Last of London
Right, to hell with individual posts, it all went to pot with ludicrous things to do in little time, late nights, early mornings and all manner of other things to do.
So, here goes four months in dot points which might get elaborated at a later point...
Easter - covered
April saw me run two major brand launches, one in London at the National Theatre, the other, on my birthday in Munich, Germany. That trip allowed me to go for the weekend immediately prior so I managed to see more of Munich and also head out to Neuschwanstein, the fantasy castle of Mad King Ludwig which Disney based their magical castle on. Also went to the Lichtenstein exhibition at the Tate Modern which I really rather enjoyed in it's boom-tastic comic book style.
May has two bank holiday weekends, or, public holiday long weekends. The first weekend, being a bank holiday weekend saw me and Joey head to Canterbury (as in Tales) and Dover (as in White Cliffs of), if I wire it up later, the post shall be titled Cathedrals, Castles and Communes.
The following weekend saw me, Jo, Neal and Fi head to the London Burlesque Festival to see a show called Crown Jewels which was spectacular and great fun for which I was glad to have booked VIP front section tickets.
The next weekend saw me and a friend go to the Big Burlesque Day Out which was a free market and mini burly show which was quite a nice combo. I was good and didn't buy anything, not for lack of wanting. That weekend also saw a boozy night out with my old housemate Georgia who lives in Montpelliere and is studying a Masters in Wine.
The last weekend, being the other Bank Holiday weekend saw me head to York and go couchsurfing.
The following week, and the start of June, saw an Aussie friend visit London, we went to see two shows at The Globe - The Tempest and A Midsummer Nit's Dream, both of which were great productions though I'm glad we had seats. We also went to see the musical Once with another friend from Cambridge. His week was finished off with us going to a very silly but fun Medieval Banquet where we danced period dances to modern club music and I lost my Oyster card.
I managed to fit in a weekend in Bath between the two Shakespeare performances and came second last in trivia at the pub but it was my knowledge of art that got us there! Oh, also visited Jane Austen's old haunts and the Roman Baths.
June also saw me go to Amsterdam with my friend Justin where we went to a peep show, a sex show and went clubbing in a medieval gatehouse, so, not quite your average night out.
I also went to Copenhagen and managed to land a free seaway tour which was awesome and I'd happily do again. Also saw the locals burn a witch, it was midsummer's after all and apparently that's what they do. Se was a little synthetic so went up in whoosh when she caught light and her 'scream' aha fireworks inside the dummy was a bit delayed, she was well gone before she screamed, which I guess makes it more spooky...
The last weekend in June saw me head to France to Montpelliere to see Georgia. We skipped touristing in favour of sitting on the beach (the water was so cold our feet hurt) or sitting in the Oz bar drinking 2for1 cocktails with a group of guys that turned out to be famous French Motocross riders and support crew. We also managed to drink a ludicrous amount of truly to die for wine, Georgia really does have excellent taste in wine!
The start if July I headed to France again, this time to Nice where I spent the morning walking through the old town and taking short swims off the narrow and incredibly pebbly beach. I know I'm spending one more night there so wasn't overly fussed trying to see everything... I probably should have gone to a museum though. But, I headed out to Vence a walled town 40mins away and I got to stay in Mattise's house while working as an Artist's model. It's a friggin hard life... I also went to Mattise's chapel which was really quite spectacular to see in full sun (Mattise's design glass windows!) so yeah, had a great old time really.
The following weekend, I took a break from the overseas travel and instead went to Oxford where I saw miss Ofthehills and we had a grand old time seeing Shakespeare in the gardens (Merry Wives of Windsor set at a town Fete) as well as having a nit out clubbing with my couchsurfing host until 4am, it was a truly funny night and I should try and write it up some time. After the Oxford shenanigans were done Ofthehills and I took our hire car for a spin through Stow on the Wold and the Costwolds. So pretty my teeth hurt and we got to have an almost exclusive private viewing of Shakespeare's house, go team tourist!
Then came the last weekend trip, a jaunt to Luxembourg which really is a country that only needs a weekend, everything is within 1 hour of the city and I accidentally walked in to Germany, no, really. But I managed a boat cruise and to visit a castle plus a jazz festival in a gorge which was actually really cool.
Then it was an epic and frantic wrap up of work, handing over to a nice lass who hopefully will swim instead of be swamped by the volume of things to be done.
And finally I was free of work and almost free of London. Joey and I headed on a trip to Cornwall for a long weekend which saw us call a locksmith to get in to the accommodation, saw us walk out of a play halfway through and spend more time looking for parking than is reasonable. But! We did also walk out to an island castle then have to wade back through knee deep and swiftly rising tidal water, go to Penzance (Yaaaaar!) and saw a white horse and a big man with a willy carved in to mountains. Oh and there was also lots of clotted cream, ice cream(with requisite seagull attack on nearby tourists) and a boat trip to look at the seals.
In my last days in London I went to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace tour and Abbey Road. I'm a good tourist though. There are loads of things to still go back and see/do. One day.