The Halloween celebrations in the United Kingdom began the week before Halloween. My roommates and I visited Thorpe Park, an amusement park a few hours outside the city. We rode some haunted themed roller coasters that took us on an upside down thrilling adventure. The park set up many haunted mazes. Once darkness came around, we walked into a dark path with an old housewife in a rocking chair. She was holding a doll giving us a hopeless look. Another room had a man in silver chains chasing us with a chainsaw
I got to celebrate Halloween London style. In the past few years, the American holiday of Halloween has gotten big in the city. I visited a club that was disguised as a haunted hotel. When I walked in, I headed down a dark staircase with a man in chains trapped in a cage screaming for help. As I walked around, I saw white doors with people in red uniforms. They wore hats with headsets around them. I felt like I was in American Horror story. There was a bathtub of blood and a broken mirror in front of me. Blood stained housemaids were crossing my path. A clown on stilts caught me off guard when I walked around the corner.
I got a chance to visit my family in Kettering, England for a few days. This is my cousin Silvia, her niece Nyovi and her husband Leon. They came to work and live in the UK from Greece two years ago. I spent time showing my niece how to carve a pumpkin. This was her first year celebrating Halloween in England, as this is not a holiday celebrated in Greece. She was ecstatic that her first pumpkin was carved and ready to show it off to trick-or-treaters.
On Halloween night, I experienced a “proper” haunted Halloween, as they say in the UK. Hundreds of people lined up outside the venue dressed as play dolls, zombies, vampires, bunnies and other terrifying creatures. After an hour of waiting in line, my friend and I walked into what looked like a spooky old cellar with green strobe lights, spider webs and decaying skeleton bones on the walls. All in all, I was very impressed with my Halloween experience. For sure, it was a special one to remember.
