London Pride and Shakespeare's Theatre

Bloody brilliant. Rightfully British opening? The city has been buzzing over the Brexit results. How awful...but as was pointed out to me it's the perfect time to stretch your pounds further when exchanging money from different currencies. Today has been a dream. I just worry this time will go too fast and I won't get to see and do everything. I was out walking from 11am until 11pm today and I didn't even scratch the surface of what this city has to offer.

I started the day on a hunt for the London College of Fashion, where an event called ArtsPride was being held. I paid for a ticket in advance with inclusive lunch. There was a nice buffet there and champagne and cool people to mingle with as a pre-parade sort of thing. I met a Bulgarian chick with galaxy hair of blue and purple, and she was really great. At the buffet was a particularly odd dessert which was essentially a chocolate cherry popping candy tart, made by none other than Heston Blumenthal (look him up, he had a very entertaining food show where he made ginormous confectionary items the size of buses that aired in New Zealand.)

I headed down to the Pride parade with my new galaxy haired friend, and we met an American dude there. We got there early enough to get a great spot. I only stuck around for the first 30 minutes because I had plans with a friend, but what I saw of it was absolutely beautiful. Pride really lives up to its name, because I was feeling the love and feeling the pride.

New friends and pride flags

Beautiful countries, walking united>

London Gay Symphonic Winds, playing arrangement of YMCA

So I hopped on a tube and madly went searching for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, desperate to get to the play on time. While my friend was waiting she scored us free tickets, and I didn't miss anything. We saw The Taming of the Shrew which was both hilarious and had good plot; it didn't matter we were standing for 2 and half hours - all part of the experience. Aside from experiencing London's hormonal weather patterns ranging from sunny to cloudy to pouring to thunder claps in the space of an afternoon, the most memorable part for me was when the whole cast broke character. How unprofessional I hear you say - but you had to be there. Out of nowhere, there was the most deafening boom from the sky, and one of the actors, who was on a staircase literally fell down. He didn't fall far of course, just onto his back, and he wasn't hurt - it was just the shock of the sound. Then the audience and the cast fell apart laughing and it was just a kind of peculiar and memorable moment.

Naughty snapshot of Globe before I was told off..

Later we walked around Southbank, past the London Eye, and failed at taking selfies with Big Ben due to the murky clouds which covered it. (Evidence below.)

A series of poor quality tourist shots

We had planned to do the Cereal Killer Cafe in the Camden Markets, but ran out of time as it was closed when we arrived. We got falafel plates instead, and are saving the cereal for another day.

We spent the evening wandering around, found our way back to Soho - and had a weird experience in Starbucks with a drunk Brit who was swearing like a sailor about Trump and Brexit and everything that tumbled out of her mouth was hilarious. She was coherent enough to engage in conversation but often forgot what we'd said and would ask us where we were from numerous times. You can't beat Londoners...!

Ummm besides that I need to go to bed because I'm so exhausted and my feet hurt. I will briefly add that my entire Gulf Air flight was plagued by two upset babies who were trying to outscream each other for mum's attention...and the inflight entertainment was non existent, so I split my time between listening to music, reading, and marvelling at the pixelated world map showing the plane's route.

Also I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ease and convenience of the underground. I could never ever get lost here, I just need to hop on the tube and I can find my way back from wherever I end up. The only thing is it gets so busy around 5pm when everyone is heading home from work, and I found myself pushing onto the tube and then squeezing off it. Definitely not one for the claustrophobic or the germaphobic. A sweaty mess, my dears.


Signing off for the night.

Love and peace to all :)