Spotlight on... London

Wow - it has been a long time since I have written something here! I don't get chance to get away a lot, and even when I do, I very very often forget to blog about it - even after writing my notes! But I am determined not to do that this time - a few weeks ago, I went along down south to central London for a few nights; alone. I felt I needed the time away, to see the city, see some theatre and have some fun.

With this one, I'm going to split it up into different sections, such attractions, food etc etc, but I would like to start by saying I had a bit of a nightmare getting there; let's just say, if you're going to pick tickets up at the station, go ASAP; and if you get a new card in the post before then, get them before cutting the old one; or you could get into problems....! Thanks to the guard for not re-charging me as I missed my connection trying to sort it all out.

Thankfully, I got there in one piece and went straight to my accommodation to get checked in. I stayed at the YHA Youth Hostel in St Pauls, a stone's through from the Cathedral. There are a few YHAs in London of course, but I found St Pauls to be the best value and location, being between £25-£30 a night, depending on what day you stay and whether or not you have breakfast (which is roughly £5 a day).

To be honest, my main draw for going to London is for the theatre scene. Anyone who knows me knows that I am also a MASSIVE theatre geek, and this started right off checking in at St Pauls from going to visit Shakespeare's Globe. Unfortunately, I couldn't look round the theatre itself at the time, as there was a rehearsal going on inside, but they do have an exhibition just next to it about different companies from around the world coming to perform there with their interpretations of Shakespeare's works. In the foyer of the theatre as well is their own shop, which has plenty of Shakespeare themed goodies, including your own skull to help you rehearse "To Be Or Not To Be". I didn't go down that route though: instead, I got some Shakespearean insult badges, a magnet featuring "All The World's A Stage" from As You Like It and a Shakespeare duck - anyone who knows me well enough should also know I like to collect these XD

I was also lucky enough to catch the Disney West End pop up shop in Covent Garden (you'll find out, I seemed to like Covent Garden a lot, other than the steps out of the tube station - for the love of God, take the lift!!!). The shop features some of the costumes from The Lion King and Aladdin. I was also lucky enough when I got there to be in perfect time for a tour of the Lion King costumes, and took part in their "Magic Lamp Hunt" around Covent Garden (the prize if you find all the lamps is a signed poster) and had a picture taken with the Genie's Lamp. It's a great attraction to go to for Disney-loving families, and go while it lasts!

Now onto the theatre itself - I have written specific blogs/reviews on my other blog Theatre Scribbles, click on the links below to read them:

• Friday night: The King and I, starring Tony winner Kelli O'Hara and Ken Watanabe at the London Palladium - a theatre steeped in history, the staircase leading up to the Grand Circle is filled all the way along by photos of famous stars, pantomimes and other productions which have played there
• Saturday matinee: the 2018 5-time Olivier Award nominated Everybody's Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre
• Saturday night: Wicked, a favourite among many musical theatre nerds, at its London home, the Apollo Victoria Theatre, next to Victoria Station
• Monday night: the all-powerful Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre - big thanks goes here to all the staff there for upgrading my seat for me free of charge!! Was NOT expecting that!!
• BONUS: I did a second trip for 1 night specifically to see Fun Home at the Young Vic, as it was sold out for when I was originally going - and IT WAS SO WORTH IT!!

To see more of my London theatre blogs, click here (including Hamilton, Chess, Les Mis and many more)!

When Saturday morning came along, I was getting my stuff ready for the day when I bumped into a friend I knew from the church I went to when I was at Bangor - staying not only in the same hostel or the same room, but THE BUNK ABOVE MINE!! It was lovely to have a quick catch up with her, and spend some time with her on Sunday, as we decided to go to All Soul's Church, right next to the BBC (and where my aunt goes, unfortunately she wasn't there at the time); we then went along to the British Library, which currently has an exhibition on the 70th anniversary of the Windrush Generation's arrival, and explored the history of British-Caribbean identity. While I'm here, I should also recommend The St John Ritblat Gallery, which has many many treasures; a handful include:

• Shakespeare's 1st folio, put together by friends and colleagues after his death - and thank God they did, otherwise 18 plays, including Macbeth and The Tempest could have been lost!!
• Beatles lyrics
• A fragment of John's gospel from Egypt
• A Montpellier Bible
• Manuscripts of many classical composers, from Handel to Chopin, and from Beethoven to Mahler

Secondly is the walking tour I did on Sunday night, done by London Tours; I did one called Secret Soho and its Pubs, which focused on the history of Soho - turns out a lot of famous people stayed there at some point in their lives, including Karl Marx and Wagner as refugees - and we were told stories about its pubs, including one which lead to a play starring Peter O'Toole. After the tour, I had a drink in said pub with a really nice American family who were also on the tour with me! 

A good choice for families is the Natural History Museum as there is A LOT to do - in fact, so much, you could easily spend a whole day if you wanted to; I didn't as I'm not so good with stuffed animals. So instead, I stuck with the Restless Surface and Volcanoes + Earthquakes (which took my back to my geography days at school and college), the gift shop and seeing the Blue Whale. Plus, I caught their Butterfly House; it's about £5 a ticket and greenhouse was incredibly humid, but it is worth it as they collection of butterflies they have is stunning. They also had an exhibition going on about nocturnal animals, Life in the Dark, which I would have loved to have done, but it was so expensive! 

Finally, on Monday, before going to the Natural History Museum, I hopped on the Northern line along to Lambeth for a tour of the Beefeater gin distillery. Unfortunately, I didn't think to book 1st so I had to wait a bit before they had a tour with a free slot in it (so I went to this really cute little café called Sally's, got myself a mint tea and used the time to start writing my theatre reviews (and playing some Pokemon Go for good measure too!)). When the time came for the tour however, it was worth the wait. Starting off with the history of gin and its reputation as the poor man's drink in London, we then went on to the distillery part of how the gin is made, and learn about the different ingredients that all go into the gin. They have vast tubs full of them, which we got to touch and smell, from juniper to citrus peel, angelica root, coriander and almond. The tour all ended with a Beefeater G+T (or G+Ice Tea for me as I don't like tonic). 

One final place to go to is Oxford Street if you need any essentials you forgot to bring - or if you have an emergency like me and had a bra with a wire poking into your skin! Not good! 

If you're not one for the main big shops however, there are plenty of small independent shops around - my new favourite being Tea House, an adorable looking tea shop which sells loads of different types of tea and tiny Chinese and Japanese pottery cups. Wherever you go though, remember this is London, just be careful how much you spend.... 

With this last section, I'm hoping to make your mouth water as we're going to be talking about food. It's no surprise that a city as diverse as London, that there's food from all over the world, no matter which part of the city you're in. Friday gave me Wok and Walk noodles outside the Palladium before The King and I started.

Saturday was perhaps the best, as I had heard about this small Breton café in Covent Garden in-between Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the Novello Theatre (home to 42nd St and Mamma Mia respectively) called Mamie's. They do proper Breton gallettes and pancakes and cider, served in the pottery mugs/cups you would see in Brittany and Normandy. I went for the doux (or sweet) cider and La Forestière galette (which had ham, garlic, mushroom, egg and emmantal cheese). The service is fantastic and it's good value for lunch - it was perfect right before I want to see Jamie. It was also good for me to practise some French, as all of the staff are French as well.

After Jamie, I didn't have too long before Wicked so after a Chai Can Show You The World (or a Chai Latte) at the Theatre Cafe - a must for any theatre fan btw - I went straight to Victoria as I had somewhere in mind - following one of Carrie Hope Fletcher's suggestion, I tried the Danish cafe Ole & Steen in Victoria. Go for the spinach, mozzarella, tomato and pesto panini followed by (Carrie's recommendation) the Cinnamon Sharing Slice; it's bloody lovely!!! In fact, I went back there on Monday to have it one more time before I left. 

Sunday gave me lunch in the British Library and then Spaghetti House in Leicester Square, before going on the walking tour. I picked the Monte Bianco, a pizza aubergine, garlic, parmesan, sun dried tomato and, believe it or not, broccoli! ("Who puts broccoli on pizza" Joy says in Inside Out - Spaghetti House does, and does it well!) To finish, go for the panna cotta with strawberries and crushed amaretti. 

Monday was a bit more lazy to be honest, choosing Shake Shack hot dog for lunch (though following the recommendation from the American family I met the day before, didn't go for a milkshake) and one more cinnamon slice from Ole & Steen, while in the evening, I chose the Pret close to the Savoy Theatre.

I finished on the Tuesday with an ice cream at my favourite place - again in Covent Garden, Udderlicious always have different flavours every time you go in, with a flavour of the month too - I had blueberry sorbet underneath and malted ice cream with crushed Maltesers on top.  

In my second trip, I heard that the Young Vic had a café, so I decided to check it out. As it was a hot day, I decided to go for a salad - buffalata (which is like mozzarella bit a bit more creamy), tomatoes and peach slices. It was really nice to chill with my iPad (though the wifi took FOREVER to load) and the Fun Home programme to look over.

I had a blast - London has always been a bustling city I have loved visiting for a few days at a time (whether I can live there is another story), but I'm hoping to be back soon =D