Part 30: Touch Down in London Town

A familiar start to a new city

Jun 20, 2025

London is spectacular, London is unspectacular
Pints with the lads?
Mr. Foggy’s Society of Exploration
“The Tems”
365 Party Girl
Wholesome Sundays
Surprising and Underwhelming Tourism
Horseradish, Hong Kong Waffles, and The London Mountain

Cold Intro:

There’s nothing new about London - that’s a good thing and a bad thing.

London is a spectacular city. Built along the winding Thames, it’s full of charming neighborhoods surrounding historical landmarks. I’ve been having a blast here so far, catching up with some old friends who live here and exploring the different areas. Every day, I’m discovering a new neighborhood that’s just as pleasant as the last. I see why so many people from the US come and live here.

London is an easy city. It almost doesn’t feel like travel. I have friends here. Everyone is speaking English. Culturally, it’s very similar to the US. They even have Chipotle here. I’ve been having a blast here so far, and I’m trying to soak as much of the city up as I can, but compared to other places I’ve been, it feels like something is missing. Being here almost feels more like visiting NYC than Europe. London combines the exciting idea of living abroad and in a big, dynamic city, but it lacks any real challenge (for a traveler). I see why so many people from the US come and live here.

Friday - June 13th, 2025

Friday night arrival in London. I check into my hostel, which has a quintessential London pub on the ground floor. To start my London stint, I’m staying in the district that is aptly named “City of London”. I know that saying I’m staying in the City of London is very ambiguous, so if it helps for any of London geography nerds, my hostel was right below Shoreditch and near the Liverpool Street train station. It’s one of the high-rise hubs of the city, so on a Friday evening, the pub below my hostel was popping with people getting off work and going for a celebratory weekend pint (I later discovered they do this almost every day after work).

I would say this London visit has already been much different than every place that I’ve been. Unlike most places where I ease into a city with a long exploratory walk, we just jumped into the action right away. After some fish and chips at the pub to get me in the proper English mood, I took the tube to the Soho area and met up with the lads for a pint.

I met up with my college friend Anna, who was in town for the weekend, visiting a friend, at a bar where we were met by another college friend, Collin, who has been living in London for the last year. We drank Guinness on the sidewalk outside the bar, which I quickly discovered is a very British thing. I’m a fan. People don’t just cram into the bar, but the bars generally have some space allocated out front on the sidewalk (sometimes roped off) for people to imbibe.

One pub led to another. Another pub led us to a downstairs joint under a false promise of live music. The false promise of live music was substituted by an unfortunate truth of being in the hottest bar in London. Our rising internal temps dragged us back outside to the midnight streets of Soho, where we were greeted by a light rain. The rain was paired with an unideal combination of long lines and pubs hitting closing time, which sent us scrambling to a cocktail bar called, quite literally (Rob Lowe voice), Mr. Foggy’s Society of Exploration.

We were met by another college friend of ours, Lucas, who had just recently moved to London along with his girlfriend and their friends. When I told Lucas we were at Mr. Foggy’s Society of Exploration, he thought I was messing with him. I wish I had that creativity to come up with that on the spot. Say what you want about Mr. Foggy’s naming choices, they make a mean cocktail.

A final stop of the night was a place called Troy Bar in Shoreditch, chosen for the sole reason of it staying open until 3 am. It was a pleasant surprise discovering the place was a jazz bar, so we watched the band play for half an hour before close.

Very randomly, the next day, the NYT published a 36 Hours for East London. One of the recommendations was the Troy Bar. Here’s what they wrote:

East London is full of bars where you can pop in to hear live music, so round off your evening in one of them. Enjoy an eclectic mix of blues, jazz, reggae, soul and Nigerian highlife at Troy Bar, a small Black-owned venue tucked away near Old Street. The vibe here is pretty chill: Grab a drink, slide into a booth and let the music wash over you.

Pretty spot on for what it was actually like. Pretty chill, electric mix and a great way to round off the evening.

Saturday - June 14th, 2025

Okay, London off to a hot start. On Saturday, I got an initial city exploration in. London’s big. I’m not sure I’m going to properly take it all in. I started with an easy walk today and went from my hostel south to the Thames (which I learned is pronounced “tems”). This took me to London Bridge, which is much less spectacular and much sturdier than you would expect given the children's nursery rhyme. I did a nice little loop starting by walking east on the north side of the “tems” around the Tower of London to the iconic Tower Bridge. I crossed a tourist-packed Tower Bridge, then walked back west along the south side of the Thames and back across the London Bridge.

Tower of London, Tower Bridge, City of London view with the poorly colored Thames

So long story short, on Saturday I went to another music festival. Almost the exact same festival as the previous weekend in Paris, with Charli XCX headlining again. While I do like her music, I wouldn’t say I’m one to follow her around on tour. But, I scored a free ticket to the festival, and another band I like, called The Japanese House, was playing, and people often forget that there’s no such thing as too much.

The festival was in Victoria Park, the weather was nice, and I had a nice (and occasionally boring) cell-receptionless day walking around the park, going to shows. My main takeaway from the festival is that the French do music festivals right. The show in London reminded me a lot of what festivals were like in the US in terms of crowds and chaos. Paris felt way calmer and respectful in comparison.

Sunday - June 15th, 2025

I met up with Anna and Collin, and Anna’s friend Larkin, for some Sunday activities. We went to the Flower Market on Columbia Road, which, as the name suggests, is a market that sells flowers on Sundays. From there, we went to Brick Lane, which had a bunch of pop-ups going down the street. We took Brick Lane to Spitalfields Market before going back to Shoreditch and getting bao buns for lunch. A very wholesome Sunday reminiscent of a Sunday back at home.

Monday - June 16th, 2025

Time to get a little touristy. I’d been deprived of my new city-walk up to this point, and I needed it. I started my day walking west along the Thames. I got off at a tube stop before the London Eye, so I did a walk-by. The London Eye was one of the few things that I remember from my first time being in London when I was 8. That and the Star Wars exhibit we went to. Big Ferris wheel!

If you walk by the London Eye, you have a great view of Big Ben and Westminster, and crossing the first bridge you reach walking west, will drop you off right at Big Ben’s porch.

So, I’ve found a lot of tourism to be anticlimactic - going to places that you’ve already seen pictures of your whole life just to see the thing you’ve already seen a picture of. Seeing a place is often just an unspectacular checked box before continuing onto the next place on the list. Big Ben/Westminster was a rare case of something that was much cooler than I expected. There’s a lot of detail that doesn’t get captured in those pictures that, seeing up close, I was honestly a little surprised by. It had the same level of detail that I’d seen on many of the other cathedrals so far in Europe.

On the walk to Buckingham Palace, down the road, I saw a changing of the guard. Red coats riding horses, dressed up in their ceremonial garb. Looked uncomfortable. I also don’t love horses. Pass!

So remember what I was saying about seeing touristy places that you’ve seen in pictures before that tend to be anticlimactic. Buckingham Palace was one of those places. Look at the building behind a fence. Big crowd. Check that box! Not much to it. Next!

I met up with Lucas for lunch at a food hall near the palace. We got some pretty delicious Indian food and ate it on the food hall’s rooftop. It’s hot this week in London. Like make-the-nyt’s-today-about-Britain’s-first-summer-heat-wave level of hot. All things considered, really not that bad. I was raised in the fires of hell in Southeast Asia with temps in the 90s with 90% humidity. The temperatures this week are peaking in the 80s. This is a walk in the park.

In the evening, I went for a nice long walk along the Regent’s Canal on the east side of London. One of my friends from Ho Chi Minh City, Kia, gave me the rec, and with the late evening’s sunlight, it was a very pleasant way to end the day.

Tuesday - June 17th, 2025

I moved from my hostel in “The City of London” over to St. John’s Woods to my friend Collin’s place, where I stayed for the next few days. Where is St. John’s Woods you ask? In general terms, it’s on the western side of London, more to the north, and, in more specific terms, Collin’s place is right across the street from where the Beatles' iconic Abbey Road album cover was taken.

I spent the day familiarizing myself with my new hood. I followed an itinerary Collin made for me and hit a Jewish deli for some roast beef on rye for lunch that had enough horseradish in its mustard to make me question the balance of pain and pleasure. From there, I took a stroll through Regent’s Park past the London zoo to Primrose Hill.

Sandwiches that pack a punch and parks with plenty of green

Primrose Hill is quite literally just a hill. Not even a big hill. Just a hill. But from the top, you get a true perspective of just how flat London truly is. The hill gives a view of the entire city’s skyline (which is not an easy thing considering London is built east to west along the river).

After Primrose, I walked to Camden Markets, which, unbeknownst to me, is a huge attraction in London. With good reason. The market is built in a former horse stable that looks almost like an old castle and it’s full of restaurants and food stands. I went for a dessert and got a waffle similar to the ones I got in Hong Kong. On my walk back through Regent’s Park, I went through Mary’s Rose Garden back to Abbey Road.