Part 2 of London! Sorry for the lengthy posts, y’all. I had a really good time in London and I don’t want to forget all the little things, so I’m just gonna go long!

When I last left off, Rainstorm and I had an amazing day at the Ritz. On Day 5 of our trip, we decided to wander around the Mayfair, Soho, and Bloomsbury areas. On my post-transatlantic trip in May 2024, the two of us had sat on the correct bench in Tavistock Square, which was the filming location stand-in for Berkeley Square in S1 of Good Omens. Obviously, we had to go back and redo this now that we were a couple! Plus, I wanted to look around the general Bloomsbury area for Virginia Woolf reasons. Saw a lot of fun things – including an Aziracrow sticker someone had put on a rubbish bin in the park and which I know was still around many months later because someone else posted about finding it – and explored another couple queer bookshops.

Eventually, we changed direction and went back down to St James, where we found a shady spot on a hill and I read more of our current story-in-progress to Rainstorm while they alternated between laying with their head in my lap and taking photos of ducks. It was a lazy day (which still involved healing a twisted ankle), and post-read, we wandered up to the Waterloo stair thingy and then up Regent St. We ate at Oshpaz, an Uzbek restaurant that I’d eaten at during my first trip to London in March 2024, and which became a setting for a scene in one of my fics. Then we headed to Her Majesty’s Theatre, where we had tickets for Phantom of the Opera (also a place I passed on my first trip, and used in a scene in a different fic). I’d seen Phantom once before, waaaaaay back in 2010 in Austin, but it was lovely to see it in the original theatre. Great experience!

Which continued into the night, where we wandered back to the same gay bar we’d had a drink at on our first full day in London. They were about to start a drag performance, so we nestled upstairs with everyone else and got rather drunk singing along like sillyheads before we finally left well past midnight and took a bus back to our hotel, getting chips along the way because Rainstorm was craving them. Honestly, this is why the two of us travel so well together. We’re both neurospicy, and we like having a mix of fixed plans and lots of open space to either wander or just rest at the hotel. In recounting all this, it sounds as if we fit tons of things in on purpose, but really, our only plan for this day was the musical. The rest we decided spur of the moment, based on how tired/injured we were, the weather, and what we found along the way. This is how it always is when we travel and it’s so perfect.

Okay. Back to London. Day 6 began a series of pre-TIC meetups. A bunch of folks planned various activities that visitors to London could do to meet other fans prior to the conference. On this day, we went to St James for a group picnic near the bench. I only knew one person besides Rainstorm, and even then, only because they were organizing many of the events. It was a little intimidating for me, but ironically, Rainstorm was in their element so it was okay that I was quiet and reserved as I got to know people. Eventually, two folks named Ruby and Jo joined the picnic, sitting beside us and teaming up with us on a group game (Cards Against Armageddon, which is yes, a GO-themed version of CAH). The four of us ended up talking tons, and this led to a really strong friendship forming between us all.

Unfortunately, we ended up having to leave the picnic a bit early because my body decided to remind me that it was born female ugh, so we went back to the hotel to deal with that and then made our way back to the evening activity, a meetup at the Enterprise pub. (Also a scene from GOS1.) Rainstorm and I ended up sitting at a table with Ruby and Jo again, and throughout the course of the night, Ruby and I decided to collaborate on a project (they’re a phenomenal artist!), and friendships were cemented. Because of our late night the previous day, we didn’t stay out super long, but the whole night was lovely.

Our last full day in London, we mostly stayed at the hotel. We had a big night ahead, and we decided to stay in and relax. (Did I mention how in-sync we are on this??) Towards late afternoon, we traveled down to the National Theatre area. We had tickets to see Nye, along with many other GO fans, since Michael Sheen was the star. There was a pre-show dinner meetup in the food court area there, where there was a mix of new people, people from the day before, and a few friends I was meeting in person for the first time. Conversation ran from the obvious (good omens!) to the bizarre (putting butter in salsa????) before it was time to file into the theatre. We all had different seats scattered throughout the show and planned to meet at the stage door afterwards. We’d signed cards for Michael Sheen at the various meetups and were going to hand them over to him or to the staff to give to him. It was unlikely he would be at the stage door – it was the last week of the show, and he hadn’t been going out – but we thought we’d try.

Now, fun-but-ineffable times struck again! On our Ritz day, Rainstorm and I had told the two teens we met that we were going to see Nye. They hadn’t known Michael Sheen was in a current show, and apparently after we parted, they both got tickets for the same night as us. They couldn’t get them together, so one was in the back of the theatre, and one – by random chance – ended up just a few seats down from us in our row. !!! It’s a huge theatre – the odds of that are insane! Anyway, the two of them saw us and came to talk to us because they’d brought stickers for us and wanted to ask if we could connect on social media. Then after the play – which was, btw, phenomenal!!! – they joined everyone out for the stage door gathering.

Sadly, Michael Sheen did not emerge. However, by another bit of random luck, Shelley Conn, who played Beelzebub in S2, was leaving after her own performance on a different show/stage, and got bombarded by GO fans, hahahaha. I didn’t get to say hello to her personally, but I got a lovely photo of Ruby getting a selfie with her. Eventually, we all gave up and went home, and the next day, Rainstorm and I packed up and prepped to take the train out west of London for TIC. Before we left, however, we met up with CS, who you might remember from the Dreilaendereck hike. She had come to London specifically to see Nye before the run was over, and our time in London overlapped by a single morning. Obviously, we had to get coffee together! We met near Spitalfields, wandered the market there, and got pastries/coffee before we said goodbye and the two of us headed off to TIC.

I’ll post separately about the con, because obviously that will need its own post, but because there were a couple extra post-con days in London – Chiswick, specifically – I’m going to include them with this post. For this part of the trip, Rainstorm and I stayed at a place I’ve stayed three times now in Chiswick. It’s really close to Chiswick High Road, and the area makes up a huge setting for a fic of mine that Rainstorm beta-ed. Our time there was basically spent with me showing them all the different spots, plus going to restaurants that I’d been to (including the Lebanese restaurant where Jesus – yes, that is his name – works). Unfortunately, these two days were highly impacted by 1) post-con blues, 2) the fact that I was flying back to Texas after two months and both of us were super sad, and 3) me coming down with post-con flu. Thankfully, it didn’t end up being covid, but I was so, so sick in our last day (and on my flight home). Rainstorm also got it a day after me, but at least was home before the worst of it hit. Being sad and sick and prepping to leave Europe after two amazing months was the worst. Absolutely soul-wrecking.

This is the other reason I chose to include those last few days here – I want the end of my Europe posts to be happy, and TIC was definitely happy. So next time, I’ll post about those brilliant days!