Outnumbered & Abroad: King’s Cross Station & The Globe Theater (Part 5)

King Cross Station (Tuesday, September 26, 2018) - Rejuvenated, we headed out on our next clue adventure that took us to none other than King Cross State! My inner Harry Potter nerd was going absolutely crazy! You see, I lived in the perfect time to have grown up with Harry Potter. As J.K. Rowlings writings matured as Harry matured, I, too, found myself going through the similar parallels of life that all kids diving into the world of teenage to young adult feel. Harry was a friend, as was Ron, Hermione and even Draco Malfoy, that helped shape my entire youth, as we waited for each next chapter of our life, like we did the next book in the series to be released.

Nicole with our reverse photo-bomb picture style.

I was shocked to see the tremendously long line to get a picture at the platform, so Nicole posed while we did what I call, “Disney-worlding it,” which is where you stand as close behind the mascot or item as you possibly can and then get a picture. That way you still get your picture, but you don’t have to waste any of your precious vacation time waiting in line. Bonus points if you have a friend great at photo shop that can take the people actually getting their picture taken next to the mascot or item, who ends up looking like they are photobombing in your picture.

Going through the shop, I knew that I had to get something Slytherin affiliated to authentically represent my official Hogwarts House (according to Pottermore). I settled on mailing letters, a beanie captors match Nicole’s Ravencalw one (for snowboarding/skiing, respectively), and a little black embossed journal. It may be my next prayer journal as I felt a ridiculously strong kick from my guilty conscious when I made a joke about turning it into my personal burn book of people that I strongly dislike.

Although I know I could easily fill a couple pages at this point in my life, I would rather use God to guide me to pray for these people rather than continue to dwell on whatever factors they contain that are intimidating or making me feel in a negative way towards them.

I kind of felt bad because the Johnson’s are not only not Harry Potter Fans, but they are also kind of against the whole nerdy culture of it. They were good sports and played along, but spent most of their time outside of the shop. Poor Warren Clayton was also having a plunge into extreme culture shock as he gave a wild side eye from outside of the shop and the transgender individual who was working the photo opportunity at Platform nine and three-quarters.

Randi with her program for The Winter’s Tale - a play that has nothing to do with “A Summer” like I thought when I wrote my journal entry for the night.

We then headed to the Globe Theater; the theater of William Shakespeare himself. If I had felt bad about keeping the Johnson’s at the Harry Potter place because it “wasn’t their thing,” any and all of that remorse may have gone away due to the The Globe. Now I know that Warren Clayton wasn’t especially riveted about The Globe either, but it was definitely something that Randi was on Cloud 9 for and I enjoyed getting to experience it through her eyes.

It was the beauty of watching someone that is extremely passionate and knowledgeable, not just in a hobby & self-taught kind of way, but in a higher educated kind of way as she has her masters, I believe, in Shakespearian Literature, see everything come to life that she has only seen in pictures in a book or pictures she has painted in her mind from a book or a lecture. I know you can see the joy in her eyes in the photo I posted, but it doesn’t do justice to the euphoria POURING off of her! I am grateful that I got to experience this piece of culture with her because, quite frankly, I was miserable and wouldn’t have done this activity on my own. She not only made it bearable, but memorable in it’s own positive way.

We watched A Summer something play by Shakespeare, which I found highly confusing. Not wanting to drop 42 pounds per seat at the play, we took the next step down which was a measly five pounds for standing room only on the floor. Lauren and her boyfriend, Dave, joined us and I kind of felt bad. The play itself was terribly dry, terribly long and, seeing as it was outdoors, EXTREMELY cold.

When I say cold, I don’t mean an average cold either. When we left the apartment, Nicole had been clad in only a t-shirt. Easily chills, I had based my clothes off of her. I was in a denim button down with a tank underneath. Then Nicole bought a sweatshirt at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

Nicole with her sweatshirt, being all warm with the cool night air colliding with the beautiful sunset.

Uh oh.

Randi ended up buying a sweatshirt at The Globe. I was determined to to buy any clothing, to save my money as I didn’t have much, and instead took the opportunity with Warren Clayton at the half hour intermission break to go to the coffee stand out front. The only coffee they had, though, was instant coffee. What kind of crap was that?!

Thank heavens they did have hot cocoa so I grabbed two scalding cups for Nicole and I, and was resolutely preparing myself to be miserable for the remainder of the show.

One thing that was for sure was that we had managed to get really good spots in the standing pit area for the show. If only I had been a few inches shorter, I would have bee the perfect height o have leaned on the floor of the stage like so many others that had fought their way to be front row around the stage.

Similar to the Happy Canyon play at Pendleton during the Round-Up, the play significantly picked up after intermission. The first part had been extremely slow, serious and stoic. The second part made no sense in the costumes and was a lot more righteous - thank heavens! It was a bit more enjoyable and allowed me to laugh a little bit, making the time go just a bit (but not much) faster.

Lauren and Dave were kind enough to walk us to our appropriate train station, sending us on our way for the night with promises to see us for dinner the next day.

Getting back to the room, we got our next clue for the next morning. The riddle was in - we were going to be off to Buckingham Palace! Now THIS was something that I could get excited for!

Something that I couldn’t get excited for, however, was that that “oh so nice bathroom,” was just an illusion. Growing all along the top of the ceiling, above the shower head, was one of the largest exterior patchworks of mold I have ever seen. To my dismay, it crossed through the bathroom wall as if it wasn’t there and went directly our our room. I am pretty allergic to the mold and mildew that grows int he walls during the rainy season - a lesson I learned the hard ways as a child in the modular units of my middle school.

I will say, though, that I had THE BEST PIZZA I have EVER had in my entire life when I made us stop for a Domino’s pizza on the way home from the train station to our room. I shall NEVER forget that pizza.