London Has Met Its Waterloo

I say that because I rode into Waterloo Station today.  UNC Charlotte is fortunate enough to have its very own staff-members here, for research, I think, and he led us Charlotte students on a little walk around the city.  Of course, we didn’t see nearly all of it.  But I almost became familiar with some parts–like Leicester Square and Covent Garden.  Almost familiar.  It was the Theatre District, I can tell you that.  And I know where the real half-price ticket counter is, and that there are lots of fakes.  Look for a smallish, white building labelled TKTS in Leicester Square, and that’s it.  I can also tell you some of the great musicals they’re running these days:  The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, and Les Miserables.  But I can’t see them all.  And who knew they’d made a musical from Lord of the Rings?  I didn’t.  It sounds pretty bad, but if you know better then fill me in and I might make room in my schedule…

So we came into Waterloo Station and guess what Peter (our UNC Charlotte connection) told us?  Waterloo was the location of one of the scenes in The Bourne Ultimatum.  Some of you might know it:  the scene with the sniper, and that silly London reporter who panicked, and all that?  It was shot in Waterloo Station.  And I was just there today.  Fortunately, Matt Damon did not appear to tell me to tie my shoe or look at a magazine or anything ridiculous like that.  I should have done it anyway, though, and had someone take my picture.  But, I’ll be back. 

Speaking of pictures, the unthinkable happened while I was there:  the batteries in my camera just died.  We had been sightseeing for maybe thirty minutes, and they just decided they were tired of working and wanted to quit.  Needless to say, any pictures that get posted will be posted later when I have some better ones.  I wasn’t too upset this time, because I knew how often I’ll probably be getting up there.  Had it been somewhere like Paris, or Scotland, or somewhere like that that’s a little more distant, I’d have been quite put out.  And then I’d have found a store from which to buy some.

By the way, did I mention that Josh Groban will be performing in London on May 12th and 13th?  Not a regular concert, either; he’ll be a cast member of the musical Chess on those nights.  And it just might be worth seeing. 

I didn’t get to Baker Street today, nor to Drury Lane, nor to Fleet Street–but I saw enough posters for Sweeney Todd to hold me over for a good, long while.  I’d say they’re rather excited about it, here. 

Ah, but my first impression of London:  best described by “overwhelmed.”  Or “lost.”  It’s just so huge, and there’s so much to see!  Then, of course, there’s also the rest of the country to see, and there are so many people and I was clinging to my purse for dear life for fear of pickpockets!  I escaped unscathed, however; nothing missing after 17, 058 steps, according to my pedometer.

The buildings are awfully neat, but so very cluttered together!  It was hard to see the prettiness of one building for the coolness of the next.  and the tower that houses Big Ben is much shorter than I’d imagined.  In The Great Mouse Detective it looks positively miles high!  But it’s not.  I got to see it in the sunshine today, and it was a very nice view.  I would post a picture, but my camera, as I said before, was shot by that point in the day.

We’ve had sun 3 out of the 4 days I’ve been here, actually.  Not a bad record.

And I do find myself lapsing into a British accent, sometimes.  Not around actual Britishers, really, except to say “excuse me” or “I’m sorry” or something small that they could mistake for an American accent if it were a terrible rendition of the British one.  But, around my housemate I sometimes (not often at all) say a word or two with it.  And I use it with myself and the cat.  Oh, yes, the Bridgers have a cat, named Tigger.  I think he likes me more than any other cat I’ve ever known.  He must like my accent.   

One of these days, I’ll just bust it out; you’ll see.  Be seeing you!