Walking around London and Play (Tuesday)

Pictures: 1) Krystle and me in Piccadilly Circus, 2) Stephen and me at the fountain in the center of the Piccadilly circle, 3) me with my new beret, 4) the friendly squirrel, 5) me in St. James Park


Krystle, Stephen and I got up on Tuesday and first walked to the Apollo Theatre near Piccadilly. I wanted to see if they had good prices for student tickets for the show "Three Days of Rain" starring James McAvoy (famous actor - he was Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and he was the male lead in Atonement). I was so excited to find out that if we wanted tickets for that night it was only £20 with student ID for the best available seats. Stephen decided not to join us, so Krystle and I got seats on the 8th row with a great view for only £20 each!! WHAT A DEAL!!!

From the box office we walked to Piccadilly Circus (the equivalent of NYC's Times Square) and took pictures, then we walked toward this monument (we aren't sure what it was of), and from there noticed a beautiful park in front of us. It turned out to be St. James' Park, which we walked through until we made it to Buckingham Palace. In the park there were so many beautiful flowers, and at one point I was taking a picture of them with this squirrel came into the flower bed. I said, "Oh! He wants to be in my photo! Come here little squirrel." And he CAME! He ran over, jumped up on the fence literally one foot in front of me, and being a little below chest level, sat there looking up at me. Krystle was freaking out and backing away because she hates squirrels, but I was so excited. I took a couple pictures of it (my zoom was slightly on and given that he was so close, he filled the whole lens). After he realized I wasn't going to feed him, he jumped down and skittered away. Krystle said "Wow Lauren, you really are Snow White." hahaha Now if only I could get the forest creatures to do chores for me, we'd be all set.



At Buckingham Krystle and Stephen took a ton of pictures and luckily the rain (which had been off and on all day long) held off until we left the palace area. From there we walked toward Victoria station and found a Pret a Manger where we had lunch. I had some delicious beef chili - really fabulous! - and then we continued our walking tour down to Westminster/Big Ben/Parliament area. All this combined was around 4 miles of walking, and so once we finished taking pictures there, we took the tube back to Russell Square. Krystle and Stephen took naps while I worked on my Paris blog, and around 7 pm, Krystle and I left for the play while Stephen went to the Hard Rock Cafe.

The theatre was really beautiful inside, our seats were GREAT, and the play was FANTASTIC!! I hadn't seen a play (non-musical) since I'd been here (besides Shakespeare). James McAvoy was absolutely amazing. He played a slightly manic, kind of crazy, totally lovable character in the first half, and he played a stuttering architect in the second half. He pulled off both roles with flying colors. There were only three actors total, and all were brilliant! There was very little action in the play, and thus it was up to the quality of the actors to keep the audience really engaged - and they did it! The play was 2.5 hrs long and the time went by faster than anything I've seen here. (Not to mention it wasn't exactly hard on the eyes watching James McAvoy for that time period ;)). I think Katy K. and I are going to go some other time when the show lets out and stock the stage door to try to get autographs. I will also seriously consider seeing it again before I leave - for £20 you really can't beat it!