A Trip to London

 April 2019

April was a busy month for us, as the next weekend we had a trip to London planned. Ben had bought tickets to one of my favourite bands for my birthday the year before, and we had decided to make the most of a trip to London by seeing Les Miserables the next day. 

The concert was at the O2 Academy in Brixton, so we had found an airbnb room nearby, which was cool as it wasn't an area of London we knew.  

I had done some research so we could make the most of our time, and our first port of call was a restaurant called Kricket. We were on a strict budget, but I had heard wonderful things about one of their starters, Keralan fried chicken, with pickled mooli (diakon radish) and curry leaf mayonnaise. So we were the oddballs who ordered one starter between us, much to the waiter's confusion.
 It didn't disappoint, and was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever eaten. One day I will go back and try everything on that menu!

Still a little hungry after only sharing a starter, we popped into Brixton Village, a street market which branches off into arcades. I wanted to sample the Japanese bistro Okan, famous for their Osakan street food - primarily Okonomiyaki. This is a filled pancake topped with sauce. It was so savoury I couldn't eat too much of it, so I'm glad we halved one. It was delicious and fun to try new things though!

Appetite satiated, we headed to the O2 for our concert. It was everything I wanted it to be, and one of the best birthday presents ever!

The airbnb was pretty dingy, and in an area where we felt like there was a high possibility of stabbings occurring, but we were fine, and the owner kept to himself (though we could hear his bad guitar playing through the walls, and he also talked to himself a lot). We headed off with our bags the next day, stopping for a late morning pizza (which was excellent). When in London right?

It felt incredibly luxurious going to two shows in as many days, but we had scored the tickets for cheap months before. Our view wasn't the best, and the leg room was so bad that Ben thought we might have to amputate his legs halfway through as they cramped up from being so terribly squished, but the show was excellent! 

Even if the gun blasts did give me a heart attack because it was so loud, and the theatre filled with the smell of gunpowder (which was pretty awesome actually).

We finished with an icecream at Grom, because how could we not? And then jumped on the bus to head home. 

Did I mention Southampton isn't served by a train station, so the only public transport options are to take the long distance bus? I'll add it to my 'reasons we hate Southampton list' - just kidding, I don't have such a list! (or do I?)...