So I have been really busy the past week or so trying to get in everything that we want to do before we leave England. I am missing out on sleep right now to write this, so hopefully I will remember everything. I will give you some good highlights of my past week and a half.
Last Tuesday (May 31st), Chelsea and I took a trip to London for the night to see the musical Chicago in the West End. It was so much fun and so good!! The musical was amazing, with really great actors, and we had a blast. We got there a little before the show started to walk around a little bit and have dinner. We had traditional fish and chips at a pub across the street before the show. We got our tickets before dinner and we got upgraded! We got moved down an entire section. We were still a little far back, but it didn't matter! It was an amazing experience that I am so glad I did!
On Thursday, we (Chelsea, Lindsay, Madison, Carli, and I) went to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and looked around in the Brighton museum then in the Pavilion. King George IV created it and lived there for a while before he became king. The rooms were so extravagant and pretty! We couldn't take pictures inside so I can't show you exactly what it looked like, but it reminded me a little of the Palace of Versailles on how pristine it was.
After we toured around the Royal Pavilion, Chelsea, Carlli, and I were hungry so we ate lunch at the Mock Turtle. Lindsay went home because she didn't feel good and Madison had to meet a friend somewhere. I had an omelet, and tea (of course) which was really good.
We walked around town the rest of the day, but I had to go home at 6pm to study for my last exam, critical psychology. YUCK! The worst class ever, seriously! Lindsay, Megan, Jenn, and I all studied for this essay exam all night then called it quits.
On Friday, Linds and I got up to finish studying then took our exam at noon. It wasn't too bad, but I am definitely glad it is over. I hated that class and didn't really like any of my other ones either. I am very much looking forward to going back to school in the U.S.!
After our exam, we headed to the beach! We didn't stay too long, because we had to catch our train at 9:30pm to go to Liverpool!!! We traveled all night long.
It was Lindsay, Chelsea, Ara, Madison, and I who went and first, we took a train from Brighton to London, then the tube to another train station in London, then that train to Birmingham. We arrived in Birmingham at 1:30am, and our next train wasn't until 6am. So we had a lot of time to kill! We decided to go explore the city and we walked around for awhile taking pictures and hanging out the 5 of us.
Around 3:30am, we decided to go back to the train station and try to sleep a little. I was wearing shorts (bad idea!) and the floor was cold so I never fell asleep. The others didn't either or only for an hour or so. By the time our train was there and we got on to go to Liverpool, we were all very tired. But we couldn't stop then so we pushed on!
We arrived in Liverpool around 8am, and everything was closed in town. We just walked around looking at things and eventually found a place to eat breakfast at. We found a flyer in the train station about a Fab Four taxi tour that takes you around the city to all the places you would want to see that involves the Beatles. It was 50 pounds total (so 10 pounds each) and we thought it was a great idea since we didn't know how to get to any of the places we wanted to see. So we called them and booked our tour to start at 10am.
The taxi took us to all the houses the Beatles grew up in, Strawberry Fields, the cemetery Eleanor Rigby's grave is at, Penny Lane, the Liverpool school of the arts, and some other spots they hung out while they were in Liverpool. It was such an awesome tour! We learned a lot about the Beatles' history and saw some cool places. I kept thinking while we were taking the tour, how much my mom would have loved it!
After the tour, we were all hungry, so we stopped at the Grapes, a pub they went to a lot, and had some lunch. Next, we walked around and went to a few souvenir shops.
We walked around a little more and decided we were super tired and should find a patch of grass to try and take a nap on. We tried to sleep but it was so windy and cold that we eventually gave up. My allergies were getting bad from the wind and I wanted to go inside somewhere. We went into a few different shops and ended up back at the train station around 6pm. Our train was at 7:30pm so we just hung out there until our train got there.
Then we took a train to London, then the tube to another train station, then a train back to Brighton. Not a 5 and a half hour wait this time which was good. We got back to Brighton, all came home and went to sleep. We were so exhausted!!
Monday, Chelsea, Madison, Carli, Megan, Jenn, and I went to London to explore the whole day and go to a show in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre that night. We left around 10am on the train to London and spent the whole day in Camden shopping in the market there. It was huge! After spending most of the day there, we went to Abbey Road and took the picture of 4 of us walking across the street like the Beatles album cover. We split up after that and Chelsea and I went to London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. By the time we got to the Tower of London, it was closed so we didn't get to see the crown jewels, which I was upset about, but it just gives me a reason to come back someday!
Next, Chels and I got over to the Globe Theatre and had dinner at Pizza Express just across the street. We got in and got some good seats (not actual seats- we bought standing tickets). After dinner, we met up with the rest of the bunch to see the play, Much Ado About Nothing. I absolutely LOVED it!! It was the best play I have ever seen and it could not have been better!! The actress who played Beatrice was using a script because the actress who was supposed to be her was sick and she did amazing! It was crazy how great she was just being thrown into the role. The actor who played Leonato was Joseph Marcell- the butler, Geoffrey, from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!! It was so cool to see him up close like that! It was so funny and I think became my favorite play by Shakespeare!
Tuesday night, we had our last night of karaoke, which was a lot of fun and will be missed!
Yesterday (Wednesday), we went to the beach, then Lindsay, Chelsea, Tony, Rudy, and I went to a club. We were pretty tired and ended up back on the beach. We were there until the sun came up. Such a cool experience!! We left around 4:30am to come home and sleep for a little while. As we were waiting for the bus, we saw Christian getting off the bus and walking to the coach station to go to the airport to fly home. We ran over to say bye one last time and it was so weird! It finally hit me actually seeing someone leaving. It was really sad.
We came home and slept for a little while and now I am writing this. We are going back into town today and going to probably end up at the beach. Tonight is our last big night out and I am sure it will end in tears. The last few days have been emotional and the next few are going to be emotional as well. Everyone is just sad to leave each other.
The next few days are going to be rough, and I am sure I will update once more before I leave Brighton. Chels and Linds leave on Saturday and that is going to be a tear-fest, so you will hear about it in the next few days.
I miss you all and am excited to come home, but am definitely sad to be leaving these awesome people I have met over here. More later.
xxxx
