“Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber!”
-Lord Byron
Now that I have been in London for almost three weeks I am starting to realize I may never want to leave this incredible city. Sure, there are things I miss about home, but I consider myself a city girl through and through. So far I have racked up quite a bit of points on the crazy/cool experience list. Many of my memorable experiences have occurred at night when the hazy heat of the day has simmered down to a more comfortable breeze. The city lights up and puts on its party clothes. Depending on your mood, you could find a thousand and one things to do after dark. Shopping malls and movie theaters are completely off limits.
In the summer program I’m completing, we have an outing every Wednesday. Mostly at night—with the exception of a day trip of Hampstead Heath—the “fieldtrips” take me right back to elementary school fieldtrips, but this time around my mom isn’t packing lunch for me. I saw Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe theatre and War Horse at the New London theatre. You probably are familiar with Shakespeare’s dramedy, and seeing it at the Globe is really the best way to experience it. The theatre is designed almost exactly how it was in the 16th century, minus the sound of airplanes flying above. Although I enjoyed Much Ado, War Horse was definitely the favorite. It is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and tells the story of a teenage boy and his horse’s bond through World War I in Devon, England. What makes this play stand out from the rest are the puppet horses, which are built out of wood and operated by three puppeteers who give the horse life-like movements and sounds. If War Horse ever makes its way to your city, don’t miss it. It’s a tearjerker of a story as well as visually stunning.
As far as standard nightlife goes, you find most people at the pub, having a drink (or two). Drinking here is very sociable and it’s common to see people in their work clothes having a beer outside if it’s nice out. Pubs and bars I learned are not similar. Pubs are informal and acceptable to go to afternoon-wise. A cold beer at 2 pm is perfectly acceptable, but a gin and tonic? That might get some stares. You could probably walk down any busy street in London and find a pub. I like to think of them as the Dunkin Donuts of London. Ubiquitous and serving the same crappy food. Sigh.
Usually my idea of a stellar evening would involve music of some sort. I have yet to visit a club, but it is on my to do list. The choice is mind boggling here; dub step in Shoreditch, gay clubs in Soho, electronica in Clerkenwell to name a few. Although indie rock is my drug of choice, and so I made my journey to Brixton Academy—like Orpheum but twice as big—to see one of my favorite bands, Two Door Cinema Club. It was an experience, no, it was an endurance. Surrounded by every hipster teen in London, I was crushed and crumbled as the crowd went nuts. In simpler terms, I survived my first mosh pit.
I guess that’s London’s way of saying “Welcome to our city, but don’t expect us to be nice to you. You got to act like the rest of us.”
