Week 6: LONDON HERE WE COME

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March 1, 2025

I have been preparing for this trip all week! This morning I had to wake up at 2:30 am to catch a flight at 6 am. You must be wondering, why so early? Well, it takes about 40 mins to commute from my dorm to Copenhagen Airport. Another thing that I didn't expect was passport control. The non-EU line was packed and took about 20 minutes to get through. Thankfully we made it out in time to get to our gate.

We landed at London Stansted Airport but had to take an uber to get to the actual city. We didn't get much sleep on the way here, so the car ride was a perfect time for a nap. Once we finally made it. We got dropped off right by a souvenir shop. It was nice to get our souvenir shopping out of the way. With time to stall, we headed to the famous Borough Street Market. I am glad we went early because it got crowded quickly.

I was so happy to get my matcha fix at Jenki Matcha. I ordered an Iced Matcha Latte with oat milk, and it was divine. I also picked up a 40g tin of their Matcha. It is becoming a habit to buy matcha wherever I go. For brunch, I ordered gnocchi pasta from La Tua Pasta. Zach and I also shared oysters and uni (sea urchin) all for $26. That wasn't all, I ended up going back for another matcha. This time, trying their England exclusive, London Fog Matcha.

Later that night, we headed to Chinatown. There were many food options, but not enough time to 'eat the street'. So we settled at this Chinese restaurant--Feng Shui Inn. The food was good but very expensive.

March 2, 2025

We already hit the road to eat at this cafe-- Kennington Lane Cafe. Apparently they had really good reviews. At first, we were all excited until the food came out. The food wasn't bad, but the way the manager made us feel was, in my opinion not okay. The English breakfasts are very big and filling. I wasn't very hungry and neither was Zach or Mia. So we ordered something different. I ordered an Avocado Salmon Toast. Zach and Mia had ordered American pancakes. The rest of them ordered the English Breakfast. It's understandable when you go to another country, you should try their country's dish. And we did! But at different places. As soon as we got the food, the manager jokingly said something that made us lose our appetite. He basically mocked us for ordering what we ordered. He even gave the others free food because they got the English Breakfast. And then proceeded to ignore us when he came around again to "check on us" even then we just coexisted. He only came by to ask us to give him a review. I've never felt so judged in my life.

Finally we left, and headed to the change of the guards. The day was already going bad. We didn't even get to see it because there was so much people. When it was over, we split up into two groups. The girls ended up going to Camden Market and that was also a bust. Let's just say London is crowded everywhere you go. To make the day better, we got boba from this stall that was isolated from everything. After an hour trying to navigate the market we headed to the British Museum. We reserved the last session so we had to rush going through all the different exhibits.

For dinner, we ate at Nando's. Which is supposedly a popular food-chain offering Portuguese Flame-grilled peri-peri chicken and more. It was nice to finally sit down! The food was good and it was nice to recap our days to each other. After dinner, we finally got to try Humble Crumble which is a dessert chain known for their custard desserts. I loved it so much. Zach and I ordered first and in the end we influenced the others into getting one.

That concludes our last and final day in London.