London, more than half a day this time

Ahoy,

One of the primary reasons we arranged this trip was to see A's bestie, J. He's at uni in London. I chose an airbnb near his place, also near the Tower Bridge. Our plane left on Dec 26, and arrived Dec 27. I gave J a lot of details about our itinerary because I wasn't sure how we would find him. We arrived from the tube a little later than I guesstimated, but we happened to just run into J on our way to pick up our keys for the airbnb. What a fortunate circumstance! Honestly, I was nervous about finding him because A and J's typical protocol relies on a last minute phone call and I was really not confident that would work for us this time. I've learned to not always expect reliable wi-fi abroad. Picking up the keys was so simple. They have this thing called 'keynest' where the homeowner left her keys at a shop nearby for me to come pick up. I think it's because doors are too old to install those number keypad things that are so common here.

We dropped off our things and darted back out while it was still daylight. At a very brisk pace, our reluctant local tourist guide walked us to the Bermondsey arts district area. We got sub-par coffee and sub-par pizza. After munching our items at J's dorm kitchen, we went back out just as the sun was setting. We stumbled upon the tower bridge where we stopped for tourist pictures to commemorate our trip from 6 years ago when we had a massive row in that spot. It's funny how locations and moments in time are made more memorable from these spats. 

We walked by the borough market as it was closing, and then along the Thames all the way to the Tate. I stopped too often to look at the holiday market stalls, which I was honestly happy to stall time because if you know me, you know I don't like art museums. I was falling asleep at the museum and luckily it closed shortly after we arrived. We ended our day at a quiet pub where we had sub-par fish and chips. I was really starting to dread British cuisine. Apparently, my bar was not low enough.

A says I slept for 10 hours that night. He woke at 5am and watched 2 hours of food videos determined to satisfy his palette more than yesterday. We went to the greasy spoon, a term for a diner like place, across the street where he ordered a huge platter of a full English breakfast. We practically pulled J out of bed that morning when we crashed his flat. First stop, coffee at the borough market. I ogled a tomato bowl. We will see the theme of my desired souvenirs will be housewares. We walked all the way to the British museum where we stood in a massive queue. It's truly remarkable the scale of museums when you've had centuries of history and colonialism to accumulate stuff. They were able to just keep letting people in because it was so large- they would never reach capacity. 

I scurried us out of there when I got hungry, but also because the place I wanted was about to close. We didn't even see half of the first floor. You could really spend days in there. At roti king, a Malaysian place, there was a queue of folks who appeared to be Malaysian- good sign. We were among the last parties to receive admittance. Worth it. I was so happy to have food better than we had yesterday. Next we ventured to the British library where they had a display of important historical documents, i.e. original Beatles handwritten songs, religious things, maps, etc. the Harry Potter exhibit was sold out. Nearby at King's Cross, we ogled the massive queue for the platform 9 3/4 photo spot. We looked into the shopping districts at Oxford St and Covington gardens. 

We wanted pie and ales for dinner. At the tube station, an attendant found a location that would have us backtrack, ultimately adding over a mile extra to our walk that day. Later, I would notice they had a location across the street from this tube station. It did not show up in his search that night. This also was better than our abysmal food the day before, which we appreciated. 

Our final full day in London greeted us with a rainy morning. It stopped before noon. We got coffee and food at borough market again. A and J got the famous raclette and grilled cheese. We took the tube to the natural history museum where we stood in a massive queue again. The museum was ginormous. Once we were museumed out, we walked into Hyde park with the ultimate goal of an Indian street food place. We stopped at a cafe in the park for tea and I knew we were not getting to lunch anytime soon at this pace. I ordered real food here. We saw the princess Diana and Prince Albert memorials. Finally, our lunch spot turned into dinner. It was a good sign the place was packed with Indians. We zipped back to our hood to send J off at the Tate. Later that night, we met my college friend at a pub. We lamented over crummy British food. 

The next morning A went to the greasy spoon while I lazed in our cave bed. When he came back he noticed I was still in bed and took that as a cue to have another coffee. I changed in a jiffy and was ready to go before he poured his cup. I don't know why he is always surprised how quickly I can get ready. Let's put it on the record that I am not the one to hold us up. The tube ride was smooth and we got a whole car to ourselves. Our original plan to take the train was foiled when we saw tickets for $200 per person. Luckily we found a much more reasonable flight to Brussels at $150 total. 

best,

jt