I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to keep my travel diary up. I meant to blog once a day, every day when I was in Europe, but you do so much missioning around that by the time you get in, you really don’t have the energy. Or, you only get back much later and it’s too late to start working! But I do still care about showing you the fun things we got up to while away this September.
Hello London
We said goodbye to clean and organised Zurich and hello to grimey adventure filled London. Last year we stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Finchley which was a little depressing (not very clean, services we expected weren’t as they had been explained) so this year we opted to stay in a hotel. Accommodation in London isn’t cheap yet we managed to save 50 pounds staying in a hotel (Airbnb was more expensive!).
We had stayed at a Premier Inn in the English countryside last year and managed to get a great deal at the Premier Inn in Old Street, in London, which is a great location (plus it was only about 300 meters from a Tube stop). I assume there is a hospital near by the hotel as the area is really busy and noisy with ambulances blarring by. Luckily, the hotel was really quiet and we were given a fantastic room on the 10th floor, giving us a view across the city.
Meat Mission, Hoxton
Once we’d settled in, we decided to explore Old Street. When I lived in London I worked not too far away, however, everything shut down on weekends and it was dead. Not any more! Old Street has become a really trendy area with the hipster centric Shoreditch just around the corner. We took an evening stroll to find dinner and found a place called the Meat Mission in Hoxton which a friend of ours had checked into on Foursquare (shows the power of a recommendation!).
We decided to explore the fair and found it to be an old church converted into a restaurant, bar and radio station. After working in radio myself, as well as Mr Love, it was fun to check the guys mixing live and presenting from the ceiling booth although we couldn’t really hear what they were saying.
The Meat Mission has the most incredible stain glass ceiling with an illuminati theme, if i can put it that way. I suppose there had to be a play on the religious theme considering the building adorned many of the old remembrances of time gone by. The menu followed suit with the starters, mains, desserts and drinks being appropriately renamed to baptism, communion, confirmation and last rites.
I had the Hippy Burger which had a weird sauce. It was the first perfectly cooked burger I’d had in England…maybe ever?! Apparently people get creeped out if the meat is medium thanks mad cow disease but here they cooked it perfectly medium. It had a great caramelization on it, it was juicy, fresh salad accompaniments and bun, it was delicious.
I was taken aback by the massive cider jugs that were available from the establishment and went with the sissy version, a small pint. Hey, I was paying in pounds, it’s ok to be a bit conservative when 1 cider in England costs the same as 3 in Cape Town! It was a really fun restaurant/bar and I’d be happy to return one day (we nearly did a few days later but decided to try something else since there was so much on offer).
MEATMission can be found at 5 Hoxton Market, London N1 6HG, UK.
PS One Funny Thing
Bye Bye Zurich Mooing Trams
Today we left Zurich and headed to London. I just have to share this picture with you because this tram takes you from the baggage check-in to the airplane. No walking through miles and miles of airport! You just hop on and a few minutes later you’re where you’re meant to be. Not to mention the stereotypical sounds of Switzerland that accompanies the ride! You’ll be in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden a, “MOOOOOO” will interrupt you midway! It was hilarious!
