Halloween in London

I woke up Saturday morning and completely forgot that it was Halloween. They do celebrate it here, but it's definitely on a smaller level and in a different way. I'm sure children get just as into it; I saw two or three kids in costumes days before the actual holiday. But you don't see near as many decorations in shops or front yards all throughout October like they are at home. And when people dress up - they go ScArY. I went to Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Circus to run a couple errands/ window shop :) and saw several people walking around in the most horrifying get-ups. Fake blood, heavy makeup, the whole shebang. The scariest was in front of Ripley's Believe it or Not where, if you weren't careful, the dressed up ghouls would squirt you with fake blood. What??

I didn't see my new friend (random-theatre-boy) all day so I didn't have plans when I went to dinner at the hostel that night. Another guy sat down to eat alone and I recognized him from around the hostel - I think we checked in about the same time. He introduced himself to me as KP from New Jersey/ New York, also travelling alone. What is it with all the Americans travelling alone? We went to the hostel pub after dinner and found plenty of other groups looking to celebrate Halloween. There was a group of five or six American girls from Purdue studying in Venice but on a weekend holiday - you'll see them in my pictures all wearing gigantic feather masks. Throughout the night if you forgot the name of one of these (wasted) girls you could simply refer to her as a "Feather." There was a guy who was Sam Hedges's lookalike (you can't tell as much from the picture - his hair is parted in a weird way). There was a girl from California dressed as a belly dancer- she got the outfit in Egypt last month while she's been on her 6month journey around the world. There were also several Australians that just put on masks, they were pretty funny. The Germans were a hoot but didn't come out with us because they went to a crazier part of town, and the French were waaay too cool to recognize Halloween (though I did grow a little fond of this group.)

I felt a little adventurous before leaving the hostel and put my "costume" on. A couple people called me Hermione and although I was actually Ginny Weasley it still tickled me that they noticed my tie. Here are some pics below:

Me and one of the Feathers, Stephanie (yeah, same name!)

I told you they were scary! These were our bartenders.

Me, Chris from New Hampshire, and KP.

We hung out the next day too before they both left London.

Piccadilly Circus at night!