ANDREA's ADVENTURES IN LONDON TOWN! Hey ya'll welcome to another post on Andrea's travel blog. This post is a compliation of my last two trips into London, I've made it a sort of picture/captian post so I hope you can stick with it. (Shout out to Bob Schantz, Bob Macy and Arielle Rosenfeld!)
For those of you who aren't familiar with obscure Australian rock bands who perform in London, the picture to your left is of the hit group, THE DRONES. Katie (the girl in the picture with me below) is in love with the drummer Mike Nuga and begged me last minute to hop on a bus to London to try to see this sold out concert that she didn't have tickets to...so I said of course!
The place was packed and we got there 5 minutes after they went on, luckily for us, the show wasn't sold out and it was running late so we didn't even miss the performance.Katie says she has good rockshow karma because she hangs clothes up at department stores.
Anywhoo, after the show Katie wanted nothing more than to meet the drummer, well as luck would have it...
We not only met the drummer, but were invited out to drinks with him! I tell you the level of celebrity I encounter on a day to day basis here is astouding (ask me how I met Jason Segal)...well we had drinks with the guy and it was going great, until he asked us how hold we were...awkward!! (He's 32)
Well the night came to a sort of abrupt stop, we rode the night bus home and life continued as usual...
Last night I hopped a train (literally, I got on for free) to London to see the new revival of Samuel Beckett's existentialist play, WAITING FOR GODOT with sir Ian McKellan and sir Patrick Stewart, aka Professor X and Magneto.
Needless to say they were nothing like their alteregos...Professor X was walking! The show was just great, these guys are pros and they clearly know exactly what they're doing (obviously). I had a great time and then hopped a train home (for free!) to finish my essay!
This is from the curtain call, after Godot came (whoops I ruined the ending!)
Click the play button above to see Professor X and Magneto dance!
"Hello all in the blog-o-verse (it's like the universe for blogs) what you are about to read is a real live guest post by my one and only cousin Rebecca Macy from Lancaster,PA (yes that Lancaster). She recently was accepted into GW on a full ride and her fam couldn't be more prouder...no couldn't be proud...no couldn't be more proud (yeah that's it) So without further ado, here she is, my cousin and yours... BECCA!
Hey all you ATB fans out there! This is Andrea's better half, her future maid of honor if it weren't for Robyn, her second soul in the Amish land, Becca. First of all, I just wanted to say how honored I am to have a guest post. With ATB at it's all time highest readership yet (almost 18, we almost have L'Chaim!) I know my voice will be heard since it's posted on such a reliable and noteworthy site. Anyways, I'm here in Lancaster (Amish Country) named after the great Lanshire Red Rose of England (the residence of Andrea of course). I'm getting ready to work at camp this summer on North Carolina, (Blue Star, the number one Jewish Reform camp south of Maryland!) and then i'm shipping off to Washington, DC as Andrea so modestly stated earlier. So, in light of graduation, of me and my beautiful cousin Robyn, I'd like to post an inspirational graduation video for all to hear. Andrea Macy raves about it, so you know its a hit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
Anways, i must say goodbye. Dinner soon with the family, then working hard in school all week so that I can attend my beautiful grandmother Jackie's birthday celebration this Friday! (PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDY ON WED!) Andrea of course will not be at the dinner, but will be sitting next to each and everyone of us in our hearts as we stuff our faces with Kwong Ming's world famous won ton soup and eggrolls.
Goodbye everyone in Blogging land. This is Rebecca Macy, guest poster, signing off!
I feel like Rory Gilmore. Attending a posh, exclusive, members only black tie ball on a Friday night where there are unlimited cocktails, themed-events like a snake charmer and hookah bar, a casino, big band and jazz bands and dance performances...I feel like part of the in-crowd. I feel lucky. Not many people get to rub elbows with the uppercrust of England's youth, especially not many Americans. I feel so fortunate for these opportunities to kick back and hang loose with these proper British students. The' ivy leaguers' across the pond if you will.
Here are the pictures from last night. I'm not really in them because I was taking the pictures (duh). I had an incredibly fun time.
Shout out to Grandpa Irwin who I talked to on the phone today! Glad to hear you're taking Fridays off, I miss you!
Here are pictures from the ball...
The casino was fun, I played black jack where they say 'twist' instead of 'hit' here, also Texas hold 'em where they call it manchester stick 'em up here....just kidding. But they really made me say twist instead of hit because I was in England. I lost all my chips after two rounds . This is the Oxford Union Big Band and I requested 'New York,New York' and they played it! They were really fun and I'm considering hiring them for my wedding in 2015. My first time at a chocolate fountain. White chocolate strawberries are my new favourite thing. I say favourte because I think the only time I'll ever get to eat them are in Oxford where they like to use 's' instead of 'z' and put 'u' in places because it looks nice. That's Mary B.,Katie R.,Andrea M., Travis P., and Frank from Yonkers. Mary and Katie with the snake. I stayed behind the camera.
Also stay tuned for a post about last night in London with Katie and The Drones. I shall post pictures of the concert and a story about how we had drinks with the drummer/Katie's dream man...
So we're back. Whatever "back" means. I'm back to Oxford, but not back to the States. When I get back to the States I'm back at school...sorry. I'm ranting. And homesick (finally)
Anyway Paris was amazing. Day Three started in a rush because we got lost on the metro, apparently there is more than one metro stop called Notre-Dame. Whatever Paris, we finally made it to Notre-Dame with one minute to spare and met up with the bike tour. (We did Bike Around because Mary never did it and I didn't want to pay in advance for the other one).
Here are some pictures from the bike tour, it was even better the second time!
The Apartment where Jim Morrison Died... Mary pretending to be riding a bike, but really posing. It was a beautiful day and we went to some different places than the first time, like the oldest shop in Paris (a taxidermist) and a bridge over the canal.
When we stopped for a break Mary and I got gellato (yum) Sometimes I feel this blog is more like a picture book of my life. Which is fine with me! The bike tour was fun because we were able to ride around the Louvre Pyramids and along the Seine. We learned a lot of neat facts which I'd gladly share with you but can't really remember right now.
After the bike tour which lasted from 10:30-2:30, we wandered over to the random Baguette convention. I''m not exactly sure what was going on because everything was in french, all I do know is that there was lots of really good bread and free samples of everything. Here are the pictures..
Mary and I tried to be one of those kids in the hats making bread, but we couldn't communicate our needs and no one spoke English, so we waited like pigeons for someone to give us a sample. What was great about this tent in front of notre dame was the live music from french Canadians and the random beach volleyball court set up next to it. The whole thing (like the gospel concert/cancer walk) was all very random and unexpected.
A few minutes later we purchased some red wine, ham and brie sandwiches and sat on the steps down to the river to have a french lunch. It lasted two hours and by that time we were drunk and tired so we went back to the apartment to get ready for dinner with Anais (she's pictured below at Speaker's Corner in London) our hostess whom I never took a picture with because my battery died, but we're meeting up next week in London at Speaker's Corner. Expect a blog post chronicling my adventure there. Anais took us out to dinner and then drove us to the bus stop. What a doll! And smart too, she's an astrophysicist.
11 hours later we woke up on a bus in London. Mary's bus to Portsmouth wasn't for another 3 hours so we slept in the bus station then went to starbucks to use the free bathroom.
Mary left so I went to find the globe theater without a map (hey, I had 8 hours to kill until the show). Well I found it in one hour (I just walked along the Thames) and got my ticket. 15 pounds and it was the best seat in the house, no lie. Look...
So directly across the stage (you cant see in this picture) on the ground level, I had a seat in the last row which means a back rest. AMAZING! The show was really good, here's a review I wrote for my tutorial:
Review: Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre
For the first production of The Globe’s 2009 “Young Hearts” themed-season, Romeo and Juliet are the finest representatives of juvenile love and reckless innocence. As it was my first time seeing a production at the world famous venue, I cannot comment on the period-style set or (lack of) lighting.
Romeo and Juliet are well-known for their tragic ending, love-struck innocence and rivalling families. In this production, however, the tragedy is evident yet there is not enough chemistry to care. Adetomiwa Edun makes his stage debut as the brooding hunk Romeo and there is no disputing his charm and charisma on stage. Early in the play his movement is more akin to hip-hop dancing, yet is excusable for his sheer enthusiasm and love for life. These qualities soon wear off somewhere in the middle of the play when the audience begins to doubt his true feelings for Juliet. The same goes for 18-year old Ellie Kendrick as Juliet. Making her stage debut, she looks the part, yet nothing can do nothing more. While both actors are lively and certainly youthful, they lack a passion and chemistry which is so necessary to the story.
The rest of the cast manages to bring about moments of joy and comedy into the story. With colourful costumes distinguishing the feuding families and standout performances by Jack Farthing and Philip Cumbus as Benvolio and Mercutio respectively, the ensemble truly makes the three hour tragedy enjoyable. A versatile Fergal McElherron (Peter, Balthazar, Gregory) and strong-willed Penny Layden (Nurse) bring the characters to life.
After the play I was so enamored with Shakespeare I got on a bus and went home. Now I'm working on another Shakespeare essay on R&J, "were the dice loaded from the start?"
Day two began a bit more slowly than day one, actually, it began about 6 hours later than day one because we slept in. Come to think of it, we deserved to sleep in; hitting up three museums, two bars, a sacred Mountain of marters and a huge cemetery in one day is impressive.
So on day two when we awoke at 11:45 am, we decided to head on down to the Jewish quarter and (finally) treat ourselves to some world famous falafel for brunch. If you remember back to blog post #45, Mom, Robyn and I frequented the same falafel place, but were not privvy to the treat because of passover. Oh how sweet it was to bite into that fried ball of chick peas. MMMmmm....
With some strange luck we got in for free, don't ask us ask the lady behind the counter because for some reason being American and over 18 entitles us to free admission? I don't know, what I do know is we saw some awesome art by Calder, Dali, Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, Pollack and mannnyyyy others! It was a great day and awesome view at the top! While the weather was shody and overcast, we still had high hopes for the Eifell Tower. For the past 24 hours whenever we went down to the metro station it rained, and whenever we came back up it stopped. Magic. So it was only appropriate that after our 2.5 hour stay at the Pompadeu we went down into the metro and when we came up, were greeted to sunny skies and a gospel choir.
No, I'm not exaggerating (look at the videos on picassa), at the foot of the Eiffel Tower a charity walk for cancer had just came to a close and in the fashion of Revlon Run Walk a concert had begun. Laying on the lawn, Mary and I decided to have a picnic so we walked over to the local "marche" and stocked up on 2 euro beers, bagettes, cheese and strawberries. Mmmm... the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. The only thing missing was a french poodle, mime and madeline! After the Eifell Tower we went for a beer and crepe then back to the tower to watch it twinkle. We then went back to the flat because there's a bike tour tomorrow at 10 am!
I am having a total blast in Paris, last night all the museums were free! What luck we have eh? So the whole day was quite crazy and LONG. We boarded the night bus from Oxford at 7 pm Friday night and arrived in Paris at 7 am Saturday morning (we rode a ferry!) Since it was so early we didn't want to wake up our hostess Anice so went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery to see where Jim Morrison was buried-
If you zoom in you can see his name on the tomb...click the little box at the top of the page to see more Jim Morisson Tomb pictures0 wow that sounds morbid.
So we tried to find where Oscar Wilde was buried but failed, so we met up with our Parisian hostess who was so nice and invited us out to drinks with her friends later that night. Because she's an astrophysicist (not lying) and had to study for her exam that would qualify her to teach gra school (at age 27) we went to Mont Matre to get out of her way and let her study.
At the top of Sacre Couer or Mount Marte (whatever) we had a cheesy hotdogs and bought some pictures from some artists, got a free concert by a talented foreigner, saw a REAL mime (for real!) got some gelato then decsended the moutain togo see the Picasso museum (the whole museum was mirrorimaged, hence the giant mirror below)
The goat or Who is Mary?
In the middle of the Picasso museum Mary and I were so wiped out that we had a cafe ole at a Parisian cafe and chilled out. We went back to the museum, finished our time with Pablo then headed off to meet Anise and her friends, on the way we were distracted by bubble street artists and got asked directions by french people!
We met up with Anice and had a beer at Chez Prune by the canal but left early because the Lourvre was free! During our brief night at the museum we saw Mona, Nike, Hammurabis Code and a puzzle hanging in the worlds most famous museum. I know it was really weird.
AFTER the Louvre ate a crepe then went to the Rodin Museum (for free) and did a free flashlight tour through the sculpture garden where we saw the thinker. Unfortutatley they ran out of supercool headflashlights.
Phew, whata day I'm pooped just talking about it. Stay tuned for Part Two and Three (highlights include the Eifell tower and world famous falafels!)
Mary and I leave for Paris on Friday! Tre Bon! I am so happy to return for a second date with the city of lights. I'll be there from Friday to Tuesday morning. We're taking the bus because it's wayyy cheaper than the train, and it's only 4 hours which isn't too bad, it's overnight as well.
(Click the little picture above to see all the pictures)
Yesterday the OPUS program and I set off for Cardiff, Wales (Home of Welsh People, the former Princess Diana and Welsh Cakes). We stopped midway along our journey to tour the open air museum of Welsh Life...here are some pictures in a slide show...
After the museum, we went to a castle. We had a tour and learned a lot about medieval life and lords and ladies and...stuff. It was really interesting but sort of hard to understand our tourguide because she had a lisp and a heavy accent.
We ate some welsh cakes at the covered market in Cardiff then went for traditional tea and crumpets at a local tea shoppe. We had planned to go to the bay but there was a lot of construction and the docks were blocked off, so instead we went to find t-shirts.
Mary Schantz (who came along for the trip) and I scoured downtown Cardiff for t-shirts but had no luck. We found ourselves in the middle of a rugby preshow drinkfest but alas there were no t-shirts. We ventured into TK Maxx (like TJ maxx only English, but couldn't find Wales t-shirts or even Whales on t-shirts.
As we were giving up hope and walking back to the bus we found the perfect shirt and shop...
A College Student spending her spring semester on the move. From working in a bagel shop on Long Island, to working on a Kibbutz in Israel and blogging all the way.
For those of you who aren't familiar with obscure Australian rock bands who perform in London, the picture to your left is of the hit group, THE DRONES. Katie (the girl in the picture with me below) is in love with the drummer Mike Nuga and begged me last minute to hop on a bus to London to try to see this sold out concert that she didn't have tickets to...so I said of course!
Last night I hopped a train (literally, I got on for free) to London to see the new revival of Samuel Beckett's existentialist play, WAITING FOR GODOT with sir Ian McKellan and sir Patrick Stewart, aka Professor X and Magneto.
Gotta love SuBo! This is one of the tabloids they give out on the metro
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