Fast forward a few weeks while I'm still living in the US and the best opportunity arises: one of my favorite musical groups, Bonobo, has a concert lined up in London on the last weekend of November. Add to that the fact that Simon Greene (whose stage name is Bonobo) is from London and is actually closing out his international tour during this concert, a tour which has lasted around a year or so (in fact, I had already been to a concert a year prior in Baton Rouge for the same tour. Now I would be able to see the last and final concert in his tour). I contacted Josh to see if this is something he would want to do and he was all for it. We bought our tickets later that night.
The Weekend in London experience was hatched in late July, marking the only planned thing of my first semester in Europe. Needless to say I was counting down the days to attend the concert and fly over to experience a city I had not yet had the pleasure of seeing. As many of my blogs imply, I didn't have to wait too long since the time is literally flying by, but it couldn't come soon enough. Similar to the Berlin post, I'll break the three days down by section since there was just so much that happened!
Day 1, Friday: Bonobo's concert
I'll start this section off with a joke: Getting anywhere in London on a Friday afternoon.
I flew out from Cologne in the afternoon and landed in London only 50 minutes later (yes, travelling in Europe is that fast). I went through security and got my passport checked where I was greeted with a passport checker who insisted on me having an address for the person I would be visiting. Having only communicated through Facebook and not even thinking to ask for this piece of information, I left the section blank but assured the woman that I knew what I was doing. After a minute or so of working on her she replied, "You're one lucky guy that I think you're smart enough to navigate this city by yourself. Get a bloody move on" and then with a smile and wink, she opened up the gate to pass through. Because I didn't have enough money to take the train into the city I was instead forced to take a charter bus. This is where the joke comes in. Josh and I had agreed to meet at a McDonald's at a specific train station for 5:45 which would leave us enough time to drop my bags, grab something to eat, and make our way to the concert for the two openers and the main performance. I didn't get to the McDonald's until 6:45 and I had no way of letting Josh know I would be late. I felt so bad! The traffic was absolutely horrible and I hadn't planned for these delays when deciding on a meeting time. In the end it all worked out, but we rushed through, taking tubes (the subways) until we got home where we dropped off my stuff and headed out. We took an Uber cab (Uber is a service where private drivers rent out their cars as taxis; car-sharing program) to get to the concert and were again delayed in getting there on time. We showed up to the concert having missed the first two openers and only having 15 minutes to spare before Bonobo started. Fortunately that went according to plan and it was a great concert! He pulled out all of the stops and had every contributing artist from the album there for a live performance, even having a 10 piece string ensemble play parts from the album.
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| Roughly 30 feet away from the stage at Bonobo's final concert |
After the concert we headed back to the city and walked across Millennium Bridge. The only setting I knew this bridge from was the Harry Potter movie, but it was really cool to see in person! We also walked around the campus of the London School of Economics, where Josh is enrolled, before heading back to the dormitory for the night. The next day would be jam packed with activities!
Day 2, Saturday: Playing Tourist in London
Jam packed puts this day lightly. While writing this post, I had to get back in touch with Josh to see if I left anything out (which I did) from the list of activities. Here goes nothing.
We woke up early on Saturday and were out of the door by 9 am by foot. We headed to the local market, the Borough Market, and got some fresh fruit before starting our day. Right around the corner from the market was a docking station for London's Barclays bicycle-sharing program (often called "Boris bikes" after Boris Johnson, the mayor of London). These docking stations are scattered all over the city with the purpose of providing citizens and tourists options for getting around the city; all one must do is pay 2 pounds for a 24 hour period and then the bikes are completely free in 30 minute time increments. Because there are so many docking stations all around town, it is feasible that you could get anywhere you needed to for free by way of the Boris bikes. In fact, that's what we did! We took off riding through the streets of London, weaving in and out of cars and city buses. The first thing on our to-do list was hit Westminster Bridge to get a view of Parliament, Big Ben, the Eye, and the Elizabeth Tower. We paused for a photo-op before continuing along.
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| Ta-da! |
We continued riding until we docked in the area of Buckingham Palace where we again paused long enough for the photo-shoot. Josh filled me in on all of the history while we were riding bikes. Ever had a conversation on a bike, riding at breakneck speed in the city of London? It pretty much involved a lot of shouting and the oft-repeated "WHAT WAS THAT?" The points came across though.
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| Me and Josh in front of Buckingham Palace |
Onwards we continued. We walked along the Mall to see Horse Guards Parade and continued along to see 10 Downing Street, the residence of Prime Minister David Cameron, before making a u-turn to see Charing Cross, Chinatown, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and Leicester Square before pausing long enough to catch our breath and munch on some raspberries and bread. We took a (much needed) break at Convent Square where we watched a street performer, wrapped in chains, put his entire body through a tennis racket. This was a good lesson in British culture; Josh had to keep explaining to me why certain things the performer said were and were not funny. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt, but Josh commented on the sternness of the other Brits around us for not laughing or smiling. "Typical Brits." We continued on, walking through sections of Soho and walking around the campus of the London School of Economics (LSE) one more time before pausing in Pret, a cafe chain. We relaxed long enough to finish our drinks, looked down at our watches and noticed it was just about time for lunch, where we were to meet up with a friend of a friend from Germany. Side story: When I was in Luxembourg the first time (see post titled "Introduction to University Life and a Trip to Luxembourg") I met a German named Kathrin. During our talks while hiking through the woods of Luxembourg, Kathrin told me I reminded her of a friend she knew while living in London and China, and that our related interests in economics, politics, and public service would make us really great friends, if ever we were to meet. She told me her friend, Chris, lived in London and was actually an Economics PhD student at LSE. I knew by then that I was going to London two months later, so Kat gave me his contact info and we emailed back and forth, eventually deciding to get lunch on Saturday at 1 pm. End of side story. Chris, Josh, and I got together over some authentic Chinese food and conversed for 1.5 hours, covering all of the topics as varied as economics, policy, master's programs, PhD programs, and the weather ("My, isn't it unusually warm this weekend in London?"). What a great conversation we had. Unfortunately we had to cut the cord in order to make our way back to Parliament in time for our scheduled tour, so we parted ways. Josh and I walked down Regent Street (consumerism at its finest, second only to Oxford Street), across Green Park, and made our way to Parliament in time for our scheduled 3:20 tour. The tour was absolutely amazing and many times left me speechless. It was so interesting to learn about the history of the building itself while also seeing the actual places where policy was written, topics debated, and history made. I could go on and on about this, but I would probably never finish this blog post! The real highlight of the day (and for that matter, the weekend) came right when we finished the tour. Josh had booked two free tickets for the filming of a UK show called "Get Your Act Together" which is essentially a talent show competition filled with British celebrities.
When we got out of the tour, Josh texted his friend Fleur who works at ITV, the studio who puts on the show, asking what time we should arrive. It was 4:40 pm at that time, with the doors opening around 6:15. Fleur texted back saying "The line is getting bigger." Not thinking much of it, Josh and I walked around looking for a bite to eat to kill some time before heading over to the studios, when all of a sudden Fleur texts back with "Now the line is huge, if you're not here in 15 minutes don't show up, you won't get in." Instantly, Josh looks at me and says "We're going now!" and starts off in a sprint towards the nearest Boris bikes docking station. Confused, I sprint along too asking what the deal is! He's yelling back at me something along the lines of "Need to get there now, hurry!" We find a station, grab two bikes and take off like there is no tomorrow. The whole time Josh is checking his phone's maps for where the studio is, where the nearest docking station is, etc while riding at breakneck speeds. We're swerving in and out of cars, pedestrians, other bikers, city buses sandwiching our lanes together, and through stop signs and red ligh--I mean.....waited patiently at red lights because we were well-behaved youth and respected the laws of the city. NOT! We tore that city up on those dingy little bikes! Rushed, panicked, and fearless, we cut a 30 minute ride by half and found the nearest docking station...but wait....NO!....there weren't any free spaces. We rode down a few more blocks, now pushing us further away from the studio. We found another docking station where there was only one free spot, but I took that one and was told "Don't move! I'm going to go find another one and meet you back here." Josh took off, leaving me walking in circles on a brisk London night. A few minutes later here comes Josh sprinting back pointing forward saying "This way!!" We run forward, find the studio, and hop in line. First impression: we are definitely not going to make this, look how many people there are! Immediately we hope for the best, but start planning alternatives to the night..."I guess we could go out to eat and see a British pub......" A few minutes later a ticket checker lady comes around and verifies Josh's e-tickets. Pumped up on adrenaline we think "okay, she would have told us for sure whether this was a lost cause or not." The lady comes back a few minutes later, leans into us and whispers quietly, "Listen, don't repeat anything about I'm to say, but since you guys look like you're bubbly and full of energy, we want to put you two on the front row. No one in this line is getting in except for you two. Take these tickets, go stand in that other line, and don't tell anybody." I think both of our jaws just about dropped to the floor upon hearing that! We did as we were told and tried to hide our excitement, but it was really hard. I mean the turn of events that we just experienced, from being frantically texted, swerving through London traffic on bikes, convincing yourself you're too late...all to be given front row tickets to the live studio audience?!? Are you kidding me?! And it didn't end there.
We were let into the studio and given our seats where we were given a small packet of Haribo gummy bears (shout-out to my university town, Bonn, for being the hometown of Haribo!) to munch on. Early on, the MC of the studio audience, the comedian who entertains the crowd off camera while the sets were being changed, came out and led the audience in chants and applause. He gets the audience to clap, where instantly he turns to me and Josh and points out our clapping style (which, by the way, was totally normal), mocking us! The audience erupts in laughter, us included. I mean the guy is a real "London geezer," as Josh said. From then on, from the first 5 minutes of being in the studio through the whole 3.5 hours of taping, we became the stars of the audience, with Andy, the MC, making jokes with us every chance he got. At first Josh and I wondered how long he would keep it up before moving on to the next "victims," but it turned out that he just stuck with us the whole set! At the end, Josh and I got our own applause from the 200 person studio audience and got a picture with Andy. "Oh of course I've got to get a picture with my two favorite audience members!"
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| Picture looks kind of blurry....that's how it felt too...absolutely surreal experience |
In complete disbelief with the way the night unfolded, Josh and I left the studio on Cloud 9 and went to get some Nando's to eat as a late dinner. Still pumped up with excitement, and well hey it's only 10:30 pm!, we went for a walk to see London by night. We hit Soho again, the National Gallery, and more, before hopping on the Boris bikes and riding across the London Bridge.
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| London Bridge by night |
We got back to the dormitory around midnight, completely exhausted. Totals for the day: 20+ miles of walking, 7+ miles of bike riding, 15 hours of near non-stop touring. A great day!
Day 3: Karl Marx Tour, Primrose Hill, Camden, and goodbyes
After 7 hours of sleep we woke up for the second installment of touring. Josh had booked a tour, called the "Karl Marx Tour" a few days prior, so we started our day with that. It was a 2.5 hour tour through London's center and Soho, recapping major points in Marx's life in London. Not only was it very informative, it was also a great opportunity to see a part of London up close and personal. We had a lady in our tour group who was born in East Germany. It made for an interesting dynamic, and at the end of the tour, which ended at the British Museum, I held conversation with her and her friend in German for a minute or two about Marx and the tour itself. It was all very cool. Afterwards Josh and I hit up a corner store for some lunch before making our way via the tube to Regent's Park to see Primrose Hill, an excellent location to view London. After spending the entire day before in the city center, it was nice to get into an open area with greenery.
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| Panorama from Primrose Hill. Man pictured in center has a whole head in real life...no worries |
We then walked through a neighborhood which was having its annual community event with booths, bands, food stands, and more. Walking through it was a nice touch to the weekend. We walked to Camden and checked that out, which was really cool! The Camden market was super busy with people (although I think this is usually the case), but Josh and I walked around window shopping the clothes and foods being sold. After wrapping up in Camden, Josh and I found another Boris bike station for the last ride of the weekend--from Camden back to the dormitory. We made the ride in 20 minutes, which Josh said was pretty quick, but after the events from the day before, I wouldn't put it past us to shatter some biking records. I packed up my things, in passing met one of Josh's good friends, Josh, and then parted ways to make the journey to the airport for my return flight. I made it home safely and in bed with 12 hours to spare before my class started later the next day.
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My weekend to London was absolutely fantastic and I owe so much of its success to Josh for organizing close to all of it. Josh, here's a shout-out to you dude! In a previous post I mentioned that I've stopped trying to place certain experiences this year into a first, second, third place category, but rather, to view them for what they are as part of a tapestry of experiences in my year abroad. Between all the big ticket items like the list of 20+ things we did, saw, and ate in London and the small things like having to look left instead of right before crossing the road, or taking the tube and hearing "Please mind the gap," or speaking English in a guilt-free environment, this weekend was one for the history books. My first trip to London was marked with physical exhaustion, but it was also marked with so much fun that I am already planning my return trip. These are the types of experiences I'm here for and I couldn't be more satisfied with the results.
P.S. Once the episode of "Get Your Act Together" comes out I will try to find a link to it and share it through this blog and my Facebook page. Stay tuned!
