Burrowing Through the Market to the Upside Down

Borough Market, the Imperial War Museum, Stranger Things, and More!

I began my next day out in London at Covent Garden with my grandparents, walking through the same place my favorite comedian got her start almost 50 years ago. From there, we made our way around the neighborhood, exploring the shops and restaurants that make up one of London's most beautiful areas.

From there, I took the London underground to Borough Market, a historic food hall and farmer's market filled with delicious food and so many people. I wandered the aisles of delicious fruits, baked goods, fresh seafood, and classic British delicacies, tasting different things as I went. For anyone wondering, yes I did have the internet famous chocolate strawberries and, while they were delicious, they were also so expensive that I truly could not see myself going back for another round. Like, they're good but it's also 10 strawberries in a cup with chocolate on top, it should not cost nearly 9 quid.

Anyway, my favorite thing at Borough Market was the Pevensey Blue Cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy. When I went in, I tried several cheeses from bries to blues but, blue being my favorite, I knew I would eventually settle on one of them. And boy am I glad I did, the Pevensey Blue was creamy, salty, and had just the right amount of bite. I ate this whole slice of it right outside the shop and probably could have had ten more, even if I would have regretted it after.

Near Borough Market was The King's Arms, a beautiful historic pub where I had my best pint of the trip so far: The Timothy Taylor's Landlord. From there, I was able to get on the tube to the Imperial War Museum which was one of the most exquisitely laid out museums I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. There was far too much history written in there for me to get to all of it but, if I had about a year in there, I may have been content with how much I was able to absorb.

Everything from the heartbreaking images of Holocaust victims to the deadly machines of war on display at the Imperial War Museum were deeply affecting and I was shocked that I had never taken the time to experience it before. A few years ago I did a research project on propaganda films made by the United States and German governments during the Second World War but, because of the scope of my research, did not encounter much made in the UK. At the Museum, I was lucky to be able to see some of the techniques the British used to encourage their citizens to support the war effort and was interested in analyzing the differences between their tactics and those used by Americans and Germans.

After the Imperial War Museum, I walked through London's Chinatown and stopped in at a fancy cocktail bar where I was the only patron. Since I was the only customer there, I got to talking with the bartenders and found out more about their lives in London, the types of drinks they like to make, and what led them to this bar in particular. While I was there, they were testing out cocktails for a new menu they're going to debut in the fall and were able to pour me small tastes of what they were making so I could provide input. It was a very fun experience that filled the time before I headed to the theatre for my performance of Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Many years ago, before the world knew J.K. Rowling was a transphobe and a horrible human being, I got to be in the audience for the first ever performance on the West End of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. As a Harry Potter fan at the time and a certified technical theatre nerd, I assumed I would never have a better theatrical experience in all my life. Everything about that production was pure magic and spectacle and, with top of the line technology backing it, I couldn't imagine a production more in depth and involved than that was.

However, that was many years ago and, as I'm sure everyone knows, technology moves very quickly. In those intervening years, the team behind Stranger Things: The First Shadow have crafted the single most incredible technical performance I have ever seen on a stage. I enjoy the Stranger Things TV show though I would never consider myself its Number 1 fan but the stagecraft and technical wizardry on display here blew me away and my jaw was on the floor for all 3 hours of this stunning play. If you are able to handle horror and enjoy science fiction, I cannot recommend it highly enough.