London is Wicked Awesome

On Monday, January 21, we had our first free afternoon, so Leland and I decided to journey to London in order to see the musical Wicked. We traveled by bus. It was a 2 hour drive, but it was the first time I had been on a double-decker bus and I got to sit in the front row on the second story, so the trip was still entertaining. By the way, the English countryside is stunning. I am constantly amazed at how brilliantly green all of the grass is. Anyway, once we arrived we quickly found the theater and purchased our tickets. The show normally cost over $120, but they have a huge student discount, so we got ours for just over $50. Because it was only 3:00 and the show didn’t start until 7:00, we decided to visit the national gallery. In order to save some money, we walked, but we had to go right past Buckingham palace to get there, so it was well worth the extra time and energy. The gallery was breathtaking (well, not the actually building, but all of the pictures). I have never seen such incredible or famous art. They had Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Monet, and countless other. Upon entering one of the last room, I was delighted to see one of my all time favorite paintings—Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses. His Sunflowers painting, which is also stunning, was there as well. I wish we had had more time at the gallery, but they closed at 6:00, so we had to leave. We then had to walk back across time and grab a quick bit to eat (a chicken & bacon pizza baguette), and it was finally time for the show. For those of you who don’t know, Wicked is the prequel to the Wizard of Oz. It shows how the wicked witch of the west was not actually evil, but society and unfortunate circumstances had thrust that position upon her. I have wanted to see this play for a few years now, so I was ridiculously excited, and even though that was the case, it still exceeded my expectations. It was absolutely fantastic. The storyline was a little weak through the beginning, but the music was unbelievable. I have rarely, if ever, heard voices that gifted in my entire life. It was well worth the trip. After the show, we rode the bus back (after spending over half an hour searching for the right stop). At one point, I fell asleep across the back row of seats, and when the bus came to a stop, I slammed into the seat in front of me and fell to the floor. Once back in Oxford, we had a 40 min hike back to our house (because the local busses had quit running) in the freezing cold, windy night. Even after those two unpleasant events, this was still my best day of the trip so far.

One more note: I am not going to post about our excursions on Jan 22, except to say that I got to relieve myself on the same loo that C.S. Lewis once used. That’s right, I pooped in Lewis’ toilet :) It was incredibly exciting!

Post by Hayes Modlin