And the adventure begins in England: Joining in the strike: London round 2

So after Maggie received a well formulated view of Manchester, we decided to go to the more historically rich London for the weekend. Leaving Friday morning, we had a lovely 5 1/2 hour bus ride to the south of England before arriving.

Since most of our day was almost gone after checking into our hostel (we stayed in the same one I did last time, but thank god the beds in this room were only stacked 2 high), we decided to buy tickets for a show that night and just keep classy for the rest of the day. Scoring tickets to see Billy Elliot, getting dressed up, and having a nice wine and dine meal, we made it to the threatre to realise not only did we have seats on the main floor, but 8 rows back from the stage, front and center. I think I could've loved any production that I viewed from this close up.

Palmers Lodge Swiss Cottage (hostel where we stayed):

Billy Elliot theatre:

And maybe you can't tell, but this is how close we were to the stage:

Billy Elliot is a true story based in northern England during Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. There's a rising discrepancy between the upper and working classes. Most of Billy's town is full of miners, and as his family is low income, his only hope is to end up in the coal mining industry as well. However, the mines are unprofitable and the government is voting to close many pits, leaving thousands without jobs. Because of this, Billy's brother, dad, and the rest of their community is on strike.

Whilst everyone's daily concern seems to focus around the strike, Billy is a 12 year old boy who just wants to dance. He accidently finds himself in a dance class of all girls and ends up being the best of the bunch. However, he has to face the outside pressures of being a boy who wants to dance, his family's disapproval, and not having enough money to compete at a national level.

The songs and especially the dancing proved amazing, and I'd highly recommend this play to anyone. It was especially neat to see it in England, where all the characters have authentic English accidents, and to learn more of the history of the U.K. since I'm living here.

The next day, we started our morning in the midst of Camden Markets. A lively strip of temporary set-up shops that sell light-up t-shirts to delicious foods to London inscribed everything.

Camden Markets:

We moved on to take a look at the big London attractions, only to get off the tube and realise we were in the middle of a 500,000 person strike. It seems that not only are the teachers striking because of pension cuts, but EVERYONE is striking because of the significant amount of budget cuts going on throughout the nation. While everyone marching was very adamant about their cause, it was a peaceful protest from what we saw. We marched along for over an hour, because once in it, you literally could not get away. The strike had infected all of London that day.

Coming out of the tube and witnessing the strike:

Marching with the strike along the river:

From above:

And if you can see, it goes on forever:

Only later did we learn the strike actual had a pretty violent nature at some parts. I know Top Shop was a direct target because the owner of Top Shop gets out of paying high taxes in England because of land his family owns elsewhere. All of Top Shop's windows had rocks thrown through them and the employees were instructed to close the store and go home because it was too dangerous. Other banks, shops, and companies were targeted in a similar way. Over 200 arrests were made because of the violent outbreaks. This website has a slideshow of some of the more violent pictures.

After moving away from the strikes, we ventured to the British Museum and saw a neat room based on life and death. One of the exhibits was these two long strips of pills an average female and an average male takes during their lifetime. It was set up in the order of how the person ages and what pills they take at specific points in their life. It's amazing to learn that around half of the pills a person takes are typically taken in the last 10 years of a person's life.

Outside the British Museum:

That night, spur of the moment, we decided to see another show because we got a great deal to The Lion King. Of course, we were up in the top section, far away from the stage, but you could still the see the elaborate costumes from up there. And that's definitely what The Lion King is known for, the costumes. Since I haven't seen the movie in so long, I didn't remember the exact details of the story and so everything was a nice surprise as I saw it acted out. And let me tell you, the little kids in Broadway productions are AMAZING.

The Lion Kind theatre:

Our last day in London we spent walking around. We started off at Buckingham Palace and when we got there, there seemed to be a huge mob of people the police men were trying to organise. At first, we thought we had come across another strike, and were all prepared to join in, only to realise that it was actually the crowd to watch the Changing of the Guards. The last time I was there in the pouring rain there was definitely not this big of a crowd.

Awaiting the Changing of the Guards:

The beginning march:

Then we walked to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalgar's Square, took the tube one block, walked to the Millennium Bridge, along the River Thames, and all the way to our ultimate destination: The Tower Bridge. For some reason it became my obsession whilst I was there.

Westminster Abbey: