In London, we stayed at the Hootananny Hostel in Brixton, about a 15-minute Tube ride from Central London. Brixton was...interesting. To put it plainly, we witnessed a drug deal go down on the corner. Creepy, I know. Overall though, our experience in Brixton was nice. No one harassed us... a lady complimented me on the roundness of my booty (verbatim: “You have a very nice booty for a white girl... nice and round”)... and it was a pretty area.
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Hootananny was an awesome place to stay. The entire ground-floor level of the building was a bar and music venue (Hostel Residents got a 20% discount at the bar). The second and third levels were the very cramped but comfortable rooms. We stayed in a 6 bed female dorm but only had one roommate for the duration of our leg in London. I was introduced to our roommate pretty awkwardly...
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About 6am one morning, I awoke to what sounded like an elephant being dropped into the middle of the room. I rolled over very quickly in my top bunk bed to quite a vision. Our roommate, after getting tangled in her sheets, had fallen out of bed... and there she was... standing upright recovering from her falter...stark....ass....naked. I shielded my eyes quickly, waited for the sounds to settle and the door to close, indicating her departure and stretched over the edge of the bunk to see if Andria witnessed it as well. She wasn’t even there! Due to jetlag, Andria had been out of our room since 2 am and missed the entire event! We later learned our roommate’s name was Helana. She was a 46-year-old traveling massage therapist that was currently living in Hootananny. She ended up being a fabulous help when it came to things to see and do in London as well as a wealth of information regarding the culture of the UK. We got to share American information with her too... like the wisdom of “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons”.
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I had a moment outside of Parliament... “This is where things got CRAZY.” Leave it to the American Revolution historian to having a touching moment there!
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I had the best birthday known to all mankind. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the Globe Theatre.
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“Romeo and Juliet” at the Globe Theatre is, to date, my best theatre-going experience. Andria and I bought Yard Standing tickets, which meant we don’t have seats - we’re required to stand for the duration of the show. By the way, the show was three hours long! Despite the sore feet and backs...and the freezing cold... the show was amazing! We were in the second row of people standing – right up on the stage – which made the experience. I’ve always caught on to Shakespearean humor but I admittedly don’t think I ever truly “got it” until I saw it come to life on stage. The actors really embodied their characters and it made all the difference in the world to the reception of the show. It was as if I was seeing the show for the very first time. Not only was there lots of fun and drama, there was music and interaction. Multiple times the actors came out into the Yard Standing pit and played amongst the people. It truly was extraordinary.
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London really was an amazing experience. The central portion of the city is much smaller than either of us imagined but being there touched me in a way that was larger than life. Overall, we didn’t get into too much trouble... we were saving that for Italy.
View My Pictures from London, England
Glad you enjoyed your vacation!
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