The world's longest running play!

I am admittedly a huge Agatha Christie fan. So when I found out I'd be in London for a few days, the first thing I thought was that I needed to go see The Mousetrap.

It has very impressively been running for 60 years now in London, which does make it the longest running play in the world. Surprisingly, Agatha Christie herself didn't think that this play would last very long; she predicted a 9 month run at most.

This was probably my most anticipated activity in London. I've read the short story that was the basis of this play, and I was curious to see how it translated onto the stage.

The theater itself was a very small one, and I sat high up in the upper circle. While it initially seemed like the stage was really far away, I ended up liking this bird's eye view as it was easier to take in the entire set and all the characters.

The setting is a lodging house in the middle of a snowstorm. A policeman comes and gives the news that one among them is a murderer, and another is a potential victim. And even though I already knew how it all goes down, I still got a little chill down my spine when all was revealed and the audience gasped. Surprisingly, after the curtain, the cast implored us not to spoil the ending... which after 60 years, is quite the quaint request!

London, in Pictures

I feel like I've walked 10 miles in two days!

Big Ben. Picture taken in the 5 minutes between rain showers.

Trafalgar Square. Crowded but impressive.

London Eye. Too damn pricey to go up in it.

Picturesque window

There are surprisingly still a lot of these old booths around!

Decorative phone booths. These were cool.

When in London... drink a pot o' tea!

View from hotel window. So lush! So green!

Somerset House. The fountains were... interesting.

Browsed an art gallery. This piece is called "Foxnews".  :D

How many times did I almost get run over because of the @#$(% opposite side of the road thing? Zero. Because of helpful signs like these.

I gots snacks!

One of my favorite thing about visiting other countries is browsing around their supermarkets. Forget about high end shopping, fancy bags and shoes. I will be happy when I find a snack that I've never tried before.

I love English snacks. Who decided that this flavor belonged on a chip?

For the record, it tasted like beef bullion and wasn't very good.

And even when you find familiar flavors, they come in different shapes and sizes:

I really liked the Cheese Quavers. They were like a lighter version of Bugles and surprisingly not too salty. I am slightly disappointed to not find any Worchester flavored chips... those are my favorite.

Besides snacking, I did manage to fit in a proper meal or two. One of my guidebooks recommended a place called Arbutus, known for their modern British cuisine. I was definitely curious as to what modern British cuisine could entail, and it was a 10 minute stroll from the theater I was headed to that evening, so I ducked in for an early dinner.

So for £18.50, I got to choose a 2-course meal. It was an interesting menu, one that I would not peg as very British. If anything, I saw a lot of French influence. In the end, I decided on a country paté as a starter, and roasted rabbit as my main dish.

I received a good portion of paté, presented with some toasted bread, bitter greens, and a sweet chutney. I was surprised at how smooth it was; in my experience, country patés were often left very chunky. This one, however, was smooth with a very definite creamy liver flavor. I suspect that the cubes pictured in the terrine is mostly fat. A thin aspic of something tangy (maybe lemon)  on top as well as the greens kept everything from tasting too heavy and fat. Nevertheless, I think I would have been satisfied with a smaller portion of this.

Yes, I ate Bugs Bunny.

It looks just like chicken, doesn't it? It tasted a lot like it too, but with a different texture. Almost as if its muscle structure is different (and of course it is). The meat tasted extremely lean, and I would have preferred an extra dash of salt. The rabbit was accompanied with a bright green puree (this had an interesting flavor, and I was told later that it was peas flavored with lemon verbena). There were also some greens on the plate (I think it was kale), which were sauteed with some capers. My absolute favorite thing on the dish though, were the beets. I loooooove beets. :) And these were cooked two ways: the darker one was simply roasted, the lighter ones were lightly pickled. I could have eaten a whole bowl of them. All in all, I really appreciated the contrasts of flavors and textures presented in this dish.

London Underground

There was a moment, when I was sitting in the subway... pardon me, TUBE... when I had to stifle a giggle or two. And then I had to pinch myself, to make sure that this was really happening. I'm in London!

Four observations about the London Underground (aka, why it's not like the NYC subway):

1. The trains come OFTEN. Like, every minute and a half. In three days, through various lines and transfers, the longest time I've had to wait for a train was TWO minutes.

2. Londoners must either be cleaner than New Yorkers, or not care about hygiene as much. Subway seats are padded and covered in cloth. Wait. Where did the black plague originate from again?

3. Everything sounds more polite in a British accent. I don't know why it tickled me so much, but I envision an extremely competent and unsmiling English secretary moonlighting as the automated announcements voice for the subway. 'The next stop is... Green Park. Alight here for... Buckingham Palace.' Oooooo. Classy.

4. The names of all the underground lines are *bleeping* annoying. Did I want the Circle line? District?? Central? Picadilly?? Seriously, the cities that use colors in combination with letters or numbers are way ahead of the game. Then again, maybe Londoners WANT tourists to get lost!

All in all, I am having a blast. More to come... with more pictures and details!