Most people may be fairly creeped out by living directly across from a wax figures museum. Almost like living next to a cemetery...in Detroit...(I do miss spending time at your house Julie Smyth!) But for us residences of Marylebone Hall, it's one of the sights we see everyday--like the BT tower or the enormous statue of Sherlock Holmes. So, my flatmate Reena and I decided that because we lived so close to Madam Tussaud's, we HAD to go see it. We both have Wednesdays free from classes (which is quite nice...I like having Wednesdays off. Especially compared to last year when Wednesdays were my longest days, starting at 8:30 in the morning with a class and going until 11 at night ending with my Writing Center shift). Anyways, at this same time one of Reena's friends from home, Katie, was coming to visit. She had coupons to make the tickets a bit cheaper, so it was decided. We were going.
We knew we had to have an early start in the morning--otherwise queing to just get in the door would take forever. (The English's English: QUEUE: a line, the action to stand in line, lining up. the queue, to queue, queueing.) So got up around 9, I made pancakes for breakfast. (American pancakes....none of those thin, minimal syrup, got no body or substance British pancakes...thick, cake-like, delicious American pancakes. YUM!) and soon after crossed the street to stand in the respectably sized line that had already formed down the sidewalk. We only waited outside about 25 minutes, which we thought wasn't too bad. They had mimes to keep us entertained, trapsing up and down the sidewalks. But it wasn't until we entered the building that we realized that waiting outside was just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the whole first floor of the expansive Novi-Expo-Center-sized first floor was a zig-zag of one long continous line that criss-crossed up stairs and spiraled through multiple corridors. Fortunately, there were some wax figures and displays to keep you entertained while you wait, and it gave Reena, Katie, and I a chance to just talk for a good hour and half. So the wait was actually one of the highlights of the day. Eventually, we made it to the reception desk, paid for our tickets, and were escorted into a lift that popped us out in the middle of the rich and famous...wax replicas.
To try to describe the figures themselves would be an injustice...so check out the pictures I've posted on facebook, both on my page and the Zink Link page. There are lots, be forewarned!
The only part of the exhibit we didn't take any pictures in was the "Chamber of Horrors" part--mostly because we were legitimately scarred through the whole thing and didn't even think to capture our terror on film...er, I guess that phrase has to be altered to pixels now, right? Anyways, it was a short, walk-through tour, about 10 min. only. But they had live actors running through it. (Eva and Mackenzie, think of the ghost tour we took in Boston, choir people, think of the vaults tour we took in Edinburgh). Even I was shaken, and I am typically not too jumpy when it comes to displays like that. But when an actor got about an inch away from my face without me noticing and waited for me to turn and I literally yelped...while I was still in line to enter the exhibit, I knew this time would be different. All three of us holding hands, we tentitively walked through the first door, not sure what to expect, passing by prisons filled with actors moaning and groaning and screaming. Then one of the prison doors opened and we had a person chase us through a maze portion of the set. At one point, someone lept off some platform from high up and landed right in front of us and at another point, a grotesquely made-up actor got mere inches away from us and cornered us for a while. Our only consolation was that we knew they were allowed to touch us. Eventually running the rest of the way out, we concluded it was a pretty awesome exhibit! haha.
Once we left the museum (it took about two and half hours to go through completely), we decided to grab some lunch and do a little shopping on Oxford Street. We went to a store called PriMark...which is basically...well, imagine if Costo was extremely high class, and only sold clothing and shoes and bags, etc. That is a PriMark. Great stuff, cheap prices, TOTAL CHAOS! I remember thinking "can't wait until we get inside this store, the crowds on the sidewalk are getting to be too much." But then we entered the store and the crowds got worse! But well worth it.
It was quite a good day, especially since it was a Wednesday. I do love Wednessdays!
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