Pride Parade

A little bit late, but better later than never.

June is Pride Month which means: Pride Parade! In London it was the 25/26. 07. A wonderful thing for everyone in the LGBT+ community, an opportunity to celebrate who we are and what we are. Alive. Happy. Out and proud.

Especially with the events in Orlando a week prior you could feel how nervous everyone was, but also that we were even more happy to show that we are here to stay. The mayor of London as well as an US ambassador held speeches about the horrible shooting in a gay night club and asked everyone to remember it as well as for a minute's silent for all those injured or killed.

Of course, not everything was bad. The sun was out, the costumes of every single group in the parade were awesome to look at and the music was upbeat. The very first act was from the musical Kinky Boots, with was probably the only one who could open an event like this. After that came musical acts of all genres, mixed with artistic-gymnastic background performances. You have a mix of activists, drag queens, priests and rockers in one place and you know it can only be one of the most exciting events you can go to.
And the representation was so diverse, you can definitely find your fitting one. LGBTQIA+, kinks and religious groups, drag queens and musicians, people of all ages. It made my heart bleed with joy to look at everyone and think: these are my people! My community. This is where I belong.

I hope to participate in one at some point. I hope to see an American Parade once, cause we all know those must be so much more than even this one. I hope every closeted member of the LGBT+ community can gain strength from us and maybe feel better about themself.

West End Live

West End Live is an opportunity for people who can't afford to buy Musical tickets or maybe just don't have the time to see one to still get a taste of it. Or maybe you are just not sure what you want to see.

At WEL several Musicals perform up to three acts from their show on a stage at Trafalgar Square. This year it included old plays like Les Miserable, The Phandom of the Opera and Lion King as well as rather new ones like Aladdin.

Funnily enough I saw two songs from Wicked before going to see Wicked that afternoon. So even though I was in the very top circle at the far back I had a closer look at the actors earlier that day.

There isn't much to say except that you should really go and see it. Everyone is very talented and the atmosphere is awesome. I'm really happy to know about it.

Bletchley Park

Everyone and their grandma knows Benedict Cumberbatch at this point. You know, the guy from Sherlock? Smaug from the Hobbit? Oh, and he played Alan Turing in the Imitation Game.

The Imitation Game is a movie about the mathematician Alan Turing who invented a machine during the Second World War that would make it possible to decode German messages encrypted in Enigma. The whole thing is actually Alan re-telling his war time story to a police officer after his house gets broken into in 1951. It also contains flashbacks to his childhood/early teenage years in 1927 when his best friend, whom he was in love with, dies. In the end, Alan commits suicide after being forced to undergo hormonal therapy when it comes out that he is homosexual.

Now, the film is very good. The acting is great and you can see a lot about the issues from back then as well as the horrors of WW2. But the reason I mention it in the first place is that the war time part of the film takes place at Bletchley Park. Here the code breakers of WW2 spent their days unable to talk to anybody about what they were doing. And it's only a short train ride away from London!

I would recommand to come to Bletchley Park as early as possible. It closes at 5pm and if you want to see everything you will definitely need some time. You can also go on a free tour where the tour guide explains what the workers did at Bletchley Park and why some people who worked here didn't even hear about Enigma until after the war.

A part of the little mansion is dedicated to the film itself since the pub scene was filmed here (and can be visited). You can read and find out more about the actual war work in the original huts right next to the mansion. You can see why it had to be kept as much of a secret as possible and try your luck in the little games that try to show you how Alan and his team worked. 

In Block B you can also see a fully-operational Bombe rebuild, a gallery about Alan Turing as well as several Enigma machines, the Japanese part of the decryptation work and a timeline of Bletchley Park/"computers" before and during the war.

And if you are tired of wandering around you can always sit outside on the picknick benches or the chairs and just lie down on the grass. Luckily we had a sunny day and sat there for a bit eating. It would be a waste to not do that on a sunny day (especially in the UK, as cliche as it may be).

MCM London Comic Con!

A week too late I am finally back to tell you about my experience at the MCM London Comic Con. I don't really have an intro except how freaking cool it was!

For anyone who doesn't know, Comic Con is a three-days event in the Excel Hall near the London City Airport. You have a mix of Japanese Manga and food culture, British youtubers, Gamers, TV shows and movies as well as your usual nerd stuff to buy like wigs, clothes, weapons and small gimigs. All throughout the day you have several panels at the same time that you can attend for free or you can go and get a photo or an autograph from your favorite actor (if you have the money; it can be a bit expensive).

Preparation

Now, a lot of people, if not most of them, aren't just regular visitors. They are cosplayers. Some put more effort, time and money into their costume than others, but that doesn't matter as long as you have fun. 

And of course, because I have no idea to how many Comic Cons I will be going, I thought I might as well try it, too. At first I was thinking about going as Bucky Barnes/ the Winter Soldier from the MCU Captain America movies, but I wanted an attachable 'metal' arm and that would have been terribly hard to get back to Germany. Maybe I'll do that when I'm going to a German Con.

So, instead, I decided to go as Harley Quinn from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie. That would be easier, right?

Well, yes and no. The Tshirt and small things like the bracelets, fishnet stockings, even the baseball bat - an inflatable one in my case - were really really easy. Just go to Primark or ebay and that's it. The biggest problem was the jacket and the shorts. If you don't want to spent hugh amongst of money on a premade jacket you have to get creative. So I searched for a blue and a red baseball jacket to sew them together. Which sounds easy enough except it's harder than you would think to get the right colour. I couldn't find anything I was happy with until I was ready to just buy a normal blue/white one at New Look or go for another costume all together. The next week, We went to Manchester for our North-trip and I actually found two baseball jackets in the perfect colours for only 5 pounds each! Luck was on my side for once.

Anyway, a friend and I sat together to work on the jacket because to be honest, I had never done that before and didn't want to mess up. It took a few hours, even though that was mostly because we took quite a few breaks, but we finished it and it looked genuinely good.

The shorts I did myself out of the other half of the leftover jackets, and it went somewhat good. I cut up some old Primark sports shorts that I wanted to throw away anyway and then sew the finished Harley Quinn shorts and the elastic band together. It did resemble a pair of shorts in the end, but not very 'stable' ones. The materials fault, not mine! I swear!

So yeah, on the second day I went for a pair of normal black ones instead.

Day 1

That Saturday I woke up earlier than usual to get into my costume and most of all, put on my Harley Quinn make-up. Luckily it's not too hard, just some smudges and some drawn-on tattoos, but I wanted to get it done as soon as possible so I could be on my way. I had priority day tickets, which means I could go into the hall at 9am instead of 12am like everyone else.
On the tub you can already see others that are clearly on their way to Comic Con. It's like 'spot the emo' game during concerts, only it's 'spot the nerd' and a bit easier. A lot of people have priority tickets and the halls are filled with cosplayers by the time I join the mass.

That first day I meet Tomska in the youtuber section and see the cast of Being Human (the UK version) during a panel as well as the cast of Outcast, a new TV show. We are allowed to see the pilot almost two weeks early and it's great, a bit on the creepy side and not for an easily frightened person.
Other than that I just walk around and take pictures with a few people. Sadly I forgot to get some cash and the line in front of the only cash machine is hugh, so I stick to getting a bagel to eat and leave any shopping to the next day.
The last place I visit is a small panel/interview of the voice actor of Finn the Human from the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time. He - kind of - answers my question about what he would do if he could direct/write an episode. Well, he doesn't really answer it, since it would be a spoiler for the next season. Still a nice guy, though.

Day 2

Sunday starts at 11am which means more time to sleep. I take my Harley Quinn shorts with me, but put on my black jeans shorts and don't change them in the end. It's just way too comfortable.
That day I go to two panels I really want to see: One with the Big Bang Theory stars Melissa Rauch and Kunal Nayyar as well as Jesse Eisenberg. They talked about Jesse and Kunal's new theatre performance in London as well as the future of TBBT. They are all really nice and funny but drop hints of serious thoughts when it comes to their characters and their motivation.
The second panel is one about the DC TV show Arrow which is the last on of the day. Willa Holland and her co-star (I don't remember who, sorry) are funny and open about wanting caps and how much work everything is as well as how much of a prankster John Barrowman is actually. Great group.

Between the two I take a closer look in the Japan/Manga section which I kind of left out the day before. I take some Japanese candy with me as well as cute badges and a key chain. Then I go outsidee just to be met by a hugh group of other Harley Quinn cosplayers posing for pictures. Not just Suicide Squad Harley's, but also original ones, steam-punks, mixed, one cross-dresser and funily enough, a girl I met at Summer in the City almost a year ago. She recognized me, but anyway, how much of a coincident is that? I joined in on the pictures and then went on to the little music stage where a K-Pop band just finished up (at least I guess it was K-Pop, I'm not an expert).
Next came Make Out Monday, which features the voice actor from Adventure Times that I saw the day before. The band is really good, and I got a free CD as well as Tshirt, so I'm sure as hell not gonna complain.

After the set and only about 1,5 hours more to spare I went back inside and walked by the youtuber section once more when I saw another youtuber I like, Dean from Jack&Dean. He signed my Tshirt and we talked  bit about an upcoming project of theirs. He's a nice guy!
For some reason, the guy at the weapon store recognized me and I was really tempted to buy a katana or machete but I can't do that. How would I bring it to Germany after all?!

Conclusion

Some of the cosplayers really take it to the next level: a really convincing Mystique from the X-Men movies who must have been cold as hell, a Jack Sparrow who managed the right walk and mannerism, steam-punkers, Game of Thrones characters as well as other people in armour that looks too real to not be real are all over the place. And there are the clever ones, like Daredevil before he got his fnacy suit or superman in his normal undercover outfit. I wish I had taken more pictures.

In the end I would say that Comic Con is an event that's worth spending some money on. the tickets are really not expensive and you can have a lot of fun even of you don't get a picture with a celebrity (the panels are free at least!) or if you don't dress up. Hell, I would say even a non-nerd would have fun watching us get all excited about stuff.
Do yourself something good and relax for a day by letting your inner nerd out.

A Day in.... Oxford

What do you do when it gets hotter than 15 degrees in the UK?
You pull out your hotpants and don't go inside before sunset, cause who knows how long it will last!

Our original plan was to go to Brighton, but we changed that to Oxford a few days beforehand. To get the most out of our day, we met at Paddington Station to catch our 9:35am train that would take us to the famous university city. All of us have been to Oxford before as far as I know, so we were more or less relaxed without the pressure to see everything there is.

Our first stop was Sainsbury's. Yes, we are all human and need food.

The first real destination is one Harry Potter fans might be interested in. The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest lecture halls in Oxford and the place where the hospital wing scenes as well as the hilarious dance lesson in the fourth movie were filmed. It's only 1 pound and is empty except for a few benches and spider webs. You could also book a tour through the library where, you guessed it, the library scenes were filmed, it's a bit more expensive (8 pounds) and you need a guide to access it.

When you step out of the building you see the Radcliffe Camera which is only accessible to students. You may know it from TV, it's a popular screenshot of Oxford. Next to it is a cute little cafe that I've never been in but is supposed to be good.

Since we already had our lunch we went straight to the Botanic Garden that's basically just around the corner. It's 3,5 for students if you are interested, just look out for aggressive ducks that will steal your cookies! Unbelievable...

On a serious note though, just like most Botanic Gardens this one is really nice to look at. It's a good thing it was sunny and we were able to sit down for a while, nobody likes soggy mud. You can even sit down next to Cherwell, a river that leads to the Thames. There is nothing like laughing at tourists who make fools out of themselves while trying to not crash against one another. And once you are sick of looking at flowers, you can leave and cross the street and rent a boat yourself.

First we went to Christ Church College though. This place is yet another place where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed, like the arrival of Harry in his first year, when he meets Draco for the second time. The dining hall was a direct inspiration for the Great Hall. And a few scenes were filmed outside in the garden. 

The place has other things to offer, too. A Cathedral with impressive windows and history. The architecture seems typical for Oxford and is definitely worth a second glance. A lot of famous people went to school here, including several British Ministers, philosophers like John Locke, Albert Einstein for a Research Studentship and the author of 'Alice in Wonderland' Lewis Carroll.

And like I already mentioned, a great idea for Oxford as well as Cambridge is a boat tour. Now, if you want to save some money, you can decide to try and operate it yourself. The original plan was for the four of us to change through, but in the end I was basically the only one really doing anything. Guess I'm a bit of a control freak, but it's not like the others were too eager to do it. The only downside is that my back hurt like a bitch the next two days, even worse than my arms for some reason. Worth it though!

The day pretty much ended with ice cream for me and my efforts and a quick snack dinner on the train back home. We were all exhausted, me more so than the others obviously, because of the heat and the walking around, so we went straight home once we got to Paddington. Thanks for the great day!

Mousetrap and the View from the Shard

You know what sucks?

Having plans in the evening and nothing to do until then.
Looking for Musical tickets but them being damn expensive.

That's what happened on Saturday. Our Au Pair group was looking for three musicals specifically - Wicked, Mamma Mia! and Les Miserable - but there was nothing to be done for less than 40 pounds. 40!

Turns out that wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to us as we finally managed to go and see Mousetrap, the longest running theatre play in London which is based on a story by Agatha Christie. I won't tell you who the murderer is, but it was one hell of a play. Really entertaining, especially if you like the books, movies or any old detective story. I even met two of the cast at the Starbucks outside (which is a great one, with waitresses and funny little charging stations!) and talked to them for a bit.

After that my friend and I didn't actually have a lot of time, so we grabbed a bit at McDonalds and took the bus to the Shard. The impressive glass skyscraper operated with two lifts that get you to the two top viewing plattforms in no time.

And wow. The view is definitely worth it. We were lucky enough that my friend got tickets for two for her birthday, but even so you should spent the money if you can effort it. You can see everything from up there. London is a rather flat city besides a few modern buildings, but even those don't compare to the tallest building in Western Europe.

Tipp for your time slot: go shortly before sunset. That way you get to see the city while the sky turns darker and darker with beautiful colours changing the landscape until you can see all sorts of light - cars, buildings, street lamps - lightening up the dark grounds.

We stayed up there for more than an hour even though we were sure there was some kind of time limit, but on the other hand, we were the last time slot available. When we drove back down we were able to see our picture that was taken at the very beginning cropped out and badly photoshopped into a View from the Shard and lets just say... keep our eyes open when taking the pic. You will regret it later if you don't.

The day ended with our group, now reconnected to the rest who went home for a bit while we were up in the air, sitting on the couch eating pizza, drinking champagne and laughing about a guy we nicknamed 'paint brush' on "Ex on the Beach". Really, a show worth watching when you get drunk.

A Day in.... Liverpool

Day 1

"Now this is how it feels like to be in a somewhat acceptable hostel. Interesting."
The Hatters Hostel close to the Lime Street train station is an ok hostel. I had a 12-bed mixed dorm, sadly it was really freezing cold and you couldn't close the door of the shower cabin. Which of course meant that a guy managed to walk in on me changing (or well, my almost naked back). Thanks for that....
The first evening we actually met a few French teenagers who had a limited English vocabulary before going out for a few drinks at a place called Hannah's bar. The most intersting part of the evening however was the little bar fight and the very long verbal fight that went on outside. Sadly we couldn't hear a thing, but the guys came back two times and worked up a rage that looked almost comical from the safety within.

The next morning, after having a nice breakfast, we decided to walk around for a bit, down a shopping street and then towards the Central Library. Right next to it are the World Museum and the Walker Art Gallery but we've seen so many museums this week that we stayed away from those.
The library is ok, it has an extremely modern feeling to it until you go into the old part that looks like straight out of Hogwarts.
I can't wait to go to University. I don't even know if my future university has this kind of old-fashioned library - I can't really imagine it - but I love the quiet that goes along with a place like that.

Speaking of which, our next stop was the University of Liverpool. At least we wanted to look at it from the outside. It's interesting how many different buildings there are, sometimes you couldn't even imagine them all belonging to one institute.
Tip: We were there on a Tursday and ran into a food market outside the Liverpool Guild of Students. Not only did I have a hotdog, but there is a stand with a fantastic cake diversity. We got one each and we had enough to save some for later.

If you are already there, you can also visit the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The building is modern and impressive, I can't even describe it. It looks a bit like a crown from the outside and is high enough to make you feel small without even having a look at the inside.
Inside the modern theme goes on. You can walk around the circular walls and look at pictures and statues. You can sit down and pray of course. As long as you look up at some point at the coloured windows that illuminate everything in a shining light.

And while we are talking about churches: Consider visiting the Liverpool Cathedral. Apparently the building is only about a hundred years old but was built in a Gothic style. Including the 'wildlife' surrounding it it looks like s place out of a fairytale. The first time you walk in you can't help but let out a small 'Oh'.  Hell, you will get a strained neck from looking up all the time, but it's worth it! That evening there was apparently a music event since a stage and lights were all set up and the musicians where beginning to sit down. In here we also met a nice guy who painted the Lady Chapel in the back. Nice guy, even though he seemed a bit disillusioned about his fame and the way the world works.

Now that was already a lot for one day, but we decided to go to one last stop: the Wharf. A lot of interesting museums are down there. We didn't want to visit one of them just yet, a little break at the seaside is a nice thing on its own. For anyone who likes the Beatles, there is a statue and a museum about the four Liverpooler there. For everyone else there are the Slavery Museum, the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Tate Liverpool and Liverpool Pictures. You could probably spent a whole day down here at the docks.

Now, one thing we notices throughout the whole day were people in yellow and black outfits. Only someone who doesn't look up from the pavement could have missed them to be honest. And for us Germans it was more than obvious what was going on. A football game between Liverpool and Dortmund - here in Liverpool! And of course coming all the way to Liverpool for a game means that those guys are die hard fans which was obvious in their behaviour and their attire. The most interesting one was a maybe 60 years old guy in a yellow-black skirt and a Pickelhaube, a spiked helmet that is typical for German history.
And they are really nice! As soon as they notice we are German they offered to take photos for us and visa versa. A bit of small talk about the upcoming game and why we are here (since we didn't have any fan clothes on) and about how we would wreck the Liverpooler (we didn't).
Of course, that also means that the three of us looked for a sports bar to watch the game. Instead of showing some patriotism we kept down our cheers at every German goal and our conversations restricted to English. Good idea as it turned out, the guys around us - mostly middle aged a bit drunk - got angry to a point where it wasn't funny anymore. I mean, having to take out your asthma inhaler because of sports isn't exactly something you joke about. Poor guy.
In the end we lost 3:4 and made our way back to the hostel after a few minutes.

Day 2

One thing about losing a football game is that you can see who exactly lost the very next morning. Where Dortmund fans were hopeful and optimistic the day before they were only sad faces and silence left. In moments like this I'm really happy I'm not a big football fan.

For our last day of the trip we wanted to take it slower than before so we went back down to the docks to visit the Slavery Museum. In addition to our group of three a guy who is English but favers German football clubs tagged along. Apparently he was in my friends room but was so drunk that he didn't find his bed. He pretty much came with us just to leave ten minutes into looking at info panels at the museum to meet a friend or something like that. Weird...
Since we did most of what you can do as a tourist the day before, we went for a little relaxing shopping tour - especially because I still needed a birthday present for my au pair host dad! - right after a stop at Subway for dinner. On the street you could still buy football scarves, even though the ones specially for the game the day before were gone.And again you could see sad German people walking around in their Dortmund outfits.
One thing I always considered weird until I understood that it is just pure sexism is how worked up everyone gets about sports, and that riots are almost normal when your team looses, yet we make fun of teenage firls who get excited when they meet their idols who might have unknowingly saved them. Honestly, middle aged men destroying private and government property because a few guys fucked up in a game is more acceptable then a crying 15-year old?! Wow.

Anyway, we made our way back to the hostel to get our bags and walk to the coach station to get our bus. Of course, something had to go wrong; in this case, it was that the original coach station that our GPS brought us to was closed down already which means we had to walk another 15 minutes to the actual pick-up place. We basically speed walked there only to discover that our bus was an hour late. I'm not even sure if I should be happy and not.
But god, ones it was there it was awesome. Sure, coaches are not as comfortable was a train, but the feeling to be on your way back home is all I needed after this holiday.
It was good, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't perfect. Especially the sleeping places. And one week of sleeping relatively bad is enough to drain you of every ounce of excitement. Still, if you have a week of, this three cities are close to one another and worth a visit.
Thanks for reading!