Lauren is here! On Monday, my friend Lauren arrived and so far, our time together has been marked by delays in transportation. I'm realizing just how spread out this city is. It took me 1.5 hours to travel to Heathrow Airport on the Tube, and trying to find her friend's house in Brixton was a two hour affair! But it's not so bad when you have a good friend to chat with along the way.
On her first morning here, I took her to Upland's Cafe for her first British fry-up. Uplands is a no-nonsense cafe, with eight long wooden tables lined with chairs, and an order counter at the back. When we went in, it was full of construction workers (or "builders" as they say in England), which I take as a good sign. Lauren had sausage, beans, and an egg, and I had black pudding, beans, and hashbrowns. We both had mugs of very strong, very inky black tea, and then spent the afternoon wandering around East Dulwich and spending extraordinary lengths of time choosing Christmas cards and socks. It was good fun.
I also made a happy discovery: there's an Anthropologie in London! I saw it on Regent Street while sitting on the bus! I think I actually yelped with joy and frightened several passengers.
It's nice to show Lauren around and to test my wayfinding skills and confidence. While my circle of exploration is still quite small, it's so pleasing to tack on a few more new streets each day, to find a few more lovely little cafes that feel like my own little secret, and to be able to show friends my new discoveries.
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