Billy Elliot!

On Tuesday I went to yet another musical! ( I have a problem, I know). A group of us went to Billy Elliot. This is the musical about a boy secretly becoming a ballet dancer, instead of a boxer like his family thought, all while living in a coal mining village during a coal strike. It was such a great show! I am so glad we were able to go while here.

Heading into the theatre.

All lit up after the show.

The cast used very strong accents in the show, based on where they lived. There were caption screens on the sides of the stage. The captioning was definitely helpful, especially at the start of the show. I got adapted to the accent after a little bit, but it was rough at first.

A little behind...

This has been my last week in London, so I have been busy trying to finish seeing and doing everything I needed to do before I leave. Which means, I have not been good about updating my blog. So, here is my recap of Monday.

Monday morning I went over and toured St. Paul's Cathedral. It was such an amazing experience. The church was so beautiful and full of history.

The front of St. Paul's.

Statue out front of the church.

From the west facing viewpoint of the church. This is looking towards Tate Modern Museum and across Millennium Bridge.

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside (boo), but I did sneak a few on my phone. These are from the center of the church looking up to the dome of the church.

Monday night I went to Dirty Dancing with one of my roommates. We were able to get tickets form AIFS for pretty cheap. It was a great show. I was a little nervous about how the movie would translate to the stage, but it was great. I am so glad that I went!

Outside the theatre before the show.

Picture of the stage before the performance started.

While waiting for the bus to go home, I got to have a tourist moment with a picture in one of the red telephone booths!

London Zoo

Sunday afternoon I spent at the London Zoo. The zoo is in Regent's Park which is the park near where I live. The zoo was awesome! It was a great day and I had a ton of fun visiting it. The zoo had a lot of different exhibits and animals.

One of the scenes in Harry Potter was filmed at the London Zoo. It is the scene where Harry figures out he is a wizard at the snake pit. I was impressed that the zoo even had a sign pointing out which part of the reptile house it was filmed in.

I was amazed with the multiple bird exhibits, where you were in with the birds. It was amazing to get so close to some of them.

Look how close I was to these birds!

Alex demonstrating just how close you could get to the birds! Can you tell we were amazed by this?

The zoo had a butterfly exhibit that was really good.

It was shaped like a Caterpillar!

There were some beautiful butterflies and moths in the exhibit.

There were several just hatching.

Here are some other pictures from my day at the zoo. Sorry there are so many, it was just a fun day that I wanted to take lots of pictures!

Pelicans

Flamingos

In the Outback Area.

The tiger was right by the glass, it was so close.

The zoo has an aquarium, it is the first aquarium in the world. It opened in 1853!

Dinner time for the giraffes! It was great to see them so close.

Pumbaa and Timon were at the zoo too!

Brighton!

On Saturday we took the train to Brighton Pier for the day. We go to the station and bought tickets, not knowing when the train times were. There are regular trains to Brighton, so we knew we would not have to wait long to catch one. With about three minutes before a train left, we were able to do a "Home Alone" run to a train. We made the train (my ticket was printed at 11:01 and the train left at 11:06 and there were still a few others after me to get tickets)! Unfortunately we were not the only ones with the great idea to go to Brighton. The train was packed and we got to stand all the way to Brighton and even on the train back to London, luckily it is only about a 50 minute train ride.

We walked from the train station to the beach and saw some beautiful places in Brighton. It was a cute town.

Brighton Pier is kind of a cheesy beach area with lots of carnival type rides, as you will be able to see from the pictures.

They had several cut-outs for pictures...we couldn't resist!

Looking at the pier from the beach.

We rented chairs on the beach and enjoyed the nice (but a little chilly) weather. Brighton beach is a rock beach...no sand here, so it was an interesting experience. It wasn't the most comfortable to walk on, but I liked not being covered in sand when we left!

The beach.

Me attempting to not get a sunburn...and I had success!

Looking up the beach from the pier.

Looking down the beach in the other direction from the pier.

My Last "Real" Friday in London

This Friday was my last Friday in London to be able to spend time in the city, as I will be heading to Heathrow for my flight home next Friday morning. I went up to Camden town and spent a good part of the day walking through the Camden Markets. This market goes on forever. I was able to get food at a stand in the market and eat sitting along the Camden Canals.

In one of the stalls I saw this tank top. It made me think of Alvin Shockley!

After the market I went to Piccadilly Circus and got a last minute ticket to Mamma Mia. It was such a great show! I was so glad I went.

A shot inside the theatre from my seat. It was in the last row of the balcony, but it was still a pretty good view.

One my walk home I snapped some pictures around Piccadilly Circus. They have removed some of the scaffolding that had been around, so it was a little more picture worthy.

Behind the crowd of people waiting to cross the street is the horse fountain.