Day 80: Exploring Shoreditch

First day here in London and figured we'd explore slightly locally and then further afield. There were a couple of errands we wanted to get done first, so we walked up to Angel along the canal and found the shopping areas. First stop we bought a pair of SIM cards so that we can use our phones as normal, then some strawberries at a farmer's market. Next stop the pharmacist where we bought a few supplies too that we'd been putting off for a place where we could speak properly to the pharmacists.

Shandos also needed to get some jeans and a couple of other bits of clothing, so she headed for H&M while I went back to the apartment via a nice coffee shop. Did a bit of video editing before Shandos came back, then we headed out again for lunch at a cafe along the canal with great food. I had a codfish and avocado open sandwich, while Shandos had grilled cauliflowers.

Refuelled and ready to roll, we started walking south and east, towards the hipster area of Shoreditch. Originally a fairly poor area of east London, it's now home to hipsters, artists, students and lots of creative types. Being a Saturday it was pretty busy, lots of people out and about, but there was a great atmosphere in the air. It felt like being in Newtown during a street festival, but nothing in particular was happening which felt odd!

One of the biggest draws in Shoreditch is all the street art, which local councils actually encourage as it tends to stop scrawl graffiti and gives disaffected kids something to do. We spent the better part of a few hours wandering around looking at all the pieces, including a couple of works by the world-famous Banksy.

Schnitzel was having fun too, and was being an absolute rock-star with loads of attention. He was constantly getting stopped and patted, and it was quite nice for a change to be able to converse with people about him, rather than guessing what question's just been asked. This was definitely the most attention he'd gotten since Portugal, but it doesn't seem to faze him at all, he just accepts pats and continues on his way.

We walked the length of famous Brick Lane as well which is in this area, replete with its hundreds of curry houses. All of them had huge signs advertising they were #1 on TripAdvisor or highly rated or whatever, though I'd heard from a couple of people that these days the signs are basically bogus and the best curries are found elsewhere.

Stopped and had a drink at a large warehouse bar with lots of people and loads of different beers on tap. No tasters unfortunately so I just had to pick one, very hard to do! More poking around the shops and eventually it was time for dinner, so around 7pm we headed for the highest-rated Indian place nearby on Foursquare, called Dishoom. The queue was out the door and down the street, but we stuck with it and despite being warned of a 90 minute wait, we got to the front in about 30 minutes. Here we were given a buzzer and assumed our table was available shortly - but soon realised the wait was only half over! Eventually, about 70 minutes after joining the queue, our table was ready. We had to wait a bit longer because we could only sit outside on the patio with Schnitzel.

Happy to report that the food was excellent - we had a black daal, paneer (cheese cubes in tomato curry), chicken tikka and lamb biryani along with garlic naan. Very very tasty food, and definitely worth the long wait! Also had a mango ice-cream style thing for dessert, which the waitress gave us for free because Schnitzel had been looking cute all night (her words not mine!).

10pm and time to head home after an exhausting day - rather than walk the 30 minutes back to our apartment, we decided instead to just catch an Uber for 5 pounds. Everything here is on par with Sydney prices, so it's going to take some re-adjustments! A little more expensive than France, and hugely more expensive than Spain! Off to bed where we had a bit of trouble sleeping since a car alarm was continually going off nearby. Not starting and stopping, just continually buzzing - infuriating.Read more