As part of my ongoing “say yes to everything” mentality here in London, I participated in a gigantic pillow fight in Trafalgar square yesterday! Definitely not something you see or hear about every day so when I was sent the Facebook link and asked if I wanted to go, it was a no brainer! It’s not every day you can hit random strangers in the face with a pillow and have them laugh and hit you right back 🙂
Before heading to the pillow fight I met up with a couple friends for my first Byron Burger experience!! Hamburgers can be hit or miss here in London, but I kept hearing rave reviews about Byron and how awesome their burgers taste compared to some of the other “gourmet” burger joints in this town. “Proper hamburgers” is their tag line and being a north american who has had plenty a hamburger in her lifetime, I was excited to see if this stood true. Especially after having the Boom Burger a couple weekends ago!
We went to the Byron Burger near Leicester Square on Charing Cross Road (again, spirit of the west goes through my head) which was extremely colourful and reminded me of a crayon box. We beat the lunch rush which was awesome and were able to get a table straight away. First thing I saw on the menu? A&W rootbeer!!! Instantly I knew, this would be a hit! It is impossible for me to see A&W rootbeer on a menu here, and NOT order it. It reminds me of home, and to be honest, it’s THE BEST root beer there is in my opinion. And it came in an icy glass!! Perfect! I was so tempted to spend the extra 50p and get the rootbeer float but will save that for next time! Because there WILL BE a next time!
The burger itself was pretty awesome. It was juicy and delicious, but pink on the inside! Growing up where a pink burger was not good news, it was hard for me to eat it and not think about it possibly killing me later on in the day.. but as this is their “thing” and all their burgers are cooked medium instead of well done, I took a chance and all was fine! I also ordered their onion rings which if I’m going to be perfectly honest, I loved the crispyness but it lacked onion! It was mostly batter and oil to the point where my fingers were almost dripping in oil while I ate them. I think next time i will try the courgette fries (zucchini fries) as I’ve heard those are pretty amazing!
I didn’t think I could fit much more in my stomach after the burger and onion rings, but i also forced down a Banoffee Mess, a banna, whipped cream, cookie and carmel concoction that looked a little intimidating at first, but I managed to polish that off in no time! Good thing I would be working off that massive lunch at the pillow fight!
After paying our bills (20 pounds for burger, onion rings, a&w rootbeer and dessert, a little pricey I have to say), it was time to head to Trafalgar Square for the massive pillow fight! As we walked down Charing Cross and rounded the corner to the front of the National Gallery we were greeted by a sea of pillows, and even more spectators with their cameras ready to take pictures of this annual event.
We quickly put our pyjama bottoms on (over our pants) and joined the crowd, completely not knowing what to expect. Were we going to be trampled? Were we going to walk out of there in one piece? Only time would tell!
The pillow fight band started playing, people were ripping open pillows and letting the feathers fly, and soon they were counting down to the start of the madness! It was hard not to scream “happy new year” as they got down to 1, but that’s a different day…
So the first five minutes of the pillow fight I think we were all laughing too hard to actually swing our pillows at anyone’s heads. My stomach was literally aching from laughing and trying to get my hands above my head to actually get a pillow ready to be tossed at someone was a difficult feat. But as people got more and more into it, soon pillows were coming from all directions and I was trying to hit people back. It was quite a lot of fun for about 20 minutes or so until the first round ended. We were all walking in a sea of feathers and everyone was in such a great mood and so friendly, even though we were all hitting each other.. it’s impossible to get angry in a pillow fight! It was fun to see the kids on their dad’s heads getting into the action as well and hitting people from up above. How fun it must be for kids to see all us “adults” participating in what’s generally a kid’s activity and probably something most of us haven’t done since slumber parties as a child!
As they started the counted down for round 2, the novelty had worn off and it was time for us to become adults again and head to the nearest pub for a pint. We earned it!
Off to Waxy O’Connor’s, London’s biggest Irish Bar, just off from Piccadilly Circus. With a gigantic tree going right through the middle of it Waxy’s is a labyrinth of little areas of tables, bars, and nooks to hide away in. Luckily we found an empty table and sat down for a couple drinks before heading home. The music was great! And some more plans for a future road trip around England and/ or Scotland ensued. Being from Canada and Australia, we are all used to our yearly summer road trips. For me it was up to Kelowna, or Prince George. I definitely miss driving up to Kelowna in the summer and seeing the first glimpse of Lake Okanagan as I drove down the highway. Maybe next summer I’ll be back to do that again…. Or I’ll find somewhere equally as beautiful here to drive to.
The next challenge will be attempting to drive on the other side of the road over here. Will have to add that to the always expanding list of things to do here as I continue to settle into life as a Londoner. I also signed up for my first online class this morning. A free writing class through coursera.org. Hopefully that will help improve my writing skills on my blog. I know I’m not much of a writer and my blog posts tend to come out as verbal diarrhea as I quickly jot down my thoughts on the page. So hopefully this online course will help me organize my thoughts a little better so my posts are a little more concise. Fingers crossed anyways!
Another weekend winding down and cookies baking in the oven for the week 🙂 I definitely miss my kitchen aid while baking here.. which is probably why I don’t bake half as often as I used to. One day hopefully I can afford to a) ship my shiny red Kitchenaid from home or b) buy one here. Although the red one has sentimental value so I’m hoping option A becomes a possibility.
Until next time!
Krismas x
krismasinlondon 