I meant to write this last week but eh I got lazy and kept putting it off. Which I now realise was silly, because I won’t have as fresh a memory of London if I had written it sooner. Aw well.
I mentioned in my last post that Emma and I were going to London for the weekend! So yes, I have returned and much to share about our travels. I shall summarise each day now...
FUN FRIDAY
I had intended this trip to be stress-free, and if you know me at all, that wouldn’t be easy. Alas, this was not meant to be! Sean the Sat-nav refused to work to navigate us to the airport. Thankfully through trial and error, Emma remembered her bearings and we arrived in plenty of time.
After arriving at Southend round 10am, we took the train in to London and found our way to the hotel. After dumping our suitcases we tubed it to Baker Street, where we went to Sherlock Holmes’ house!
Following that we took a tour on an open top bus and saw all the sights, in comfort. A lot of the areas and buildings were under maintenance, presumably for the Olympics. Generally the city didn’t seem as busy as it usually would so we booked at the perfect time.
That evening, we met Amy and her friends, Matt, Hannah and Jeremy in Piccadilly Circus. We caught up and ate pizza, and then Emma and I went to see Phantom of the Opera. The show was pretty amazing, despite our odd seating. (We were basically looking directly down at the stage?) Definitely a great night out though.
SHOPPING AND SEOUL SATURDAY
First stop on Saturday was Covent Gardens - which is definitely the place to visit over the weekend. Market is open and the place was buzzing that morning. The stores are so cute and there were musicians and performers entertaining the busy shoppers.
I had the bright idea of making Saturday the ‘big Korea day’ so suggested we should eat in a Korean restaurant. After researching online, we discovered a little place off Soho called Seoul Bakery - a dingy little cafe which served Korean dishes. What brought this odd little place to our attention was the fact that both SHINee and Super Junior’s Siwon had ate there, and signed their names on the wall. Not only wanting to see that, we also both lived in hope we would accidentally bump into EXO too.
It certainly was a strange place to eat, and we felt both super awkward going in but were warmly welcomed by the friendly waitress. I ordered some kind of spicy soup and Emma ordered an egg dish - both were yummy. It was bizarre to be eating out and 2NE1 playing in the background, haha.
Before we left, we were given pens and sticky notes and left our memories on the wall, a common practice in Korean cafes. It was a lovely and enjoyable lunch! For the record, no, we didn’t meet EXO.
Next stop was Harrods and Hamleys - both crucial places that must be visited!! Harrods was outstanding, of course. Hamleys - not so much. Emma was convinced she saw Robert Pattinson walk past on Oxford Street, but after following him...yeah it wasn’t him. To my delight, after four years of waiting, I finally visited the Irregular Choice store, it was wonderful! We went to HMV and gasped at the amount of K-Pop CDs they sell now, and I bought Heartbreaker by G-Dragon and 2NE1’s Second album. (In celebration of the holiday.) After wandering about for a few hours, it was soon time to get ready for the concert!
MBC KOREAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL
We took the tube to the O2 Arena and got some weird looks from other K-Pop fans, who were maybe unsure if we were actually fans or not. Not meaning to be stereotypical or anything, but it’s very easy to recognise fandoms. K-Pop fans are an unusual crowd - often spotted with vividly coloured hair, multiple piercings, light-sticks, high-tops etc - and that’s just the girls. The rest of the audience consisted of mainly gay white boys, asian girls and asian girls’ boyfriends. I’m just observing and making assumptions here! Surprisingly Emma and I were some of the more average-looking people there. We dressed to impress! What if we bumped into EXO?? Surely we needed to TRY to look decent beside flawless Kai?
We stood in the line for what seemed like hours after a tasty burger in the arena, talking to a group of girls whom we met at the burger restaurant. Wye Zhi and Leanne, both DBSK fans, were the two Emma and I made friends with. It was so SO bizarre talking to other people about K-Pop though?!? Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any of the girls after the show and didn’t think of getting our photos with them at the time.
FINALLY we got into the indigo2 arena and THE SHOW HAD ALREADY STARTED! After a stressful period of trying to find our seats, we soon realised we only missed one 4minute song - who opened the concert. (I would be more pissed off about this because it was up to o2/concert organisers to open the doors earlier, but again if we cared THAT much we would have been in the queue earlier.)
The atmosphere was tense - the whole building was going CRAZY. Like I’ve seen in shows and live performances how much the audience screamed, but it’s so different when you’re in the crowd. You can’t help but join in. (I lost my voice the next day, whoops! I’m surprised I didn’t go deaf either.)
4MINUTE opened with four songs: Volume Up, Mirror Mirror, Huh and Hot Issue. The girls had stunning silver and black matching outfits on with a shiny jacket and fringed skirt.
In-between the K-pop artists performances, traditional acts kept the audience occupied. The first guy performed stunts and the second was a modernised traditional music group called Queen. They played a variation of beautiful and contemporary songs.
Following that, more traditional male dancers appeared, called the Samulnori team, who skillfully whipped back and forth tassels which were attached to their head? It sounds strange but I was enthralled! Afterwards, a combination of the cultural entertainers performed the classic song, Arirang, wearing traditional Korean dress robes.
Next act up was NORAZO - a comedic and eccentric duo who isn’t the most well-known act of the three, probably gained at least 2000 new fans that night in the U.K! Emma and I were flabbergasted at how awesome these guys performed live. It was a blast - and our hearts melted when we saw how incredible Lee Hyuk’s voice is! They performed Happy Song, Curry, King of Sales and Superman.
Dae2Baek Movement starred next - a dance group who psyched the audience up dancing to songs by Wonder Girls, BAP, T-ARA, U-KISS and of course, BIGBANG. The crowd went MAD when Fantastic Baby played! So awesome! Two of the male dancers teased the audience and the response was wild.
4minute members returned wearing Hanboks (traditional Korean dress) for a fashion show. Other models wore hanboks designed by Park Su Nyeol - who was present in the audience and made an appearance at the end. Although this was very enjoyable I was itching to see EXO, lol.
It was clear I wasn’t the only one, the audience couldn’t contain their excitement and at the end of the fashion show people were chanting “EXO EXO EXO!” Cue a blacked out arena and video titles. What’s funny here is I’m not even a big EXO fan, but I couldn’t help but join in with all the screaming! We were both giddy with excitement!
The boys strutted on stage and History immediately started playing. After much trouser-flapping, sweet moves and lets face it, obvious lip-syncing, they introduced themselves. Well, I THINK they did. Girls were screaming so hard it was hard to decipher what was being said. And I wasn’t quite able to tell them apart, but that’s okay - because my eyes were focused on Kai and his sparkly red vest.
After a stunning performance of Angel, incorporating some sweet-ass ballet moves from my man Kai, EXO finished with MAMA, their debut track. It was absolutely fab! But alas, it was over in a flash - I was expecting them to do another song, but Emma explained that they usually do two, so it’s a surprise they sung Angel. Didn’t mind though because the three they played were absolutely perfect! My ears were ringing and my throat was killing me but heck, it was worth every minute! *adds day to favourite days of life list*
SLEEPY SUNDAY
We took it easy on Sunday - we visited the National Gallery - which was okay for a while then I got bored and began hallucinating that all the paintings were the same (I think I was still on an EXO high so everything else other than Kai just wasn’t worth my time.) I saw Van Gogh and Claude Monet paintings though which was very exciting and caught my attention.
We headed across to the National Portrait Gallery after which focused on modern art and, well portraits. And I saw my first ever real Andy Warhol painting, so it certainly was the icing on top of the cake!
Then basically we had to head home - although it was just a weekend, it was a weekend of epic proportions, squeezing in so many fun happenings, making many fond memories for both of us.
I only have one thing to say...when’s BIGBANG touring?
