London!
Went to London last week and had a great time! So, here's an account of my travels:
Thursday, after sleeping a few hours (day before was Queen's Day, so I'd been @ the park and @ Rellie's till 10, then finishing a few things that needed finishing @ home), I got up, packed my last few things, and took the subway to Central Station. My dad went along to see me off. Met Rellie there (no-one to see her off, as her parents were on vacation), found our platform and got on the train to Brussels. After 3 hrs in the train (livened up by a strange occurrence near Mechelen - first, a bunch of people with their wrists tie-wrapped together come walking through the carriage, then some policemen, and then at Mechelen we saw those people sitting in the waiting room, guarded by police), we arrived at Brussels South, and went to the Eurostar check-in. Went through customs (apparently, the train is a moving patch of British soil, or something), had a look through the magazine shop (bought a Scientific American), and sat in the waiting room until we could board the Eurostar train. Train took us through the Chunnel (long, boring, dark - everything you'd expect an underseas tunnel to be) and on to London St Pancras. Arrived there, got some dinner @ the supermarket in the station, walked over to the King's Cross tube station, topped up our Oyster cards and tried to get to the platform. Tried, yeah, because 'due to severe overcrowding', they'd locked the gates and nobody was allowed on. Hm. Waited for about 15 minutes, then took the tube to Northfields and (of course) got utterly lost, only to discover our hostel was actually located across from the tube station. Yay overlooking the obvious. Went into the hotel and downstairs to the reception (actually, a utility cupboard with a sign 'reception' on it), paid, and went to our room.
We looked everywhere for bathrooms, and found two near the men's showers; no sinks. On to the kitchen, where we noticed a distinct lack of any plates or utensils. This was explained by a sign saying any broken crockery would NOT be replaced. Apparently, that ship had sailed long ago. Went off to the shops to buy some plastic plates and forks, heated & ate our dinner, and tried to sleep in spite of the loud punk music emanating from the next room.
Friday, we woke up at 9, ate breakfast, and went off to Camden for some shopping. I bought 2 shirts (one says 'Robots are cool - and by cool I mean way sweeter than pirates and ninjas put together' and the other shows man evolving & devolving to a critter hunched over a desktop computer, and says 'something, somewhere went terribly wrong'), a Beetlejuice longsleeve (I <3 that film), a pretty red corset with skulls on it (corsets rule), a toy dragon for my mom and some fudge for my dad. We also saw a magic stall, where a guy was performing some of the effects on sale (unfortunately, two of the gimmicks were pretty easy to spot - but the 3rd, with a ring and a chain, was VERY cool... sold out, though).
Then on to Oxford Street to hunt for an adapter plug for my phone charger, as my poor phone was dead from lack of power. We ended up at the John Lewis department store, which was really cool. After we got the adapter plug, we had some tea there, then went on to the crafts & toys departments. Got a make-your-own lamb plushie kit for Rij, and a Face of Boe action figure for myself (c'mon, the thing was on sale for 8 quid... I HAD to).
After that, we headed for the International Magic store, where a very cool lady had a long chat with me about what I liked and what I'd already read and what my ambitions were and all, and then advised me to buy '13 Steps to Mentalism' by Tony Corinda. Sound advice, I LOVE that book, but you do have to have read some stuff on magic before (luckily, I have) in order to understand the jargon used in it. She also advised me to get Derren Brown to sign it @ the show later that night, as 'he might use some of what's in it'. Oh, and she invited me to come to their convention later this year - I think I will, even though seeing so many people that are better than little beginner me might not be altogether a pleasant experience (I'm too much of a perfectionist...).
Before heading to the Garrick theatre, we went to have dinner at the Ultimate Burger, a restaurant praised in our guidebook. Rellie had the regular burger, I had the Moroccan Lamb one. They were absolutely very amazingly yummy - and they had Giant Godzilla Mutant Tomatoes on them. Honestly. These things were GINORMOUS. Look:
That's not a small burger. It is, in fact, a two-hand sized burger. The tomato slice just comes from the world's biggest tomato...
Anyways, after dinner, we went to the Garrick to see Derren Brown's 'An Evening of Wonders' show. Which was absolutely amazingly great. And I got to go on stage, and was 'hypnotized' (though I don't like that word, it implies some otherworldly ritual while all it is is persuasion) to 'fall asleep' (not entirely the correct phrase... I was fully aware of what was going on, I just couldn't really move or open my eyes). And no, it wasn't scary in any way - in fact, as I lay there, I grinned (Rellie says she saw this, 'cause my back moved for a bit) at the whole silly situation - I knew full well that I'd be able to move/get up at any time if I wanted to, I just... didn't. The guy is just THAT good at persuading you that it's a good idea to lie down, relax and not move, that you instinctively just want to do what he says (and those of you that know me will know I'm not usually that much of a follower, especially w/ strangers). Kudos to him, really - it was quite an interesting experience. It also kind of cemented my idea that 'hypnosis' CANNOT be used to make people do stuff they really wouldn't want to do - you're still there, it's just another form of social contract, not some arcane magic or anything. If he'd asked me to humiliate myself, I'd flat out have refused, I'm sure of that. You're just lulled into a bit of a dreamy state, where you'll do what a trustworthy source tells you to do - if the trust isn't there, you're not gonna do it.
The show itself shall not be elaborated upon in this blog, as that would kind of ruin it for people who still want to go.
One really sad thing happened, though - a lady and her boyfriend started a whispered argument, him telling her 'no, don't do it' in an increasingly loud voice, and then she called out 'talk to her, talk to my mum'. Derren replied 'no, don't do that, no talking to dead people' and went on with the show. The lady's boyfriend walked out as soon as she'd done the calling, and she sat there crying for a few minutes, then walked (well, limped, as she was walking on crutches - quite the 'little timmy' added sadness effect there...) out herself. I seriously had to keep myself from crying at that point, simultaneously because it was just so sad, and because it made me pretty angry - angry at her, for not GETTING that mentalism is an illusionist act (as Derren states very clearly throughout the show, as well as in his TV material), angry at those so-called psychics that instill these thoughts in people and prevent them from actually mourning and getting closure, angry at her boyfriend for running off when she was crying (he could've waited a bit, right?), and, well, angry at the whole damn mess of a situation. Poor lady...
Anyways, after a few seconds, I composed myself and did manage to enjoy the rest of the show.
After the show, we went and waited by the artists' gate for a while (enjoying a conversation with some nice teenage kids - Andrew and Katie - and their parents, who were waiting as well). After a while, we were informed by a rather cute male that Derren would actually be out to sign autographs (me and Rellie were like 'ah, THAT's where they went', as the question we'd come up with when the audience was asked to think of questions was 'where did all the cute guys in London go?'), so we waited some more. A lot of people came by, and eventually, Derren and Pretty Guy (probably either his PA or his BF) came to the gate and let us in. Had a nice chat with him, had his book and the mentalism one signed (he wrote 'hope you'll find something useful' in the 13 steps book, which indeed I did) and had Andrew take a picture of us with Derren:
Waited a bit while the other people got their autographs, because we'd thought of another thing we wanted to ask, then talked some more, until PA/BF/whoever he was ;) said they had to go. Said goodbye, walked to the Tube station and went back to the hostel. Realized we'd forgotten to get Andrew and Katie's e-mail. Too bad.
While brushing our teeth at the kichen sink, we were finally informed of the location of the actual bathrooms. The ones with sinks. That had been there all along, just not very identifiably so. After that, we went to sleep. No punk music this time, but what sounded like an impromptu guitar lesson to some girls at 4 am.
Saturday, woke up at nine again, got dressed (wore the Robots tee, yay :)), and headed off to the Science Museum, where I amused myself royally for a couple of hours (Pretty artworks! Steam engines! A giant metal pole saying 'do not touch' that shocks you when you touch it! 18th century scientific equipment! Charles Babbage's brain! Well, half of it...), while Rellie was bored to death for an equal amount of time (she's not into museums). Then, the tables were turned, as I was bored to death by the Disney store - and the hour-long walk there, as she'd though it was on Regent Street, and it turned out to be on Oxford Street. Ah well, I did get some pretty cool Kermit the Frog organic cotton socks.
After the Disney Store, we went to Inn the Park in St James Park for tea, but found out it was past tea-time. So we just tried to feed the squirrels (picky things, they didnt like dried fruits - one took one bite of a raisin and put it down again, the others just ignored all of it) and fed the prettyful crows (not picky at all, they fought over my dried sharonfruit). Then, we went to Trafalgar Square, had a late lunch at the Subway, went book shopping at Waterstone's and climbed the monument to take pictures of each other on it.
Ran to the tube, and managed to make it to Harrod's just in time to buy fudge in a pretty box for my grandma (who cares for pretty boxes).
After that, we went to see the Big Ben and the London Eye. They're really, really pretty when it's dark, all lit up and fairytale-ish. Stood there staring out over the Thames for a bit, then went back to the hostel.
No party this night, but a strong cigarette smell from the next room, leaving me a bit concerned that those morons would set the place on fire.
Sunday, we got up at half past 5 (no fires, luckily, just an early start to catch an early train), had breakfast, packed our bags and left for St Pancras. Checked in, got on the train, slept half of the way to Brussels, managed to catch the 11.15 train to Amsterdam, and again had to sit there for 3 hours (kept ourselves amused by amusing a toddler in the next seat over - luckily, it didn't cry too much, and was actually quite a funny thing).
Arrived in Amsterdam, but weren't allowed off the train, as police had to search it first, for some unexplained reason. Eventually, we were allowed to disembark, and walked up to my dad, who'd been waiting on the platform slightly concerned that we might be held hostage or something. Heard some policeman say into his radio that they'd 'found nothing on that train'. Still wondering what they wanted to find.
After that, we said goodbye to Rellie, took a train to Bijlmer where my dad had parked the car, and then went home. Handed out some gifts, had dinner, watched TV and then collapsed into bed and slept for 12 hours.
The end.
Thursday, after sleeping a few hours (day before was Queen's Day, so I'd been @ the park and @ Rellie's till 10, then finishing a few things that needed finishing @ home), I got up, packed my last few things, and took the subway to Central Station. My dad went along to see me off. Met Rellie there (no-one to see her off, as her parents were on vacation), found our platform and got on the train to Brussels. After 3 hrs in the train (livened up by a strange occurrence near Mechelen - first, a bunch of people with their wrists tie-wrapped together come walking through the carriage, then some policemen, and then at Mechelen we saw those people sitting in the waiting room, guarded by police), we arrived at Brussels South, and went to the Eurostar check-in. Went through customs (apparently, the train is a moving patch of British soil, or something), had a look through the magazine shop (bought a Scientific American), and sat in the waiting room until we could board the Eurostar train. Train took us through the Chunnel (long, boring, dark - everything you'd expect an underseas tunnel to be) and on to London St Pancras. Arrived there, got some dinner @ the supermarket in the station, walked over to the King's Cross tube station, topped up our Oyster cards and tried to get to the platform. Tried, yeah, because 'due to severe overcrowding', they'd locked the gates and nobody was allowed on. Hm. Waited for about 15 minutes, then took the tube to Northfields and (of course) got utterly lost, only to discover our hostel was actually located across from the tube station. Yay overlooking the obvious. Went into the hotel and downstairs to the reception (actually, a utility cupboard with a sign 'reception' on it), paid, and went to our room.
We looked everywhere for bathrooms, and found two near the men's showers; no sinks. On to the kitchen, where we noticed a distinct lack of any plates or utensils. This was explained by a sign saying any broken crockery would NOT be replaced. Apparently, that ship had sailed long ago. Went off to the shops to buy some plastic plates and forks, heated & ate our dinner, and tried to sleep in spite of the loud punk music emanating from the next room.
Friday, we woke up at 9, ate breakfast, and went off to Camden for some shopping. I bought 2 shirts (one says 'Robots are cool - and by cool I mean way sweeter than pirates and ninjas put together' and the other shows man evolving & devolving to a critter hunched over a desktop computer, and says 'something, somewhere went terribly wrong'), a Beetlejuice longsleeve (I <3 that film), a pretty red corset with skulls on it (corsets rule), a toy dragon for my mom and some fudge for my dad. We also saw a magic stall, where a guy was performing some of the effects on sale (unfortunately, two of the gimmicks were pretty easy to spot - but the 3rd, with a ring and a chain, was VERY cool... sold out, though).
Then on to Oxford Street to hunt for an adapter plug for my phone charger, as my poor phone was dead from lack of power. We ended up at the John Lewis department store, which was really cool. After we got the adapter plug, we had some tea there, then went on to the crafts & toys departments. Got a make-your-own lamb plushie kit for Rij, and a Face of Boe action figure for myself (c'mon, the thing was on sale for 8 quid... I HAD to).
After that, we headed for the International Magic store, where a very cool lady had a long chat with me about what I liked and what I'd already read and what my ambitions were and all, and then advised me to buy '13 Steps to Mentalism' by Tony Corinda. Sound advice, I LOVE that book, but you do have to have read some stuff on magic before (luckily, I have) in order to understand the jargon used in it. She also advised me to get Derren Brown to sign it @ the show later that night, as 'he might use some of what's in it'. Oh, and she invited me to come to their convention later this year - I think I will, even though seeing so many people that are better than little beginner me might not be altogether a pleasant experience (I'm too much of a perfectionist...).
Before heading to the Garrick theatre, we went to have dinner at the Ultimate Burger, a restaurant praised in our guidebook. Rellie had the regular burger, I had the Moroccan Lamb one. They were absolutely very amazingly yummy - and they had Giant Godzilla Mutant Tomatoes on them. Honestly. These things were GINORMOUS. Look:
That's not a small burger. It is, in fact, a two-hand sized burger. The tomato slice just comes from the world's biggest tomato...
Anyways, after dinner, we went to the Garrick to see Derren Brown's 'An Evening of Wonders' show. Which was absolutely amazingly great. And I got to go on stage, and was 'hypnotized' (though I don't like that word, it implies some otherworldly ritual while all it is is persuasion) to 'fall asleep' (not entirely the correct phrase... I was fully aware of what was going on, I just couldn't really move or open my eyes). And no, it wasn't scary in any way - in fact, as I lay there, I grinned (Rellie says she saw this, 'cause my back moved for a bit) at the whole silly situation - I knew full well that I'd be able to move/get up at any time if I wanted to, I just... didn't. The guy is just THAT good at persuading you that it's a good idea to lie down, relax and not move, that you instinctively just want to do what he says (and those of you that know me will know I'm not usually that much of a follower, especially w/ strangers). Kudos to him, really - it was quite an interesting experience. It also kind of cemented my idea that 'hypnosis' CANNOT be used to make people do stuff they really wouldn't want to do - you're still there, it's just another form of social contract, not some arcane magic or anything. If he'd asked me to humiliate myself, I'd flat out have refused, I'm sure of that. You're just lulled into a bit of a dreamy state, where you'll do what a trustworthy source tells you to do - if the trust isn't there, you're not gonna do it.
The show itself shall not be elaborated upon in this blog, as that would kind of ruin it for people who still want to go.
One really sad thing happened, though - a lady and her boyfriend started a whispered argument, him telling her 'no, don't do it' in an increasingly loud voice, and then she called out 'talk to her, talk to my mum'. Derren replied 'no, don't do that, no talking to dead people' and went on with the show. The lady's boyfriend walked out as soon as she'd done the calling, and she sat there crying for a few minutes, then walked (well, limped, as she was walking on crutches - quite the 'little timmy' added sadness effect there...) out herself. I seriously had to keep myself from crying at that point, simultaneously because it was just so sad, and because it made me pretty angry - angry at her, for not GETTING that mentalism is an illusionist act (as Derren states very clearly throughout the show, as well as in his TV material), angry at those so-called psychics that instill these thoughts in people and prevent them from actually mourning and getting closure, angry at her boyfriend for running off when she was crying (he could've waited a bit, right?), and, well, angry at the whole damn mess of a situation. Poor lady...
Anyways, after a few seconds, I composed myself and did manage to enjoy the rest of the show.
After the show, we went and waited by the artists' gate for a while (enjoying a conversation with some nice teenage kids - Andrew and Katie - and their parents, who were waiting as well). After a while, we were informed by a rather cute male that Derren would actually be out to sign autographs (me and Rellie were like 'ah, THAT's where they went', as the question we'd come up with when the audience was asked to think of questions was 'where did all the cute guys in London go?'), so we waited some more. A lot of people came by, and eventually, Derren and Pretty Guy (probably either his PA or his BF) came to the gate and let us in. Had a nice chat with him, had his book and the mentalism one signed (he wrote 'hope you'll find something useful' in the 13 steps book, which indeed I did) and had Andrew take a picture of us with Derren:
Waited a bit while the other people got their autographs, because we'd thought of another thing we wanted to ask, then talked some more, until PA/BF/whoever he was ;) said they had to go. Said goodbye, walked to the Tube station and went back to the hostel. Realized we'd forgotten to get Andrew and Katie's e-mail. Too bad.
While brushing our teeth at the kichen sink, we were finally informed of the location of the actual bathrooms. The ones with sinks. That had been there all along, just not very identifiably so. After that, we went to sleep. No punk music this time, but what sounded like an impromptu guitar lesson to some girls at 4 am.
Saturday, woke up at nine again, got dressed (wore the Robots tee, yay :)), and headed off to the Science Museum, where I amused myself royally for a couple of hours (Pretty artworks! Steam engines! A giant metal pole saying 'do not touch' that shocks you when you touch it! 18th century scientific equipment! Charles Babbage's brain! Well, half of it...), while Rellie was bored to death for an equal amount of time (she's not into museums). Then, the tables were turned, as I was bored to death by the Disney store - and the hour-long walk there, as she'd though it was on Regent Street, and it turned out to be on Oxford Street. Ah well, I did get some pretty cool Kermit the Frog organic cotton socks.
After the Disney Store, we went to Inn the Park in St James Park for tea, but found out it was past tea-time. So we just tried to feed the squirrels (picky things, they didnt like dried fruits - one took one bite of a raisin and put it down again, the others just ignored all of it) and fed the prettyful crows (not picky at all, they fought over my dried sharonfruit). Then, we went to Trafalgar Square, had a late lunch at the Subway, went book shopping at Waterstone's and climbed the monument to take pictures of each other on it.
Ran to the tube, and managed to make it to Harrod's just in time to buy fudge in a pretty box for my grandma (who cares for pretty boxes).
After that, we went to see the Big Ben and the London Eye. They're really, really pretty when it's dark, all lit up and fairytale-ish. Stood there staring out over the Thames for a bit, then went back to the hostel.
No party this night, but a strong cigarette smell from the next room, leaving me a bit concerned that those morons would set the place on fire.
Sunday, we got up at half past 5 (no fires, luckily, just an early start to catch an early train), had breakfast, packed our bags and left for St Pancras. Checked in, got on the train, slept half of the way to Brussels, managed to catch the 11.15 train to Amsterdam, and again had to sit there for 3 hours (kept ourselves amused by amusing a toddler in the next seat over - luckily, it didn't cry too much, and was actually quite a funny thing).
Arrived in Amsterdam, but weren't allowed off the train, as police had to search it first, for some unexplained reason. Eventually, we were allowed to disembark, and walked up to my dad, who'd been waiting on the platform slightly concerned that we might be held hostage or something. Heard some policeman say into his radio that they'd 'found nothing on that train'. Still wondering what they wanted to find.
After that, we said goodbye to Rellie, took a train to Bijlmer where my dad had parked the car, and then went home. Handed out some gifts, had dinner, watched TV and then collapsed into bed and slept for 12 hours.
The end.