My Favorite Family. Chapter 1: London 1

After my fantastic Thanksgiving dinner I headed into London to meet my brother and my dad! (My mom and my sister came in the next day...my parents like to space out their flights). The train ride was good but I was just so anxious to meet up with my family that I hadn't seen in the last 2 months! I did, however, have to write a paper during the train ride :/.

When I made it into London, I wanted to take the tube to show myself that it was no big deal and that  I could be a wise city girl. Unfortunately, I went down to look at the map and was all confused. So I took a cab to the train station my dad thought I was coming in to and met up with him. There is nothing like meeting up with a family member you haven't seen in awhile. It is the best feeling in the world. Just by seeing them, you feel an instant comfort and warmth... but enough of that sentimental stuff :D.

Next, my dad and I took the tube (yes, he knew how to use the map but he grew up in Brooklyn!) to our hotel and just chilled while my brother just slept. When I went to see him, my big strong brother looked so pathetic. When we tried to get him up, he sounded like a little kid again as he said "just 5 more minutes..." It definitely made me feel all powerful.

Around seven, my dad, brother, and I headed into town to get Indian food. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was amazing! They served authentic Indian food with a french twist. I had chicken tika massala, which my brother told me was the most popular dish in Great Britain. But my favorite part of the restaurant was its decor. I felt like I was in the movie Casablanca or something.  After dinner we headed back to our hotel and went straight to bed.

As soon as I woke up, my mom and Leah were on their way to the hotel! I was so excited! But of course, Leah was so tired and didn't want to have anything to do with me. As we promised her though, we made our way toward Baker street. We found this little pub on a side street to have lunch. It was nothing special but I did finally have a salad (I hadn't had one in so long!).

We then walked to 221B Baker street to meet Leah's good friends Sherlock Holmes and James Watson. The museum was cute but it was tiny. If you are like me and don't know that much about Sherlock Holmes, you could easily visit the museum in thirty minutes. It was cute though. They decorated it as if Sherlock Holmes and James Watson really lived there.

After the museum, Leah was really tired so she and my mom headed back to the hotel while my dad, Ben, and I headed to the Churchill Museum and War rooms. On our way there we passed by the Prime Minister's grand residence, which is across from Parliament. That area of London is really pretty, especially in the fall. I could have just walked around that area the rest of the day but we were determined to go to the war rooms and the Churchill museum.

The war rooms were amazing. I felt transported back in time to  the 1940's. The underground safe haven was so erie. England wanted to protect their Prime Minister and defense team and thus stuck them underground. It would have been so scary to be under constant threat of attack. The thought of having to go underground in a crampt space to protect you from a weapon you probably couldn't really have been protected against would have been so scary! Anyway the war rooms were definitely amazing. The museum also had a Churchill exhibit. It was kind of hard to navigate but it was very informative. My favorite part were Churchill's cute love letters to his wife.

By the time we reached above ground again, it was dark outside. We rushed back to the hotel to change and immediately left to see Our Boys, a play about a war hospital during the Falkland War. The play had an amazing cast that included Jonathan Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Arthur Darville (Rory on Doctor Who), Laurence Fox, Cian Barry, Jolyon Coy, and Lewis Reeves. The actors were phenomenal and the story was funny but heartfelt.

Matthew Lewis! 

Cian Barry

Arthur Darville

After the play we waited by the stage door to meet the cast. For any of you who have ever done this on Broadway in New York, it is a completely different progress. In New York, the littlest character is surrounded by a burly security guard. Furthermore, you are cut off from the cast by an metal fence. It is not the same here. We met Jonathan Lewis without any barriers. He was really down to earth and acted a little bit like Neville. We asked him for a picture and he said "yeah, sure". He didn't act above us at all. I wanted to say something clever to him but, of course, at the time I couldn't think of anything! I could have said "Neville is my doppleganger self" or "I love you" or something but instead I just said thanks. Although my sister is the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world, she was dying to get a picture with Arthur Darville. He was a little different than Lewis. There was a girl in front of us that was practically crying over getting a picture with "Rory". He heard this and said "Now, now, you know its not real". Even though it's obvious, I would have been so sad to hear that my favorite character in a TV series wasn't real. When we finally made our way up to him, his phone started ringing. While still signing autographs, he looked at his phone to see who was calling and shut it off. I bet that it was his mom :). Leah told him that our cousin was his biggest fan and he wittingly replied, "Tell your cousin I am her biggest fan". We also met Cian Barry, who arguably played the main character. I asked him if he was really from Northern Ireland and he said that he wasn't. I made him smile by telling him that I have a Northern Irish flatmate that he sounded exactly like. He was so sweet.

After the show we had dinner at Medditerranean food place. It was nice to finally have a family dinner that I hadn't had for the past two months. After dinner we hurried back to our hotel to go to the land of Harry Potter, ie. Edinburgh, the next morning.