London, UK

We went to London for one reason: musicals. Iris loves them—she was even in one back in the Philippines. Me? Not so much. I grew up listening to commercial music, mostly R&B and hip-hop.

Iris introduced me to musicals, and the first one I ever saw was The Lion King. It absolutely blew my mind. Aside from bringing back childhood memories, the production was insane. If you ever get the chance to watch it, don’t overthink—just go for it.

Once you’re done with The Lion King, Hamilton should be next on your list. That was the one I was most excited to see in London. Listen to it on Spotify, and you’ll understand why. But watching it live? That’s a whole different experience. You’ll definitely wish you were in the room where it happened. 😉

Having a Philippine passport means we don’t have the privilege of visiting London as often as we’d like. We had to secure a visa, and we managed to get one for six months. But then came another issue: London is crazy expensive. We couldn’t afford to stay long, so we went just for the weekend. Still, we made the most of it, squeezing in three musicals: Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, and Wicked.

Of course, it wasn’t all musicals. We also enjoyed some classic English breakfasts at The Breakfast Club and Bar Bruno. And we couldn’t resist grabbing a few books at Waterstones.

A few months later, we went back for more musicals—because why not? And also because our visas were about to expire. 😆 This time, we saw Mamma Mia!, Hadestown, and Six. Man, don’t even get me started on Six because I won’t. Just go watch it.