Les Mis and West End

13 July 2013

Les Mis is one of my all time favorite stories. I have read the book, the play, and watched both the new and old movies time and time again. Kailey and I woke up bright and early this morning to head to North End near the Leicester Square tube stop and wait outside Queen’s Theatre where Les Mis was to play that evening. The tickets were sold out, and are sold out for weeks, but we had heard through the grapevine that if we arrived early in the morning the day of the performance sometimes the Box Office has tickets left that they can sell. Sure enough an hour later we had two tickets in our hand for the performance that evening at 7:30, and the great thing about it was that the tickets only costs us 12.50 pounds! They were standing tickets, but we ended up finding a place to sit halfway through the performance and were able to rest our feet for a while. The play was INCREDIBLE! I wanted to sing along with all the songs but I was so stunned by how good their voices were that I couldn’t even let a peep escape my lips. The stage set-up was incredible and the creative effects with the lighting gave the performance an effect that felt real life in every instance.

Prior to attending the Performance of Les Mis in West end, we set out to explore some of the markets that London is Famous for. We went to Camden town as well as Portabella, two HUGE outdoor markets with beautiful antiques and hand-made crafts. It was fun to browse through all of the old trinkets and treasures that people have collected and presented for people to sell. As I walked through the miles of stands I began to wonder whether this was the largest market, at least the largest antique market in the world… London, second only maybe to Paris, has some of the most fascinating and beautiful old pieces of jewelry I have ever seen. Ohhhhh it killed me so much to fall in love with this beautiful pair of earrings and then have my hopes crushed when I looked at the price tag. I promised myself that I am going to work so hard so that one day I have a bit extra money to spend on such fun purchases. Obsessed with anything vintage, I could spend hour after hour shopping in antique stores. You learn so much about the culture and aspect of different eras in time simply by observing the objects they produced then and there. I have become passionate about history as I have been in Europe and get excited anytime I learn something new about it!

The day was beginning to wear on us as we got to around dinner time and realized that we had not eaten lunch. Kailey and I are good for each other because we both love buying food at the grocery store and eating picnic like meals. We stopped by Sainsbury’s and bought our usual bread, cheese, and fruit meal with an addition of some carrots and yogurt. We walked to Regents Park right off of the Baker Street exit and enjoyed spending the afternoon lounging in the shade of the trees. I guess we have come for the best weather in England because it has not rained on us one time, which is unheard of here at this time of year! I don’t want to jinx us but the temperature and weather has been incredible. Today it was easily 80 to 90 degrees the entire day and the sun was as brilliant as could be. My entire body was sweating from head to toe the entire day, even on into the evening in Queen’s Theater as we watched Les Mis.