Bright Lights Big City
Jul. 5th, 2010 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliandraOr, Things To Do in London When You're Cool!
Hey Guys.
So my dear friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brimtoast is visiting London this week, and wanted a list of cool not super touristy things to see and do with her parents while they're there. I have y few ideas, but I know that I have Flistees with good London knowledge, so I'm asking you all for ideas too.
And then we can create the greatest guide to London that livejournal has ever known!
Okay I'll start.
I lovelovelove the South Bank. It can be kinda busy and everything but still. There is always something cool going on, there's the really great bookshop that we had a marmfish picnic in, art exhibitions, the book fair, and let us not forget, the busker who sang a serial killer song especially for me.
In places to eat, I love the World Food Cafe in Neil's Yard near Covent Garden. There is also a amazing Moroccan restaurant there that I can't remember the name of for the life of me.
I say, go to the British Library, it's incredible.
Go for a drink in the new, gorgeous St Pancreas station and read the poetry in the floor.
What about you guys? Any suggestions?
(PS. Man, after this I am going to have to think of some sights to see in Leeds!)
(PPS look, I have worked out how to do line breaks on my phone \O/)
Hey Guys.
So my dear friend
brimtoast is visiting London this week, and wanted a list of cool not super touristy things to see and do with her parents while they're there. I have y few ideas, but I know that I have Flistees with good London knowledge, so I'm asking you all for ideas too. And then we can create the greatest guide to London that livejournal has ever known!
Okay I'll start.
I lovelovelove the South Bank. It can be kinda busy and everything but still. There is always something cool going on, there's the really great bookshop that we had a marmfish picnic in, art exhibitions, the book fair, and let us not forget, the busker who sang a serial killer song especially for me.
In places to eat, I love the World Food Cafe in Neil's Yard near Covent Garden. There is also a amazing Moroccan restaurant there that I can't remember the name of for the life of me.
I say, go to the British Library, it's incredible.
Go for a drink in the new, gorgeous St Pancreas station and read the poetry in the floor.
What about you guys? Any suggestions?
(PS. Man, after this I am going to have to think of some sights to see in Leeds!)
(PPS look, I have worked out how to do line breaks on my phone \O/)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 07:50 pm (UTC)I also love the design museum... but that could be just because I am a design geek...
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 09:40 pm (UTC)I've not heard of the design museum, where is it?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 09:44 pm (UTC)It isn't a free-entry sort of museum though, and the exhibits change fairly regularly (though i went to one exhibit twice because I loved it (: )
Some of this is super-touristy but still worth doing, I promise!
Date: 2010-07-05 08:07 pm (UTC)This adorable frozen yoghurt & muffins place opposite the big HMV in Covent Garden.
Day seats for a musical - I recommend Billy Elliot or Wicked. £25, go on sale 10 am or so at the theatre, be there earlier to queue.
The book fair on the South Bank! Also, you might see the lizards on bikes if you're lucky.
The Globe theatre is really, really cool if you're an English Lit nerd.
The National Gallery, obviously. Skip the 'big' paintings and find a quiet room.
The second hand bookshops (and the HUGE Foyles) on Charing Cross Road.
The free backstage tour of the National Theatre.
I think the touristy stuff is great too!
Date: 2010-07-05 09:58 pm (UTC)I didn't know the National did free tours, that is so awesome. I must check them out sometime.
I haven't been to the V and A for years. I mostly remember the dolls houses.
Also, thank you for the ticket advice. I knew you could get cheap tickets, but not quite how. Me and Brimtoast are musical junkies so I am sure that this will be very useful info.
Lizards on bikes?!
Re: I think the touristy stuff is great too!
Date: 2010-07-06 07:46 am (UTC)Definitely do the V&A! You will get hopelessly lost, but it's really peaceful and lovely. I tried on a corset and a gauntlet last time I was there,
Tickets- most West End musicals do day seats, they sell the front row tickets for about £25 on the morning of the show. I've only ever queued for Billy Elliot & Wicked myself, and the Wicked queues are always a bit mad - you have to be there early! Tickets are limited to two per person, and if there's a matinee that day there are day seats for that as well, so it's best to queue on a day with a matinee performance because there are twice as many seats for sale. With most musicals (i.e. ones where the fans aren't as crazy as the Wicked ones) you should get there one, one and a half hours before the tickets go on sale, which they do at ten or ten thirty - check the show's website! Hope that helps!
Yep! Sometimes they're on the South Bank near to the Eye - two people dressed as chameleons on bikes. I don't understand it either.
Re: Some of this is super-touristy but still worth doing, I promise!
Date: 2010-07-06 09:31 am (UTC)This adorable frozen yoghurt & muffins place opposite the big HMV in Covent Garden
I was going to say that!
I LOVE SNOGS!!!
Re: Some of this is super-touristy but still worth doing, I promise!
Date: 2010-07-06 09:37 am (UTC)Re: Some of this is super-touristy but still worth doing, I promise!
Date: 2010-07-06 09:58 am (UTC)Snog keeps doing free ones as tasters, you should try!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 09:22 pm (UTC)The fact that is one of my goals in my 25-life specific goals says nothing about me. NOTHING. Cross my heart, stick an arrow in my eye. Scout's honor.
I feel I am fated to be super touristy. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 10:06 pm (UTC)Wait, what is on your life goal list?
If I ever came to California, I would be a total tourist :D
no subject
Date: 2010-07-05 11:20 pm (UTC)25 Life-Specific Goals That Will Make You Doubt My Sanity (Sanity? What Sanity?)
1.Play piano at a friend’s wedding for free.
2.Win National Novel Writing Month three consecutive times. (NaNoWriMo: Challenge yourself to writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.)
3.Attend a book signing of an author whose works I enjoy reading.
4.Dye hair a crazy, wacky, unnatural color that will make the parentals hit the roof.
5.Take a self-defense class.
6.Tame a raven and make it my minion. Or, if all else fails, buy a big dog (maybe a Labrador Retriever) that will defend me. And name him one of the following: Patrick (after Lana’s dog in Gone by Michael Grant), Buster (after Jack Carpenter’s dog in The Night Stalker by James Swain), or Woofers (after the dog in that one movie with the fire and the girl and the snake).
7.Have a family of any kind. We can feature on the show Family of Freaks!
8.Publish a New York Times bestselling novel that is not a cookbook. Then point and laugh at the authors who published cookbooks because they’re losers who weaseled their way into the NYT.
9.Write a completed trilogy. (Linked with Goal #2.)
10.Own a two-story, four-bedroom house that has a different color scheme for each room.
11.Paint a mural.
12.Learn how to play the clarinet. And then say this line with a straight face: “My mouth hurts from blowing!”
13.Attend a rock concert and buy a t-shirt sporting the band’s name.
14.Travel to England, buy an I <3 London shirt, and take no less than fifty photos of interesting things (and not, say, the sidewalk. Though I’m sure the English have very pleasant sidewalks.) And if I’m not dirt poor by then: trips to France and/or Germany.
15.Drive a car across America and visit its monuments and tourist traps, preferably with one or two friends. That way I won’t be the only one mugged on the streets!
16.Run away and join the circus. Or at least work up the commitment to stretch my hamstrings so that I can actually touch my toes without bending my knees or amputating my shins.
17.Record an audiobook.
18.Participate in ScriptFrenzy. (ScriptFrenzy: Challenge yourself to writing a 50-page screenplay in the month of April.)
19.Participate in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo: Blog every single day of a chosen month.)
20.Acquire the National Guild of Piano Teacher’s diploma.
21.Bake and decorate a cake with three or more tiers.
22.A girl can’t be perfect every day of her life: Get drunk (read: not wasted); get a tattoo (a small one); and dress as a boy for a day and see how many people fall for the trick (alternatively, dress as a boy and see how many girls fall for the trick).
23.Run a mile in under six minutes, like one of those hamster-on-a-wheel athletes.
24.Crochet a blanket. (Scarves are of moderate difficulty to me. Blankets require quite a bit of concentration and devotion on my part. Both traits are, of course, traits I lack.)
25.Never fall in love.
Ha. I am in California, and I am still a total tourist. Though granted, there are tons of awesome things to see in CA (Hollywood, Pier 39, Chinatown, Disneyland, Great America, Monterey Aquarium, Fisherman's Wharf, Half-Moon Bay, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Hearst Castle, etc, etc). When I go to England, I will be a...super duper totally way totally tourist. And all the UK Fishies will edge away from me and try to sink into the floor in embarrassment while I buy keychains, t-shirts, and yack people's ears off with my American accent.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 09:35 am (UTC)The SNOGS are amazing though.
And Woot for Southbank!
Um...
-watch a street performer in Covent Garden!
-buy some Percy Pigs from M&S (not specifically London, ut has to be done)!
I will think of more.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-06 05:50 pm (UTC)