London Revisited
We just spent an enjoyable weekend in London - one of those lovely tardus weekends where it felt much bigger that it was.
Saturday saw us up at 0300 (ugh), flying to Stanstead, taking the airport train to Liverpool St station (45 mins), tubing to our hotel to drop our bags off, then straight back on the tube to Tottenham Court Rd (a good spot for electronics) where I picked up a Lumiquest Softbox (for better portraits) and a pair of headphones that don't make me look like an alien. Then to Liberty to look at wool. Then by tube to Angel to check out Islington (nice!) and another wool store. And then, wearily, we caught the overground to Hackney Central and walked for some time to the Broadway Market. Hackney was cool and the market was cool. It was lovely to see "alternative types" - it reminded us of Grey Lynn.
We bought samosa chaat and some latke and fish balls and ate them in the park. To our good fortune, there was a mini-heat wave. It was around 20° and it was supremely lovely. We tubed back our hotel, checked in, and zoned out.
On Sunday we met Laura's Friend Geraldine in Fulham and enjoyed brunch (Dublin doesn't do brunch), then some shopping, then a viewing of her apartment. Then it was multiple tubings and trainings to get us back to Stanstead for out flight at 1930.
Compared to my last (and first) trip, I slightly fell for London this time around. I'm sure the great weather had something to do with it, but so did the markets and brunch. Basically the cosmopolitanism ("so sophisticated as to be at home in all parts of the world or conversant with many spheres of interest"). Dublin is, sometimes delightfully, rustic by comparison. Don't get me wrong, I like Dublin, it's just different. Until the early 90s, Ireland had net migration. It's still finding it's feet in this regard. But it really does try hard, and often triumphs. And being able to visit London whenever one feels like it is pretty nifty.
Saturday saw us up at 0300 (ugh), flying to Stanstead, taking the airport train to Liverpool St station (45 mins), tubing to our hotel to drop our bags off, then straight back on the tube to Tottenham Court Rd (a good spot for electronics) where I picked up a Lumiquest Softbox (for better portraits) and a pair of headphones that don't make me look like an alien. Then to Liberty to look at wool. Then by tube to Angel to check out Islington (nice!) and another wool store. And then, wearily, we caught the overground to Hackney Central and walked for some time to the Broadway Market. Hackney was cool and the market was cool. It was lovely to see "alternative types" - it reminded us of Grey Lynn.
We bought samosa chaat and some latke and fish balls and ate them in the park. To our good fortune, there was a mini-heat wave. It was around 20° and it was supremely lovely. We tubed back our hotel, checked in, and zoned out.
On Sunday we met Laura's Friend Geraldine in Fulham and enjoyed brunch (Dublin doesn't do brunch), then some shopping, then a viewing of her apartment. Then it was multiple tubings and trainings to get us back to Stanstead for out flight at 1930.
Compared to my last (and first) trip, I slightly fell for London this time around. I'm sure the great weather had something to do with it, but so did the markets and brunch. Basically the cosmopolitanism ("so sophisticated as to be at home in all parts of the world or conversant with many spheres of interest"). Dublin is, sometimes delightfully, rustic by comparison. Don't get me wrong, I like Dublin, it's just different. Until the early 90s, Ireland had net migration. It's still finding it's feet in this regard. But it really does try hard, and often triumphs. And being able to visit London whenever one feels like it is pretty nifty.
Labels: david, Travelling
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