriller’ and ‘The Monster Mash.’ Way cooler than the ‘most famous costume shop in London.’
The first floor was all plush toys and stuffed animals, which I absolutely fell in love with… again. We made our way upstairs (there are 5 FLOORS!) to the other toys too. My favorite part was the Harry Potter toys. There is a glass case with a life size Dobby the house elf, the Numbus 200 and Firebolt (brooms), a complete collection of wands, in addition to the sword of Griffindor. We saw all kinds of other toys, tons of candy, sampled some fudge, and enjoyed the larger than life Wal-E.
When we were done in Hamleys, Cody and I rushed back to our flats to drop off our stuff and met Michelle at the tube to go to our haunted London Bridge excursion. We had purchased tickets online last night to the ‘London Bridge Experience- featuring the London Tombs.’
When we got there, we had to wait in line under London Bridge with creepy characters wandering around. After waiting for a little bit, we made it inside the entrance, directly under the bridge, and started our journey inside.
The first part was a tour in which several characters led us through different rooms underneath the tunnel in our ‘mission to make it across the bridge.’ They led us through the dark, creepy dungeons below, while walking through a bit of London’s history in the process.
We made it through the Roman conquest, rowed through Viking invasions, ran through burning houses of the Great Fire of London, all before making it to the tombs, where our “travel acquaintances” finally left us on our own. Really, it was just a big haunted house down in the tombs- it was probably the best haunted house I’ve been to. We were given construction vests and hats on our “journey through the tombs.” While we were waiting in line to go through, we watched ‘video commentary’ of a construction worker being interviewed down in the tombs, which mysteriously cuts out to a fuzzy screen as they are running away after hearing a scary noise…
It was sooo dark, and all you could see your path by was a strobe light, or dim flood lights in the tombs. Of course, I was voted to go first through the tombs, leading the way of our group of about 15 people… I thought it was rather entertaining really… and used it to my advantage at times. ha. Decapitated heads hung from the ceiling, and I found it amusing to give them a push in the dark when passing by, trying to hit other people with them… There were also a few times where I would jump and “accidentally” scream, making the others behind me follow suite for no reason. It really was cool though, and I assure you, I screamed and jumped with surprise my fair share as well.
The paths wound around like a maze, between fences and boxes, and tight walls that you literally had to squeeze through one at a time. Often times we weren’t sure where to go because it was so dark. There were several times where the floor was moving in front of you, on a conveyor belt, and before you would realize it, you were falling into a pile of bones and spider webs, hardly able to catch your balance. When the lights would go out, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find yourself face to face with a grotesque character breathing in your face when they came back on.
We finally made it to ‘the end of our journey’ across the bridge, down under the London Bridge tombs, and turned in our construction vests and hats. It really was awesome! Definitely cooler than anything I’ve been to in Green Bay. We exited through the gift shop, and got sucked into buying some candy as we passed through. It’s Halloween right? …we decided to splurge… yay for giant gummy spiders! :)
The first floor was all plush toys and stuffed animals, which I absolutely fell in love with… again. We made our way upstairs (there are 5 FLOORS!) to the other toys too. My favorite part was the Harry Potter toys. There is a glass case with a life size Dobby the house elf, the Numbus 200 and Firebolt (brooms), a complete collection of wands, in addition to the sword of Griffindor. We saw all kinds of other toys, tons of candy, sampled some fudge, and enjoyed the larger than life Wal-E.
When we were done in Hamleys, Cody and I rushed back to our flats to drop off our stuff and met Michelle at the tube to go to our haunted London Bridge excursion. We had purchased tickets online last night to the ‘London Bridge Experience- featuring the London Tombs.’
When we got there, we had to wait in line under London Bridge with creepy characters wandering around. After waiting for a little bit, we made it inside the entrance, directly under the bridge, and started our journey inside.
The first part was a tour in which several characters led us through different rooms underneath the tunnel in our ‘mission to make it across the bridge.’ They led us through the dark, creepy dungeons below, while walking through a bit of London’s history in the process.
We made it through the Roman conquest, rowed through Viking invasions, ran through burning houses of the Great Fire of London, all before making it to the tombs, where our “travel acquaintances” finally left us on our own. Really, it was just a big haunted house down in the tombs- it was probably the best haunted house I’ve been to. We were given construction vests and hats on our “journey through the tombs.” While we were waiting in line to go through, we watched ‘video commentary’ of a construction worker being interviewed down in the tombs, which mysteriously cuts out to a fuzzy screen as they are running away after hearing a scary noise…
It was sooo dark, and all you could see your path by was a strobe light, or dim flood lights in the tombs. Of course, I was voted to go first through the tombs, leading the way of our group of about 15 people… I thought it was rather entertaining really… and used it to my advantage at times. ha. Decapitated heads hung from the ceiling, and I found it amusing to give them a push in the dark when passing by, trying to hit other people with them… There were also a few times where I would jump and “accidentally” scream, making the others behind me follow suite for no reason. It really was cool though, and I assure you, I screamed and jumped with surprise my fair share as well.
The paths wound around like a maze, between fences and boxes, and tight walls that you literally had to squeeze through one at a time. Often times we weren’t sure where to go because it was so dark. There were several times where the floor was moving in front of you, on a conveyor belt, and before you would realize it, you were falling into a pile of bones and spider webs, hardly able to catch your balance. When the lights would go out, it wouldn’t be uncommon to find yourself face to face with a grotesque character breathing in your face when they came back on.
We finally made it to ‘the end of our journey’ across the bridge, down under the London Bridge tombs, and turned in our construction vests and hats. It really was awesome! Definitely cooler than anything I’ve been to in Green Bay. We exited through the gift shop, and got sucked into buying some candy as we passed through. It’s Halloween right? …we decided to splurge… yay for giant gummy spiders! :)
After we took the tube back, we quick grabbed some take out from ISH, and ran back to our flat. I promised Michelle and Kara that I would do their make-up for Halloween. They went out and bought some fancy make-up and I had sooo much fun painting their faces. Michelle had a red and black face, and Kara was my favorite… Mardi Gras! I painted a Mardi Gras mask on her face, and it turned out pretty nicely if I do say so myself. I ended up painting Cody and Michelle’s friend’s face as well.
After that, we all left to go meet up with some others at the party at the ISH bar, and Michelle and her friend left later to go to a concert. Chad’s girlfriend was in town, and she was really nice and tons of fun. The place was decorated pretty cool, and there were some interesting costumes. Europe LOVES Barrack Obama, so they loved it when ‘he’ walked into the room. Ha. It was pretty funny. We got some festive drinks, and ended up having a dance party till the end of the night. There’s just something about ‘Thriller’ and the ‘Monster Mash’ that makes Halloween… well… Halloween! Good times.
We left the party and went back to MTH because we had to get up pretty early the next morning. We ended up sitting on the fence and taking pictures by the underground sign, before heading back for the nite, to wake up early for our trip to Wales the next morning.
After that, we all left to go meet up with some others at the party at the ISH bar, and Michelle and her friend left later to go to a concert. Chad’s girlfriend was in town, and she was really nice and tons of fun. The place was decorated pretty cool, and there were some interesting costumes. Europe LOVES Barrack Obama, so they loved it when ‘he’ walked into the room. Ha. It was pretty funny. We got some festive drinks, and ended up having a dance party till the end of the night. There’s just something about ‘Thriller’ and the ‘Monster Mash’ that makes Halloween… well… Halloween! Good times.
We left the party and went back to MTH because we had to get up pretty early the next morning. We ended up sitting on the fence and taking pictures by the underground sign, before heading back for the nite, to wake up early for our trip to Wales the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment