11 October | Happy Anniversary

Today is my and Kyle's one-year wedding anniversary, and since I woke up about 5,000 miles away from my husband and was feeling a little blue, I decided that what I needed was a cupcake and a flower market. One of my guidebooks mentioned a cupcake shop not far from where I live, and it mentioned that the Sunday flower market was right outside the door. So I headed to Columbia Road in Shoreditch, and discovered one of my favorite areas in London that I have found so far. This stretch of shops runs for about six blocks in the middle of a neighborhood, full of tiny boutiques and restaurants. Lots of vintage shops, a couple little fancy sandwich shops, places full of antique dishes, gardening stores, a handmade hat shop, a perfumerie . . . basically, lots of temptations right up my alley. I saw one shop that only sold paper cups full of fried prawns and calamari, complete with fancy sauces and lemon wedges, for £2.50 a cup. The line was out the door. The best part was that the whole street was closed and there were zillions of flowers for sale. Vendors were crammed in next to each other, each trying to holler louder than his neighbor, “three for a tenner!” “Bouquets for 3 quid!” It was drizzly and gray outside, but everyone was happy, the flowers were vibrant even in the cool October weather, and there was a bluegrass band playing on the corner. Despite all the temptations, I managed to only buy one thing: a lemon cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. It was delicious.