Euro-Birthday-Extravaganza Pt. 2

Hello, Blog! After my trip to Paris in the last blog, it was hard to imagine my sister and I would follow it up with such a fun-filled week in London, but we did it (thank you Olivia for your detailed planning)! 

Last week, after arriving back in London from Paris, we brought our luggage to my flat and headed back out to get some brunch at The Breakfast Club in SoHo. We fueled up on delicious American-style pancakes before heading over to the National Portrait Gallery, which ended up being my favorite museum in London so far! We saw fantastic paintings and photographs of British royal families, poets, musicians, and other iconic figures. One of the most jaw-dropping self-portraits was “Self,” by Marc Quinn, who used ten pints of his own blood along with other materials such as silicone and steel to create a bust of his own head, which sits in the National Portrait Gallery in a refrigerated case. Even more impressively, we also saw a picture of Harry Styles from a Vogue photoshoot!

After doing some shopping in the museum gift shop, where I bought the cutest miniature portrait prints, we did some walking around SoHo. We walked through the Leicester Square Christmas Market, shopped at Uniqlo, and eventually made our way to Marylebone for even more shopping, bringing me dangerously close to my shopping budget on the first day, but I wrote everything off as an early-birthday expense. 

Our shopping left us in need of a refreshment, so we stopped at a pub in Marylebone, intending to read our books, but spending the whole time yapping, as per usual. We took the train from Marylebone back to King’s Cross and ended up at a different pub (The Lucas Arms, where I brought my parents!) to soothe our craving for traditional pub food (I got fish and chips, she got steak pie and mash) and for some sticky toffee pudding, which we devastatingly couldn’t eat any of by the end of dinner. 

The following day, I went to my two-hour seminar for my Shakespeare class (Hamlet, anyone?) and met with Olivia afterwards for our afternoon plans. We went back to the SoHo-ish area for our plan of the day: afternoon tea at the Wolseley. I couldn’t have been more excited for this experience—the scones and clotted cream, the mini sandwiches and cakes, and the overall charm of the restaurant. Everything was so tasty, but I especially understand the general hype around scones and cream. Not that anyone particularly cares for an American’s input on the timeless debate over whether the jam should be spread on the scone first or the clotted cream, but I’ve decided the jam wins without question.

We followed our tea with some more shopping around the area, mostly at Fortnum Mason, which was absolutely and ridiculously decked out with enough Christmas decorations to make Buddy the Elf slightly nauseated. I loved it. I even bought some sweets that I felt would truly fortify the experience: marzipan, Turkish delights, and chocolates. Here are my thoughts: I wouldn’t necessarily sell out my siblings for the Turkish delights (I’m looking at you, Edmund Pevensie), but maybe a different brand would change my mind. Marzipan is exceptionally over-hated, and I could eat it until I’m blue in the face (or just administer me almond extract in an IV, same difference), so that scene in Gilmore Girls when Lorelai spits hers out into a napkin was totally dramatic. The chocolates were delicious of course, but I think the British have a strange idea of raspberry flavoring and have it confused with L’Oréal kids shampoo. I still ate them all, though, so what that says about me, I don’t know.

After shopping, we had a spectacular dinner at Kricket, which was some of the best Indian food I’ve had in my life. Forgive me, Olivia, if I go back without you. If I could bring some of their king prawns back with me in my suitcase, I would.

We awoke the next morning with a magical surprise—snow!! To make it even better, this day was my 21st birthday, so this was a perfect way to wake up. That being said, apparently snow only lasts 0.003 seconds on the ground, and it ended up being more of a glorified drizzle, but I’ll take it. 

They don’t cancel classes and other obligations on Maggie’s 21st Birthday (you know, the national holiday, of course) in London, so I did go to both of my lectures like the devoted student I am and pretended to take notes while thinking about how by this age, my mother was engaged and independent, while I have no prospects and don’t know how to write in cursive. I think my next purchases should be a fountain pen and eye cream. 

After my classes, Olivia and I went over to Notting Hill for the most Maggie thing someone could do to celebrate the national holiday: a bakery crawl. We made a list of different bakeries and pastries we wanted to try and started with the most important, which was Kuro Bakery, known across social media for their gorgeous, pillowy cinnamon rolls, bathed in icing. We got there around 3:30pm and watched as the three people in front of us in line ordered the last three cinnamon rolls in the pan and waited anxiously for a few moments before asking if another tray would be coming out soon. No, it would not. We ordered a pistachio sákuro instead, which was a croissant-bun medley filled with pistachio cream and sprinkled with crushed pistachios on the outside.

We left the bakery defeatedly as I promised myself I would drag myself back to Notting Hill early in the morning someday to get my hands on a cinnamon roll, or even two, to avenge myself. On a less dramatic note, we went to Buns From Home and picked up a vanilla custard bun, and we got a “Stranger Rings” donut from Rodeo Doughnuts, which were both great!

While Olivia took a work call, I went over to Canteen, an Italian restaurant where we would be having my birthday dinner, and since they couldn’t hold a table with just me there, I went upstairs to their atmospheric pub, The Fat Badger. You can imagine my surprise when the bouncer asked me if I was “looking for The Fat Badger” and I conveniently didn’t hear him say “looking for.”

I went up and had a Coke Zero while reading my book of the week (Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton) while waiting for Olivia to make her way over. Eventually, we got seated at the bar right in front of the pizza station, which encouraged me to order the quattro formaggi pizza. We also had the cacio e pepe, pear and pecorino salad, mozzarella with tardino, and a bitter caramel panna cotta to end the meal. The panna cotta definitely stole the show for me, and I wish I could be eating some while writing this.

After our meal, we went to the Battersea Power Station for their Christmas market and ice rink. I had a blast and felt much more comfortable skating than I have in the past. I’m not making it to the Olympics any time soon, but I spent significantly less time gripping the walls like I did last year!

The next day, I spent much more time on campus for classes and schoolwork, but after a caramel latte that I picked up on my walk home, I felt ready for the night ahead. We got Lebanese takeout (what else is new?) and took the bus to Shakespeare’s Globe, where we saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. This performance was so phenomenal and genuinely hilarious that Olivia and I were giggling nearly the entire time. The actors were on fire and made the play so digestible that my nerves about understanding the play ultimately vanished. I think this is probably my new favorite Shakespeare play, and between my visits to the Globe and my class at UCL, I’m being convinced to do some deeper dives into Shakespeare’s work. 

After my seminar the following day, Olivia and I went to Burlington House to see the Kerry James Marshall exhibition, “The Histories.” This exhibition displays beautiful paintings by Marshall, centering the Black identity and experience. I’m so happy to have seen this, because Marshall brought such a singular, special style to his work that I don’t feel I’ve seen before. Even the gift shop had such cute items!

We grabbed a quick dinner at Franco Manca, and although this had been my second time there, this was my first time ordering the plain cheese pizza, and it was probably my favorite pizza that I’ve had in London. Either it was that good, or I was that hungry after walking through the exhibition—who knows!

After our pizza and a delicious chocolate-cake-pistachio-gelato affair, we went to the World Heart Beat Music Academy to see a performance by the “In the Pocket,” one of the groups in the lineup of the EFG London Jazz Festival. 

While I already loved jazz (shoutout to Wellesley Blue Jazz, I’ll be back soon!), this group definitely amplified it. Their entire set was completely improvised, but they worked together so seamlessly that I almost didn’t believe them when they said none of it was rehearsed. The vocalists were incredible and brought a traditional, blues element to what was a very contemporary style of jazz. I could hardly keep my eyes off the two drummers and their synchronized movements and collaboration. The group passed around solos and everyone had their time to shine, which is my favorite part of jazz, and they executed it brilliantly!

Over the weekend, I went to the Wellesley UK Thanksgiving potluck, which was a great event for connecting with Wellesley alums and other students studying abroad in the UK. It was wonderful to be able to eat traditional Thanksgiving foods and experience a little home away from home. 

Later in the day, Olivia and I met in Chinatown to get dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Lido, before our main event of the evening: our viewing of Wicked: For Good! 

If you know me, you’ll know I’m a huge Wicked fan, so I’ve been counting down until this day since last November, when I first heard Cynthia Erivo’s absolute domination of “The Wizard and I.” Last year, we even dressed up in pink and green to go to the movie theater for the full experience. While we didn’t go all out this year, I definitely still felt the movie magic. I still prefer the first movie (please note that I saw it four times when it first came out), but this was a pretty good sequel. Even though the movie wasn’t perfect, I was blown away by some of the performances by Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jonathan Bailey. Michelle Yeoh however, *comically loud train passes by.*

 

Olivia and I spent our last day together in Shoreditch, where we started with brunch at Ozone before making our way to the Yellow Brick Lane, a road in Shoreditch decorated as a Wicked tribute. The street was painted as the yellow brick road, there were murals of Elphaba and Glinda (the two main characters of the story) lining the buildings, and there were signs with lyrics from the musical. It was so delightful to be placed into the world of Oz after having seen the final movie, and I couldn’t be happier!

We spent some time shopping around Shoreditch and made our way to the Old Spitalfields Market for even more shopping, and by this point I had tapped out on account of needing groceries, but it was just as fun watching my sister debate for hours over which jacket she needed for her winter wardrobe. She and I went back to my dorm after our shopping to briefly drop off our stuff, and headed right back out to a nearby pub to get my very first Sunday roast, which was delicious! After our pints and roasts, we ended the night with a sickeningly sweet sticky toffee pudding since we didn’t get it the last time we ate at a pub. It was way too sweet for either of us to take more than a couple of bites, but it was somehow just what we needed. 

If you made it to the end of this extremely detailed and lengthy account of my past week, thank you. You deserve some marzipan. And thank you to Olivia for your efforts in planning fun things, picking amazing restaurants, and most importantly, swiping your credit card. Thank God for your savings! Seriously, though, it was so great to spend time with family again, as it makes being away much easier and makes me even more excited to go back home. 

Until next week.

Cheers! xx