A Merry day in London!!!

Yesterday was out excursion to London. Although I have been there several times before I still stopped by all the obligatory tourist stops because it's fun and great for new profile pictures on Facebook!  We saw Parliament, Buckingham Palace (no new baby sightings yet), some WWI memorials, Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the eye, the Millenium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and The Globe Theater. Geesh, we had a busy day, with a lot of walking! We stopped at Wagamama for a noodle lunch and I was so hungry but that time that I basically inhaled my lunch before I could take a picture of the lovely noodle dish and sparkling elderflower water :( After we went to the Tower, we stopped at a pub for dinner then walked along the Thames down to the Globe so we could go see Macbeth.  It was a nice walk but really hot in the sun and I was very close to jumping in and going for a swim despite the grossness of the murky, brown-green water! When we got to the Globe there was a buzz among people in our group. Apparently Billy Boyd (who played Pippin in The Lord of the Rings) would be playing Banquo!  That's exciting in itself and I would have been so happy with just seeing Pippin, live, on stage.  But it gets better. 

When I was returning to my seat after going to the restroom I noticed the short man in front of me had a very distinct nose and looked familiar... hobbit like you could say.  It was Dominic Monaghan, who plays Merry in LOTR and he sat a few rows in front of us. Now I've been obsessed with LOTR since I saw the first movie when I was eight. New Zealand is my dream destination, I have to watch at least one of the movies once a moth to get my fix and I re-read The Hobbit like it's my job.  My roommate and I equate ourselves to Merry and Pippin (I'm Pippin, she's Merry) so, to say the least, I was freaking out!!! I got a group picture with him but that still wasn't enough. Throughout the whole play I was talking to myself in my head, "Emily, just go talk to him, he's just a person". "Yes," I responded, "but a person who has been in all your favorite movies and has been in an Oscar winning film and a person who I admire so much for making my childhood awesome"!  I could barely focus during the play.   When the play was over I finally sucked it up and asked for a photo with him and I got it!!!

 It was so wonderful and I got to talk to him a bit about how he and Billy still see each other, which is adorable. At the end of the play when the cast was bowing, Billy gave Dom a cute little wave and a happy/surprised smile that was oh-so Pippin-like… they have such a bro-mance, it’s great!  It was so surreal seeing a person who you've only seen on screen sitting next to you, I still haven’t really gotten over the fact that I got to meet Meriadoc Brandybuck.  In a few weeks I’ll be back in London for the day and I plan on stopping by Speedy’s, where they film some of the BBC show Sherlock. Now, the cast is currently on a summer hiatus but they should be back filming towards the end of the summer. I’m hoping for a little glimpse of filming (fingers crossed) and to meet Martin Freeman and/or Benedict Cumberbatch.  It’s a long shot but my hobbit interaction has made me hopeful!!!