You know that rare moment you get when, while experiencing something you suddenly realise that you are forming a precious memory? This. This Friday me and George had this almost constantly when we went to a sleepover at the Natural History Museum.
When I asked George what kind of present he wanted for his 21st he said an experience. For my 21st he had bought me tickets to the Ballet in Vienna at Christmas time (ie when Vienna is at it's Christmas-marketty best) and so I knew I had to do pretty well here. Cue frantic researching. Finally I found the coolest thing. Dinosnores for adults- a sleepover at the Natural History museum with an amazing three course meal and activities all night. I was sold. We were excited!
We arrived at 6:30 to find a spot in the hall to sleep in. This was such a fun beginning! When we arrived the museum was all shut up so there was a guard on the closed gate, as went up to him and nervously asked about Dinosnores he swung open the massive doors to let us in. It felt like such a little special secret world!
If you get a chance to go to this event, do it! One of the most wonderful things about it was just how organised it was. As we arrived we were given a little time to settle in and get a free drink and then from that point onwards we just had a plethora of fun things to do. We had an amazing meal, a gin tasting, a stand up comedy show (which was about frogs, so naturally I was a little skeptical, but it was actually hilarious), and then a lecture about the sex lives of insects. After that we were set free in the museum to wander where ever we pleased. If this wasn't exciting enough they also gave us a treasure hunt to do if we wanted. I repeat, a treasure hunt. It was amaze-balls.
I had so many little favourite moments of the night which just felt magical so I thought I'd make a list so I never ever forget.
WE WERE PRACTICALLY ALONE AT NIGHT IN THE FREAKIN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM! That's sooooo cool! There was about half an hour where me and George were the only people in the Dinosaur exhibit. You know that hellish room with kids screaming and yelling where you can't actually really see anything because of all the crowds? Yeah that one. Complete blissful silence.
I've never seen anything cooler than the shadows of dinosaurs on walls in a completely eerie, silent room.
It's pretty cool to walk around a museum with a beer. Alcohol in places you're not usually allowed alcohol is a strangely wonderful thrill.
At 3am when everyone was getting sleepy they handed out a load of floor pillows and put Jurassic Park on a projector. It felt all kinds of wonderful.
Running from exhibit to exhibit trying to find answers to the treasure hunt made everyone look like a little kid on a school trip.
After watching Jurassic park we found our way back to the main hall. All the lights had been turned off in the corridors and so me and George walked along hand in hand guided by our phones. At one point we looked up and the beam of light just passed over this giant turtle which was suspended from the ceiling. It was just so magical to have all these amazing artefacts just there in the dark, waiting to be seen.
One of my favourite things was that as we fell asleep there was a harpist playing for us. I adore harp music, it puts me in a weird meditative trance which just completely made my night the most magical it could possibly be.
In short, if you can go to Dinosnores, go to Dinosnores.