I always turn eagerly to the holidays section of my guidebooks to see if my trips coincide with major holidays or celebrations. I am an adept at holiday near-misses: in my last attempt, I had landed on the last day of a major food festival in Lima. November 5, or Bonfire Night, was a holiday I knew well thanks to V for Vendetta. At the cost of one day of recovery before returning to work, I stayed the entirety of November 5, because friends and fireworks.
We met up for early lunch at the Borough Market. The Borough Market was a delicious maze of tantalizing smells and ginormous wheels of cheese that made my little midwestern heart sing. Little stands peddled homemade honey, produce and meats, tons of cheeses, and lots of hot drinks and food. I got a meat pie (yeah!), mulled wine, and the best milkshake of all time.
It was one of the colder days we had all week, and naturally in Minnesota it was warm and sunny. I was not ready for this cold, and having a milkshake left me shivering for a while. Doesn’t matter, was so tasty, would do again. We ducked into a pub and plotted our next move, to the Tate, because it was free and filled with art.
Inside the Tate, we were attracted by a sudden zombie-like moan. The source seemed to be a huge moving art display you could lie on the ground and stare up at near the entrance. It was consisted of white panels that raised and lowered, a projector, and a speaker that was playing advertisements and other sounds. Curious about the source of the zombie noise, we laid on the floor for a time and stared up at it, pondering where the line was between art and being plain confusing. It did not make the zombie noise again, but did eventually project a giant cuttlefish on one of the screens…for what that was worth.
The galleries had displays large and small, interactive, and many used modern technology or patterns so they looked different depending on the perspective of the viewer.
After warming up in the museum, we headed over to King’s Cross Station so I could get my Harry Potter on at Platform 9 3/4. If you have eternal patience, you can wait in line to get your picture taken with the cart that’s stuck in the wall. I chose to take a sneaky picture between people and then hit up the store shamelessly.
There was a horrific pile of Dobby right in the entryway of the store. Gross. Maybe they were piled up to be burned in a bonfire night effigy? I could only hope.
We headed back to West Acton for dinner, tea, hangouts, and fireworks. I had an American-style burger the size of my face and wolfed it down with reckless American abandon as is the way of my people.
As is our tradition, we parted ways with fireworks! Last time, it was muggy Japanese midsummer near the seaside in Chiba, with convenience store beers in hand, fireworks timed to the Ponyo theme song. This time, we stood in a freezing cricket field in a western London suburb, fireworks bursting to classic American songs. It was the closest I have ever been to the mysterious and incomprehensible sport of cricket.
It would be a decidedly better sport with fireworks and mulled wine. 🙂
We wandered back and drank tea and watched the IT Crowd to warm up. We sadly had to part ways – til next time, London! You were magical.