I traveled to England when I was 16. I went with a group from school. Two English teachers, seven students, and one parent volunteer. We went for eight days. The first three nights we spent in a hotel in the country. We visited Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, and took a tour of his house. We had lunch in Anne Hathaway's cottage, which is a restaurant and garden. We also saw the Scottish Play at the theater there. Amazing to see Shakespeare performed in his birth town!
We visited Stonehenge, which was so beautiful. It's roped off, so you can't get too close, but still so impressive. This big empty plain, and these huge rocks, just there in the middle of it.
We went to Oxford, one of the major publishing towns of England, and the world. There is literally a bookstore on every corner. The Royal Library is there also. It has more books than the Library of Congress in the United States. This is my Mecca.
The last five days we spent in London, in a hotel on Piccadilly Circus. Our teachers told us they weren't going to do bed checks but not to cause an international incident. I think they all agreed we were a pretty good bunch of kids, and we weren't going to do anything too stupid. We got tube passes, and went all over London.
Tanner and I bought cheap seats to Les Miserable. We were way off in a corner, looking across the stage into the wings. I could see why it was hard to sell that seat, but it was great for us. We were theater students, and being able to see props and actors as they prepared to come out was very cool. They had some amazing sets. Truly inspiring.
We went out to a night club and had a couple of drinks. Tanner dared me to get a guy to kiss me, so I did. Oh, the power of youth, lol.
We went to the Tower of London and took the tour, saw the royal jewels. I bought a really gorgeous book of pictures of the jewels for a souvenir. We watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It was a big deal, but not the biggest, because the queen was not in residence at the time. She was at Windsor Castle.
We found a music store that was a whole skyscraper. I don't know the name of it, but Tanner could have moved in. I bought him a poster of Reservoir Dogs.
We toured Green Park and went to Speaker's Corner. That was fun! If you are 18" above the ground you can say anything you want. There were people there on milk crates, ladders, stages, everything. One guy was standing on a milk crate with his arms folded across his chest not speaking. More and more people were gathering around this guy, and finally somebody asks him why he's standing if he's not speaking. He says, "You want me to speak?" And everybody was going, "Yes, yes, say something!"
So he pulls himself up, really projects, and says, "All women should go back to the kitchen." The crowd gasps and pulls back, shocked that this guy, with mostly women in his crowd would dare stand up and say that in this day and age. But he goes on, this whole rant about how men were happier, and life was better for them when women were in the kitchen instead of the boardroom. People started arguing with him, including Tanner, but I just stood there and smiled. I knew exactly what he was doing. He had been quiet to gather a crowd, then he had deliberately provoked his crowd.
I think it pissed him off a little that I was smiling though. He had all these feminists and female advocates arguing with him, getting passionate, arguing with each other, all this turmoil and tension, and I'm just standing back totally amused. He even told his audience to shut up a couple of times. It was great, so much fun!
We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Tanner stole me a menu. We saw three other plays, including a British comedy called Don't Dress for Dinner. It was so funny! Very British, word twisty, puns, visual puns, mistaken identities, etc. We took a tour of the Royal Theater, although we didn't see any plays there. I wish we could have. They were doing a Tom Stoppard play later in the summer, and were just finishing up Wind in the Willows. Tom Stoppard is my favorite British playwright after Shakespeare, and I acted the part of Toad in a children's theater production of Wind in the Willows just before we left on this trip. It seemed so coincidental. My teacher thought it wasn't a coincidence, that it was a sign that I would act there someday, but that was not to be.
One night, Tanner and I stayed out late, and hung out at Trafalgar Square. We were talking, playing, enjoying being young, and in an amazing city.
Oh, yeah, and on our last day there, they had their annual gay pride parade! I'd never seen anything like it. Talk about colorful!
One of the most amazing experiences of my life, and really cemented my desire to travel. I haven't done as much as I'd like, but I will! I'd like to see Ireland next :)
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