For my last day in London, I decided to spend more time with other members of our tour group, so in the morning I and one of my other new friends headed over to the Museum of Natural History.
The entrance is really cool; to get to an upper level, you ride an escalator through a tunnel of glowing crystal. This took us up to the earth exhibit, which had displays on volcanoes, crystals, and more, including an earthquake simulation. My favorite exhibit was the dinosaur exhibit! I was supremely delighted to walk through fossils, dinosaur skeletons large and small, and pose for a picture in front of an animatronic T-rex.
After that we headed for Shoreditch. Finding our way around Shoreditch was…interesting, but we eventually found our goal—the Cereal Killer Café. This place was totally retro; an 80s vibe in decor and casual atmosphere, right down to Thundercats playing on a little TV.
We were seated at a bright blue table—and our seat was a bed! The bed was twin size, of white metal, and made up with a quilt and pillows on the mattress; since it was wedged in a corner, we only sat on the end of it.
The food they serve at Cereal Killer Café is, you guessed it, a wide variety of cereals (including their own in-house cereals), and different smaller dishes made with cereals as ingredients. I ordered one of their in-house cereals called the Spaceman, which was a crunchy chocolate cereal with chewy toffee bits, and some kind of chocolate marshmallow, served with white chocolate milk. And it was seriously good!
We then took the overground to Camden Road to meet up with some of the others at Camden Market. We spent a lot of time wandering around, and since the market is full of eclectic wares it was fun to poke through the shops and stalls. I didn’t buy anything, but I recall a particular shop that interested me: a book shop with volumes thick and thin crammed into wall-to-wall shelves and overflowing onto the floor.
From there our group decided to go to nearby Regent’s Park. To get there, we walked along the scenic Regent’s Canal, where covered boats bobbed calmly in the shallow water. We walked along the Outer Circle of the park, past the zoo, until we came to a huge, open grassy area. There we sat down in the grass for a good hour, soaking in the sun and company.
We walked back toward the tube much the way we’d come, crossing over a bridge along the way, and admiring a strange pyramid of artwork on the water.
Back at the hotel, me and my friend from earlier decided to finish off the day by eating dinner at the hotel restaurant. While we were there, a couple over by the bar started arguing very loudly; not long after they left, a waiter came by to apologize for the disturbance, and told us we could have any complimentary drink from the bar.
This is when my friend introduced me to what a group of us would later just call “The Drink.” Turns out, when in Edinburgh, he and his friends had tried a drink called Captain’s Beard - it was a rum and coke (the rum being Captain Morgan, of course) with a splash of Guinness on top. We ordered The Drink many times over the remainder of our trip, though no other bartenders new what Captain’s Beard was. Needless to say, it’s a delicious twist on a classic cocktail.
We spent the rest of the night hanging out in the lobby with other members of our tour group. There was another group hanging out there, too; a group of friends from Ireland were traveling together, and eventually we all formed one big circle, sitting around talking and telling tales.
It was a very entertaining evening, tired as we were; one of the Irishmen even made a dramatic fake proposal to one of our friends! The night kept stretching on; though it was late, we knew if we went to bed, morning would take us away from London - and it would mean our trip was halfway done. Though we were dead on our feet, no one wanted to leave.
We stayed until we thought we’d fall asleep in our chairs. Fortunately, though it was time to leave London behind, our travels would take us further yet.