As it turns out, the food was very good. We ate grilled meats, pita bread, and an eggplant dip called baba ganoush. But the food definitely wasn't as amazing as I had remembered.
Holiday music played all over London this weekend, so I heard all your typical Christmas songs. Walking down the street, though, I also listened to street performers play various instruments. I saw one person playing an electric violin and another beat-boxing loudly into a microphone. Almost always, these performers' music filled an entire city block, and people stopped to watch them sing or play.
On Sunday morning, my friends and I went to a part of London called Aldgate, in the east of the city. After popping out of the Aldgate underground station, we walked to the Brick Lane Market. The market was huge, and it had everything from second-hand clothes to handmade soaps and traditional English tea. I didn't buy anything other than a cup of "Christmas Black" tea, which tasted warm and spicy. But it was so much fun to look at all the different things for sale, and to explore the winding passages of the sprawling market. My friends and I also shared a hot, melty grilled cheese sandwich, which was drizzled with honey and stuffed with goat cheese. I always love snacking on street food!
I'm currently plowing through a novel called A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. Published in 2016, this book has been on my list for a while. I keep reading it instead of working on my final papers, which are due in less than a week...
