"Following a vampire and an archaeologist to London" Trip Report COMPLETE About This Page:

[goofysdtr]

Forget Team Edward or Team Jacob, I'm now on Team Paul!

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update!!

[Tinkerboo]

Originally Posted by Wendyismyname

Man, he is DELICIOUS!!! I LOVE the baseball picture!! So hot!!

I second that - he is way better looking than Edward, especially with the blonde hair. And as a doctor, you just know he'll be good with his hands.

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by ccmom

Hey, if you ever get over here for an Alaskan cruise you can take a side trip to Forks, the town Twilight takes place in.

I'm actually thinking about that!

Originally Posted by Wendyismyname

Man, he is DELICIOUS!!! I LOVE the baseball picture!! So hot!!

More pictures of hot Peter to come

Originally Posted by Wendyismyname

These pictures lead me to believe that you are NOT shy, no matter what you say!!

Trust me!!!

Originally Posted by Nimros

I do not know how Manuel is handling all your hugs. Did he get a hug from Jewel?

Maybe...

Originally Posted by Nimros

As a side, I see that here in Nashville we're having a Twilight Con in January, and our special guest will be Peter Facinelli!!! I think I will have to check this out...

You should! It's a lot of fun

Originally Posted by goofysdtr

Forget Team Edward or Team Jacob, I'm now on Team Paul!

SO AM I!!! All the way!!!

Originally Posted by Tinkerboo

I second that - he is way better looking than Edward, especially with the blonde hair. And as a doctor, you just know he'll be good with his hands.

[PrincessSharon]

I don't watch any of those shows and I've never read/seen anything from the Twilight series, but that looks like a great time.

[Lemap760]

I just got done reading everything from the start. Great pictures and quite a lot of eye candy at the convention.
Was Richard Dean Anderson there? I would have loved to meet him.

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by Lemap760

Was Richard Dean Anderson there?

No, unfortunately he wasn't. Doesn't seem like he's doing any conventions these days.

[Disneybine]

Sunday, July 19 – Part two: YOU want a picture with Manuel???

After getting Peter’s autograph, we strolled through the convention hall a little. By the time we got to the photo session area, Peter had already started taking pictures. Manuel got in line with me even though he wasn’t having his picture taken. Watching the photo shoot going on, I couldn’t help but think of a conveyor belt – it probably took only about 15 seconds total to get a person in position with Peter, take the pic, check the pic on the camera, and move on to the next person! Probably around 99% of the people who were having their picture taken with Peter were female, by the way (well, no surprise there!). When it was my turn, I walked up to Peter while Manuel walked on through to wait for me on the other side of the photographer. I asked Peter if I could get a hug picture. He smiled and hugged me but must have noticed Manuel walking by, as he asked me: “Is he gonna be ok with that?”. I said he’s fine!





After the picture was done, Peter turned to the photographer and – pointing at Manuel – said: “I wanna take a picture with him!” Erm, what??? He quickly glanced at the security guy standing close to him, adding “Is that ok?” The security guy just shrugged, so the photographer signaled Manuel to come on up! This is the picture:



Peter added: “This one’s on me, guys!” before we walked away, completely stunned. As you can see on the picture, we had Peter sign it and write “I wanted a picture with him” on it – after all, we needed proof!!! I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day!



After this fabulous photo shoot, we left the convention hall to grab some lunch. We went to a pizza place nearby. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t very good but to be honest, after that encounter with Peter, I wasn’t really able to eat anything anyways.




Manuel’s pizza



We got back to Earl’s Court 2 around 1:45pm. I realized that the auction was about to start so we headed to the main talk area for that. There were a few items we bid on but were outbid on all but one of them. Manuel managed to get a signed picture of Jason Momoa for a real bargain price.


Some items that were auctioned off. I really liked the picture of Edward and Bella (signed by 5 Twilight cast members, I think) but it was way out of my price range!


The picture we bought.

After the auction, we stayed for the Terminator talk with Edward Furlong and Bruce Boxleitner.


During this talk, Manuel went to have his picture taken with Jewel Staite:


On a side note: You know how I always hug the guys in my photo shoots? Well, I’m sure you’ll notice that Manuel is barely touching Jewel Staite in the pic above. Guess I trained him well!

Soon after the talk area had been cleared after the Terminator talk, people started filing in for the Twilight talk. Gold Pass holders were allowed to stay in the talk area, though – which meant seats in the first row directly in front of the stage for us again! YAY!

This is Stewart, reminding the audience that cheering for the guests is perfectly fine, screaming, however, not so much.


Excessive screaming seems to be a big problem at conventions in the U.S. but fortunately, there weren’t that many potential “screamers” (i.e. teenage girls) in the audience at the LFCC so our ears weren’t strained too much.

Justin Chon was the first to make his way to the stage. He had a blast filming us!


Next up was Alex Meraz:



See how close we were to the stage? This picture was taken without using the camera’s zoom!

Here comes Peter Facinelli:



Peter thanking us all for coming.

We were only allowed to take pictures with flash in the first few minutes of the talk, so the organizers waiting a bit before going around with the mike. The three guys just sat on stage till Peter pointed out: “This awkward silence is killing me, people!” So the questions began. I’m sorry but I really don’t remember much of what was said...







What I thought was very cool is that the guys felt comfortable enough to walk out into the audience when answering questions.


Eventually, I managed to get ahold of the mike myself:



I asked Peter who people usually recognize first when he and his wife (Jennie Garth from 90210) walk around in a park or a mall or something. He said that it used to be Jennie but now it’s about 50/50.



All three guys seemed to be very relaxed and comfortable on stage.



Peter was asked which scene from Twilight that he wasn’t in he would have liked to be in. He said hanging out in a tree looked cool. Justin was asked if he’d rather be a vampire or a werewolf. He picked being a vampire because they are immortal and because werewolf smell! I also remember Peter asking Alex if it felt weird to him to be this popular before New Moon is even out and he said yes, definitely.



The funniest part was when Peter was asked which special ability he’d like to have as Carlisle. He said he would like to be able to fly. That got him talking about his “Edward envy”. It’s not so much that he wants to be Edward but that he envies his special talent. All Carlisle has is his compassion. Peter said something along the lines of “I can’t go up to the Volturi, telling them ‘Hey, I’m the most compassionate vampire in the world and I’m gonna compassionate the hell out of you! I will smite you with my compassion!' I mean, honestly, couldn’t I fly AND have compassion?”





Sometime during the talk Peter said he'd like to know what would happen if he (a vampire) bit Alex (a werewolf). Well, grinning from ear to ear I told him that it's in the book - and I told him what would happen... Does anybody know? I'll make this my second Twilight trivia question:

What happens when a vampire bites a werewolf?

All too soon, the 45-minute talk was coming to an end. Stewart (the organizer guy from the picture above) told Peter that they needed to wrap things up. Peter answered “Dude, I’m gonna do whatever you say because you scare me!” (Stewart is very tall, and Peter was smiling while he said it so he was just joking around). When Stewart didn’t look, Peter said: “Quick, he’s not looking, we’ll do one more question.” And with that, he jumped into the audience to get to someone and have them ask another question. All in all, the talk was very relaxed and informal, and that’s what made it so much fun.

As we left the talk area, everybody got a limited number picture:



We went to pick up our photo shoot pictures, got Manuel’s pic with Peter signed (as posted above), and then sadly had to leave the convention to get to the airport.


At Earl’s Court Underground station.

The trip back to Stansted Airport was uneventful. I had to carry our Jason Momoa picture around as we wanted to make sure it made it back home in one piece.



Here’s Manuel in the tram that took us to our terminal.


We had the entire tram to ourselves


And here we just landed back in Germany, exhausted but happy!

I’m really glad we took this spur-of-the-moment trip. We both had a great time at the convention (even if Manuel had to watch me hug all those cute guys!) and it definitely won’t be our last. We even already bought tickets for the RingCon in Germany in October. Also, it was so nice to see Mark and Cheryl again! One thing I'll try to remember: Next time we fly to London, we'd fly into Heathrow instead of Stansted as it is a lot closer to the city.

Now I can't wait for New Moon to come to theaters!!! And of course I'm Team Paul now

[Colexis Mom]

Great finish Sabine! Glad you had a great last day! Love the pictures! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!!

[PrincessSharon]

The Twilight talk sounds like it was great fun! It was really interesting reading about your time at the con. It's something I'd never do so it was fun hearing about it. Thanks for sharing!

[orionchika]

Sabine, Girl..... you had a GREAT hunk-filled weekend; besides being married to a gorgeous hunk, you gots lots of nice hugs from great runner-ups!

[Nimros]

Great finish!!! But I want.......MORE!!! It was over too soon.

So glad Manuel got his 'hug' - and a photo with Jewel, too.

The Twilight talk was super; I still don't know how you got up there and asked your questions without being totally nervous - you look calm and relaxed - just like one of the cast, Sabine.

I'm hoping you'll write another TR for the Con in October.

[sc507]

Wow - I'm so jealous of all of those hugs!! You're one lucky lady! Glad you had a great time on your trip and thanks for sharing it with us!

[chezp]

What a great trip it's been! That last session did look very relaxed and informal - I think it's great to see that they can be that way, as I know sometimes they're very formal. It seems to me that they did a great job of setting everyone at ease all weekend.

It was so good to see you guys - and I hope it won't be your last trip over here, as it would be great to see you again, especially at a time when we're both feeling better.

By the way, Heathrow is a bit closer to London that Stansted, but you're unlikely to get any cheap flights into there. Stansted is the home of cheap flights and Heathrow is home to the scheduled airlines, who tend to charge a lot more money.

[Disneybine]

Thank you SO much for reading and commenting on my trip report, everybody It's what makes this fun and motivates me!

We're currently thinking about a trip to northern Scandinavia in September (I'll find out tomorrow if I can take vacation days at work - so keep your fingers crossed!!). If any of you are interested in that, keep your eyes on the Globetrotting TR forum

Originally Posted by Nimros

Great finish!!! But I want.......MORE!!! It was over too soon.

I'm hoping you'll write another TR for the Con in October.

I sure will!!!

Originally Posted by Nimros

The Twilight talk was super; I still don't know how you got up there and asked your questions without being totally nervous - you look calm and relaxed - just like one of the cast, Sabine.

Thank you But trust me, I was *really* nervous!!! I'm not good at talking in front of 500 people!

Originally Posted by chezp

It was so good to see you guys - and I hope it won't be your last trip over here, as it would be great to see you again, especially at a time when we're both feeling better.

By the way, Heathrow is a bit closer to London that Stansted, but you're unlikely to get any cheap flights into there. Stansted is the home of cheap flights and Heathrow is home to the scheduled airlines, who tend to charge a lot more money.

Yes, now that Manuel was sick when we met at WDW and you guys were sick when we came to London, I think it'd be great if next time, everyone was feeling well

Yes, a flight into Heathrow would have been more expensive - but the different wasn't that much. When you figure in the cost for the Stansted Express, it's even less of a difference in price.