Trip Diary: Landed in London!

I made it! After 9 hours on a plane, 2 in Customs and 2 on transit I FINALLY landed in London and Europe Trip 2012 can officially begin!

The journey wasn’t pretty. The plane was okay but getting through Customs took forever and taking a 50-lb suitcase and super heavy backpack on the tube was no fun. I’m seriously debating taking a cab to the airport on the way back. I can’t imagine doing that again!

And of course I got lost on my way to the BnB where I am staying. I pulled my heavy suitcase through a number of London streets trying to get directions but in the end, had to call my contact.  Turns out I had just exited the station on the wrong side.

But I did run into a lovely man once I was on the proper side of the station. He pointed me in the right direction and we chatted a bit about Canada (he has a cousin in Montreal). It was like something out of a movie: this lovely English gentleman, who also had to stop and say hi to everyone he knew on the street, helping the poor Canadian girl find her way.

So after leaving my apartment in Vancouver at 6:00pm on Friday, I finally made it to my new room by 5:00pm on Saturday (granted, there’s a time difference). With barely a wink of sleep, no shower and a few missed meals, I headed back out into central London.

I was hoping to see a musical. When I was in London last year, I was fortunate enough to see quite a few plays & musicals (1 per day actually…) at the student rush ticket rate (never more than 25 pounds).  Unfortunately, my musical choice for today didn’t work out as well. I went over to the Prince of Wales Theatre to try and score a ticket to the extremely popular Book of Mormon (i.e. sold out)!

I ended up queuing for over an hour in the return ticket line. As people returned or cancelled tickets, a little lady would come out of the theatre and take someone from our line in to purchase the tickets. It didn’t look too good at the start but then the line started moving pretty quick.

We cheered when the people ahead of us got in and craned our necks eagerly to see if the lady was coming. Just as I got to the front of the line, the lady came out…..to announce that the show had started and it was too late to try and get a ticket! She gave me some advice for the lottery process, so maybe I’ll try my luck another day. But it wasn’t a complete waste because….

I SAW HELENA BONHAM-CARTER (and possibly) TIM BURTON!!!!!!
I’m not 100% sure it was Tim Burton, because his image never sticks in my mind but it was definitely Helena. And I think it`s fair to assume that if a guy who might look like Tim Burton is with Helena BC, he probably is Tim Burton. 

They were headed in to watch The Book of Mormon and were literally a few feet in front of me. I only saw them for a couple of seconds before they went inside but it was still so cool! It would have been cooler to say I saw The Book of Mormon with them but I’ll settle for seeing them at The Book of Mormon!

I drowned my musical-less sorrows in Ben & Jerry’s and went to watch the new Star Trek movie. It was no Mormon melody but it was pretty good. I’m sure I’ll fit in at least 1 musical in my next few days here. For now, I’m just concerned with getting some sleep!