It was our last full day in London, and I was determined to make the most of it. What better way to go out with a bang than to spend the day shopping before going with my two best friends on the trip to see Chicago The Musical! Yeah, I was pretty much psyched about how our last day was going to unfold.
And thankfully, for once, not only did things go as planned, they actually exceeded the plan.
My friends and I decided to sleep in a little on our last day, something we hadn’t done at all the entire two and a half weeks we’d been in London. In fact, sleeping in general was something we hadn’t really done since we’d gotten to London. And boy, oh, boy, did it feel wonderful to get some sleep!
I awoke with a ton of energy ready to enjoy our last day to the full. So my friends and I hit the streets to go to Camden Town. Camden Town is a really cool place full of outdoor markets where all the hagglers do business. I had been dying to try my hand at haggling! This was my chance!
We arrived at Camden Town and there were literally blocks and blocks of outdoor markets with the coolest items for dirt cheap prices. Leather jackets for less than $50, hilarious graphic T-shirts, cute handbags, hats, and wallets—any clothing or touristy item you could imagine was at Camden Town.
I started looking through one of the little kiosks and found an awesome t-shirt I wanted to get my brother. No sooner did I stop to pick up the shirt, a middle-eastern man pounced to make a hard-sale. Before I even got the chance to tell him I was interested in the item, he already told me he would give it for me half price. I was thrilled! Half price! This haggling stuff was way too easy. I was ready to buy. I asked the guy if he took credit cards. He said no. He must have seen my disappointed look because he marked down the item another 20%. I would have been ecstatic had I remembered to bring cash with me to the market. But I had not. But still the guy so badly wanted to sell me that shirt, he knocked it down another 10%. Here I had done absolutely nothing, and this guy was going to give me this T-shirt for 80% off. I’d never experienced anything so wonderful in my life! If only I had brought cash!
After about an hour of wondering through the market and being pursued by every dealer there with incredible offers up to 80% off, yet having no cash with which to indulge, my friends and I decided to head back to Oxford Circus where we knew shops would accept our plastic form of
payment.
We spent the afternoon shopping with great success at Oxford Circus. One of my friends found some cute clothes while I was thrilled to find a purse on clearance at a store that also gave student discounts. Score!
And of course, we couldn't say good bye to London without having stopping for one last fish-and-chips. The Fish-and-Chips place we found off of Oxford Circus gave ENORMOUS portions. And while, mind you, the food was awesome, I couldn't help feeling that I might go into cardiac arrest at any moment. This place served the largest portion of chips I've ever seen. Ahhhhh...I'm gonna miss fish-and-chips.
Then it came--the moment I had been waiting for all week was finally here! We were really going to get to see CHICAGO!!! My friends and I went to the West End theatre district and made our way to the Cambridge theatre where Chicago was playing. The tickets we had bought several days earlier for incredibly cheap prices were for a matinee performance. The ticket salesman had said our tickets would be front row on the second balcony. Not bad seats. But when we arrived to the theatre, the ushers said we were eligible for a ticket upgrade since the performance had not sold out. I was so excited.
I went to the box office at the theatre and gave my tickets to the ticketmaster. I could hardly contain myself when he moved us from first row balcony to fourth row center aisle on the ground level. We were literally ten feet from the stage!
It was so cool to see the show live. The show itself was phenomenal. The singers, actors, and dancers were extraordinary. As if this wasn’t enough, after the show, I dragged my friends to the stage door to see if I could catch some autographs. Forty-five minutes later, I ended up getting the ENTIRE cast to sign my program. I was so thrilled to meet the cast and get to hang out with them and get all their autographs. Even though my friends were not as thrilled as I to stand with me for almost an hour in the cold, they were really good sports. The entire way back to the dorms, I could not stop jumping up and down singing All That Jazz.
And since it was our last night in London, we decided to frequent the Chinese take-away place just one last time. This little Chinese hole-in-the-wall had the BEST Chinese food I’d ever had. We must have gone there at least half a dozen times since we’d been in London. It was cheap, it was fast, it was right around the corner from our dorm, and the food was fabulous.
And of course, what better way to end a trip then with tons and tons of candy and junk food! We stopped into the little convenience store and nearly cleaned them out of Kit Kats, Snickers, Doritos, sodas—if it was junky, we bought it. England just has way better junk food than America
does.
We were set. We headed back to the dorm, met up with our professor, and hung out and enjoyed our last night. With all the sugar and caffeine we had consumed, we probably could have stayed up all night trying to make our last night last as long as possible, but we had an early flight to catch the next morning.
All-in-all, it was just about the best last day in London one could have.
Till next time,
Cheers Y’all
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