Was it a full moon?

After traveling back from Hampton Court Palace to London Saturday my plan was to do the Sweeney Todd Audiowalk and then go see the movie. See, the meat pie theme continues…

The tour started outside of the Temple tube station, looking out over the Thames. As I turned away from the river, my attention was drawn to the mass of people standing outside of Walkabout, an Australian pub across the street. I began to wonder if there was some sporting event happening that I didn’t know about. Following the tour guide’s voice, I walked back across the street and along the edge of a public park that had lots of foot traffic, and in the middle of it, I saw an Australian lad drop his pants down to his ankles and take a pee in the most public way I have ever seen. EVERYONE saw all of him. You may be wondering, J, how did you know he was Australian? I’m just taking a guess since the only thing that was covering him as he stood in the park was an Australian flag draped around his shoulders.

Continuing on in the tour, I passed what had to be some kind of tour group of about 75 goths in all black, leather, piercings, vampire gear, the whole works. There were so many of them that I had to stand aside as they all descended a public staircase before I could walk up.

Continuing on the tour, standing outside a pub, was a very rough looking character in boots and leather jacket, but attached to the back of his leather jacket was a furry long lion’s tail. Just goes to show that you just don’t know what you will see on the streets of a big city.

How was the Sweeney Todd Audiowalk? I enjoyed it. It was a bit promotion-heavy for the movie but I didn’t mind that, because I was interested in why Tim Burton wanted to make the film. The tour focused on the history of Fleet Street, as well as the history of the story of Sweeney Todd. It also took you down some narrow alleyways which made me happy I was doing the tour in broad daylight.

And P.S. I found out on Monday that Saturday was Australia Day, and the cause of the celebration.