Over the summer, after my visit to the Netherlands, I flew to London for Reality. Nicole and I flew together from the Netherlands, and we ended up taking the tube to the wrong place and walked very far to get to where we were staying. But we made it, and that night we celebrated our arrival with lamb meatballs and beer from Exmouth Arms.
The next morning, we got coffee at Grub on the Green (which ended up becoming our daily ritual), and kicked off our week by taking the tube to Southwark, walking through the Borough Market, visiting Charles Spurgeon’s church, and eating chicken tikka masala (which is a British national dish), at London’s “first Punjabi restaurant,” Punjab. We ended the night at the Square Pig with beer and cards.
The rest of the trip consisted of lots of church sessions, coffee from Grub on the Green, tube rides, really delicious sourdough pizza from Franco Manga, the best carrot cake and earl grey I’ve had in a long time from Kahaila Cafe, fish and chips from the Laughing Halibut, many beers, beigels from Beigel Bake, more coffee, more beers, and more tube rides.
We visited Notting Hill, Kensington & Chelsea, Kensington Palace, Stratford & Hackney, London Tower, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, King’s Cross Station, and Lambeth.
One night, Cauchy, Dorian, Nicole, and I went to see Wicked, while the rest of our group saw the Phantom of the Opera. Another day, we hung out at Boxpark, which is a minimalist’s dream.
One night, we went out for dinner at Dishoom, which we had heard great things about. It was some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had, and I think about it often. It will be one of my first stops whenever I return to London.
As soon as I got used to cars being on the other side of the road, it was time to leave. Until next time, London.
