london | a birthday tea party

i turned twenty on november twenty-second in england.

it was a friday,

a delightfully sunny and mildly windy day.

dan told me that he had been planning a surprise,

but the itinerary he left to secrecy.

we set out at 10 am sharp.

after a couple of transfers on the tube and a walk down many unknown roads,

which felt a bit like being blindfolded and led to a mysterious place,

we made it to the riding house café.

this quaint eatery, 

with its plush red booths & soft glow of shaded lightbulbs,

has easily become one of my favorite cafés ever (cue girly squeal).

oh, and don't even get me started on the food...

dan's choice: pancakes drizzled with caramel maple syrup and topped with fresh fruits.

my choice: fresh smoked salmon with a side of toast & scrambled eggs

(& a lemon -- the lemon is crucial)

after taking a stroll through a local market,

i thought the day was about spent.

then came surprise #2: reservations for afternoon tea @ Bea's

we were seated in the corner of the second floor,

right where the sun kissed us perfectly

& provided the perfect amount of natural lighting.

thus, my 20s opened with a beautiful extravaganza,

filled with all of my favorite things:

coffee, cupcakes, hearty laughs, perfect timing, & dan.

i seriously could not have been a happier girl on that perfect day.

london | borough market & covent garden

clockwise from the top left: andy, jamie, selina, alex, eunice, dan, tiffany, linde

the beauty of studying abroad for the first time transcends the travels & the novelty of it all.

rather, it is the people that make those experiences worth remembering and sharing

time and time again.

on a drizzly saturday morning,

eight of us met up near our first destination at the london bridge tube station.

eunice visited borough market earlier in the semester with a friend,

so my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of how delicious eunice kept saying the food was.

little did i know, borough market is actually one of the oldest markets in london

and showcases food from various places around the world.

you know, i can't say for sure why all of the pictures i took seem to have been of the more odd items.

i actually realized this as i reviewed the photos from the day

and thought to myself that i could have sworn 

i took some pictures of the miniature cheese squares & bite-sized cheesecakes.

au contraire.

after a bit of aimless meandering through rows of vendors,

we headed to the indoor part of the market, 

seeking out hot food to counteract the rain-spattering wind.

we walked by several food stands,

but i couldn't stop thinking about the first one that we passed.

call me unadventurous (i prefer nostalgic),

but i knew when i saw the oversized pan filled with the familiar rice + seafood dish from barcelona,

my heart was set.

after lunch and a brief visit to the gift shop at london tower bridge,

we went back underground and rode the tube to our next destination: covent garden.

i watched the holiday for the first time during my sophomore year of high school

and have always remembered the scene when kate winslet, under the spell of unrequited love,

presents rufus sewell with his christmas present - the first edition of a book,

which she found hidden in a little bookshop in covent garden.

the grand finale of the day was a post-thanksgiving dinner prepared by the group.

jamie headed a massive shopping trip to sainsbury's,

and with a divide-and-conquer plan of action, 

we managed to gather all of the necessary supplies in a relatively short amount of time.

i met four of the people in the first image of this post for the first time last fall.

we spent a mere one and a half days wandering the nooks and crannies of london,

but it was one of the most memorable weekends of my semester.

on a thanksgiving weekend away from home,

i was given much to be thankful for - delicious food, new friendships, & a lovely group of people to spend the very american holiday with in england.