As the famous rapper Eminem once sang in a song "I'm sorry Mom, I never meant to hurt you!" but once I knew that I was solidly in the correct classes I bought a ticket to go off to London for the weekend to see "Miss Saigon" in the West End. I must say that this was definitely the biggest challenge of my life in that I had no margin for error and I was on a very strict agenda. On Saturday I rose at the ridiculous hour of 5:30 to prepare for the massive 24 hour trek to London. I had to gather all of my things and I decided to pack extremely light only bringing my small computer bag. All I had at this point was a bus pass and a plane ticket, I had only decided on Thursday night that I was going to go, therefore I hadn't done a bunch of planning. I would say this trip was based on an impromptu decision. So in order to get to the airport I had to take the shuttle bus to Lyon at 7:30. Once I arrived at Lyon the very stressful part of my day began; finding the terminal, but this time I had to find it in French. I was flying out on a small company that was based out of London, Gatwick called EasyJet which was located all the way in Terminal 3. After about an hour of frantically asking people in French "où est terminal 3 avec EasyJet (where is terminal 3 with EasyJet?) I was finally able to find it, apparently there was a lot of construction with the Lyon airport and I actually had to walk outside through an outdoor tunnel to Terminal 3, with a tiny EasyJet counter. Once I had arrived there the guy working asked me a bunch of questions including why was I traveling alone? I didn't know what to say so I told him that I enjoyed being very independent. The truth is that no one is impulsive or cares as much about the theatre as me, so rather than try to include another person's agenda into my own set of plans, I just normally go off and do my own thing! So after going through security and setting off the machine due to my massive metal belt (I was wearing a new classy French outfit along with some leather sandals that I had bought in France.) Everyone in my program has Birkenstocks and I would try and join the club, but after about 2 minutes of window shopping I decided that I would go for something dressier and a lot less practical. When I went into the shop I came upon the sandals that I bought right away and since everything in this town is on sale I just assumed these would be too so I asked the employee. He said "No, mais ça cet un prix intéressant!" So impulsively I caved and bought the shoes. I have to say I was really proud of this outfit plus it was fairly comfortable to travel in and I pulled an Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady/Pygmalian) and was able to fit in with rich crowds! So once I had finally cleared security and the passport office I thought that the hard part was over, boy was I mistaken. My adventure had just begun! The flight was one of the easiest parts of my trip because absolutely nothing was required of me. Once I had arrived in Gatwick airport (one of the 3 main airports in London and the hub of EasyJet) a nice lady at customs told me that in order to get into the main city I would have to take a bus into Victoria. So I didn't know that Victoria was like an hour and a half away, I thought it was like the distance from Queens to Manhattan, 30 minutes at the most! Anyway so I found my way over to the bus counter, so first I had to exchange some money. Euros over to English pounds. I still have some British money to this day surprising me every time I go to use vending machines. After I exchanged some money, which was not a great deal for me, by the way, I then got my bus ticket into Victoria. I was then told that my bus would arrive at 1:30, at that point I knew I wasn't going to be able to catch a matinée. Oh well. So I ate at an awesome coffee shop and leisurely waited for like an hour until it was time to catch my bus which I'm not going to lie was kind of a struggle to figure out where to stand and how to tell which one I should catch. I just thought to myself that I was so lucky to be asking questions in English. Once I got on the bus I fell sound asleep. Forget trying to look out the window at the beautiful countryside, nope, instead I was out like a light! Finally when we neared Victoria I started to get excited when I saw pubs, cute little shops, and amazing architecture. Once I arrived in Victoria the fun, and I mean fun sarcastically, getting lost would be a more accurate way of putting it, began.I knew that I had to ultimately get over to the theatre where Miss Saigon was playing, buy a ticket, and then proceed to find a hotel room. So fortunately everyone whom I asked for directions was extremely nice and helpful, minus one angry cab driver. So I ended up taking the "Tube" down to Leister Square (which is pronounced Lester), confusing in itself, and then I found one of those half priced ticket booths and bought my tickets for Miss Saigon. The guy there was extremely nice, gave me a map, and told me Miss Saigon was about a 7 minute walk. I think it took me about an hour to find through the help of directions from 10 different people. Once I finally arrived at the theatre I was glad to know that I would be able to find it that night. Next I thought that I'd look for a hotel. Somebody told me that the best place to look would be in Leister Square. After about a half hour of aimlessly looking for anything that resembled to be a hotel I found a very pricy looking Radisson. At the front desk the lady said that they had one room left and that it was extremely nice. What I didn't anticipate is that it would definitely exceed any sort of budget that I had started out with. 245 pounds later, I had a beautiful room. This room was definitely the nicest room that I have ever stayed in or probably will ever stay in. It was so fancy that the power could only be turned on through the use of your key card and the elevator could only be opened with your key card.
Once I had gotten my lovely hotel room I decided that I better head over to the theatre, grab dinner, and ultimately play it safe, as to not miss any of the show that I had traveled all of this way to see. Of course I ended up getting a little lost, but nothing serious. I popped into a Book Store and asked an employee at the help desk if he could help me find the theatre. He was the absolute best, he went on googlemaps and even drew me out a diagram. The theatre was only like 2 blocks away, but with his flawless directions I was able to find the theatre without any problems.
With about an hour to spare I decided to eat a quick dinner before my show. I ended up going to a 50s diner, which was absolutely perfect!
With about an hour to spare I decided to eat a quick dinner before my show. I ended up going to a 50s diner, which was absolutely perfect!
About a half hour before the show I started to get nervous when my food wasn't there. The waitress then reassured me that she would make sure that I would get to my show on time. Sure enough she was right. Once I arrived at Miss Saigon, I was able to upgrade my ticket to the Stalls, which are almost the equivalent of an orchestra seat. 35 pounds for an orchestra seat, not bad at all. The show in itself was absolutely amazing. Miss Saigon is a beautiful love story set during the Vietnam war, and tells the story of a girl that was forced into prostitution but fell in love with a soldier and married him after 1 night together. They ended up having a child together and Chris (the main male character, the American soldier) had no idea and was forced to return to America without his wife Kym. He ended up getting married in America after a few years of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and still continued to have nightmares about Vietnam and loosing Kym. About 4 years later, he found out that he had a son, and in the end Kym realizes the only way for her son to go to America is if she commits suicide. It's a devastating ending and even though this was my second time seeing it I cried longing for a better end to Kym's life. Ultimately this show was beautiful and by seeing it everything was obviously worth it.
After the show I got really lost for the last time (knock on wood). So out of frustration I decided to bite the bullet and pay for a cab. Unfortunately there weren't any Taxis around and the best that I could find was one of those bike cabs. He himself got really lost and even started driving on sidewalks and at one point said excuse me to a homeless person as he backed up his "rickshaw" on a sidewalk. Eventually, if you pay a person, they are obligated to make sure that you get to your final destination. So after about a half hour ride that should have taken 5 minutes I arrived at my hotel. Let me just say, the air conditioning was heavenly, and I slept soundly for about 10 hours!