LONDON: DAY 2

25 JUN, SATURDAY:
After an early morning breakfast (and check out) I wandered around getting ready to do my own version of the Harry Potter walking tour from a free online booklet.  I took the Tube all the way to Temple and waited to hang out with Zoey, who's in my program.  I realized while waiting that the "Harry Potter" tour was a bust and it was actually mainly just really random sites and only 5 out of 30 were legitimate Harry Potter sites.  So instead Zoey and I wandered around London together and went to a few pretty cool places.  Somerset House in Westminister, Trafalgar Square and an M&M store near Leicester Square.

Somerset House in Westminster! It was so cold and windy.

Zoey was a complete trooper with me even after flying in on Saturday as well.  She let me take on a journey for me to find cheap (ish) Wicked tickets for that night because I desparately wanted to see the musical!  I was a bit nervous to go buy myself because the Apollo Victoria Theatre was about 6 stops away and I wasn't familiar with the area (Victoria) like I was around King's Cross.  I decided to just go for it - because how often would I be able to do what I want in London, and how often would I actually be traveling in Europe by myself?  Going to Europe in the first place is all about getting out of your comfort zone (but still safe).  Since I had Brittany on hand (she was up in northern England with her sister and mother for the day and her train was getting into the Victoria station about the same time Wicked would end), I felt the need to be adventurous.

It was really exhilarating to get to Victoria and go find the theatre on my own.  I ran into a lot of friendly Brits who were nice enough to take my picture since I wanted some with me in them (what can I say, I'm a picture happy person!)

I didn't even get lost to the Apollo Victoria Theatre! :)

I had never seen Wicked before, but I thought - Hey, I'm in London.  What a better place to see a new musical as amazing as this one?  It was actually completely different than what I expected (I've seen the Alpha Phi - FIJI 2008 Songfest version on YouTube that got 3rd Overall) and I got goosebumps and emotional throughout the whole thing.  My seats were a bit far, but I had a great view and I though the theater was much better than Pantages in Los Angeles (though I love going there with my family :]).  The actress who was Glinda wasn't the headline girl - the standby Chloe Taylor was but she was fanatastic so I didn't mind.

As I was walking (the wrong way I found out about 5 minutes after this story) I saw about 6 people waiting in line by the stage door.  Brittany hadn't gotten in yet (we were going to meet up for a quick good bye) so I decided to join the line.  I met to girls from another part of England (I can't remember where) and we helped each other get pictures and signatures from the cast!  The cast was really really great and were really friendly to me and happy to talk to me (they said they love when they get people outside of England in the crowd - the group behind me was from France).  I got some great pictures of the main actors.

Fiyero (Mark Davis)

Elphaba (Rachel Tucker)

Glinda (Chloe Taylor)

Wizard of Oz (Clive Carter)

Eventually I met up with Brittany and we ended up going to McDonald's for some good old chicken nuggets. :)  I had such a big day walking everywhere that it felt really nice to get back 'home' at the hostel!

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Today I found out that my dear Alpha Phi sister Kristen Stit had passed away from cancer earlier in the morning.  She was an amazingly strong and positive woman and incredibly inspiring.  You will be missed and I will always think of you!