so many things happened during this crazy year but travelling to london wasn’t one of them.
as most of you know if you followed me for a while i’m visiting london quite regularly. this year due to the pandemic arising and keeping us under control and in our houses it wasn’t possible to me go. it was possible though but i thought i would be a decent human and try and stick to the rules and stay in berlin for most of the year. whilst scrolling through my archives i realised i haven’t shared a story from my last trip to the capital of england in december 2019, yet.
so here we are and to say it with words to ed sheeran - take me back to london.
day one.
an iconic view on the ever-changing skyline of central. (taken from the tate modern)
the first day i flew into london was a bit weird, i was terribly sick and filled with medicine because and i didn’t want to cancel because there was a special occasion of me travelling there once again (more on that later).
travelling on my ones wouldn’t be the same without my friends abroad so here’s a few portraits of my friends jess, isha, and jay around shoreditch.
at the end of this day i was absolutely knackered as i got up at 3.30am, took the flight at 6am and was insanely tired but there was another chance to catch up with a friend of mine who made it possible to take photos at lovebox festival and to meet jay and jess in my shooter group. you guessed it - Mo aka mabdulle.
what a view to fall asleep to.
exploring east london.
the next day i walked all the way to canary wharf (starting at aldgate east) and captured the hustle and bustle of whitechapel road and mile end road.
then i turned right and walked by the canal towards canary wharf trying to capture the change east london went through in the last 20-30 years since it was becoming more popular and gentrified.
heading north-east.
after i made it to my destination i hopped on a bus going central again because i had a lunch date with my friend brogues in hoxton.
she told me to go and explore the area around dalston - so that’s what i did.
after walking all the way from our lunch place to dalston i stumbled upon ridley road market. and i don’t know why but markets in the uk are just so different to the ones in germany and they really fascinate me.
my friend maik told me later that is the market where they filmed top boy, which became a big hype last year when drake was co-producing season three.
it is a uk classic but not a lot people know that there were two seasons beforehand releasing in 2011 under the name “top boy: summerhouse” (recommendation to watch all three episodes)
i then made it back to the hostel because i had an appointment in the evening and definitely needed to get some rest beforehand because i was mad exhausted.
shooting and attending my first concert in the uk.
already sounds huge, doesn’t it? what had happened in the prologue?
back in november 2019, i started a new job in an agency. on my first day they told me that they were insolven but still hired me - i know right?
after i found out i quit my job after 0.5 days “working” there and decided to treat myself with a trip to london and a ticket for the concert of my favourite british rap duo - frankie stew and harvey gunn.
and you know this time i thought “why not trying it?” so i reached out to them and asked if i could take photos at their, so far, biggest show ever. frankie replied a few hours later and said:
Yep let’s lock it in. No problem at all mate sure it’ll all be fine, look forward to seeing you then mate.
i was going mental (in a positive way). i couldn’t believe that this would really happen.
so fast forward to the evening of december 13th. i turned up at the venue and really got to shake hands and have a little chat with both but enough waffling here are some photos from the sold-out show at heaven.
but that’s not all from this evening, i got the chance to take photos of support act kofi stone and later that evening chat to him, murkage dave and manik mc, as well as taking some backstage photos (i’ll link their music below). they’ll probably never know what this means to someone growing up in a small village in rhineland-palatinate going all the way from moving to mainz, picking up a camera, moving to berlin, to in the end physically standing there seeing where his love for photography got him.
as you probably can imagine my head was in the clouds this very evening.
when i came back to my hostel room the room mates told me how they visited windsor castle and tower bridge that day making everything feel even more surreal to me. remember this is only day two.
day three.
day three brought me back to dalston to link up with my friend maik and his mate owen. i first met maik in 2018 on my first trip to london and was introduced to him by a former friend. maik later on introduced me to some of his mates which i nowadays also call my friends.
maik in dalston, 2019.
it was fucking cold so after we walked around ridley road market and dalston we decided to call it a day and just hang out in a warm café and later at nando’s.
that’s day 3 done. “raaah, how long is this trip?” you might think.
day four.
so i have a tradition when travelling to london. i always have to pass by this legendary record store and take a photo of the store front.
if you’ve seen my other blog posts about london you might know that i have a love for the streets of soho and chinatown. i just find them as fascinating as the street markets around town. the diversity of different cultures is just so different to berlin and there’s a million things to see. so here’s my morning stroll around soho and chinatown where i almost collapsed because i was too weak and still feeling unwell (which is no wonder obviously and i’ve learnt my lesson - trust me).
afterwards i felt like i needed to go back to the hostel and get some rest and in the evening chatted to my friend prince because we were thinking about linking up.
when he found out i was about to go and have dinner on my own he decided to come round and join me.
i had my first ever jerk chicken, btw.
day five.
on this day, i would fly back to berlin in the evening and beforehand would explore south east a little bit and then link my friend isha for lunch at a legendary restaurant.
let’s go for lunch with isha and eat some vegan curry at cook daily’s.
we headed back to the hostel and picked up my luggage and went to liverpool street when a complete nightmare happened. all trains from liverpool street to the airport were cancelled and i had to take a 2 hour detour via cambridge in an overcrowded train. it was horrible but in the end i got lucky and ended this amazing and crazy trip with another win over life.
i know this post became quite personal but i want to take the chance if you read until this point to thank all my friends for making travelling to london feel like home. there are even more of you whom i didn’t have the chance to link up during this trip. for now, i’m just waiting until the pandemic will be handled better and it is safe to travel again. when i’m next visiting i’ll be accompanied by my partner in crime and create new lovely moments with her and hopefully get her to meet some of you amazing human-beings.
thanks and until then i’m waiting for the universe to take me back to london.
as promised here’s the music from frankie stew & harvey gunn, kofi stone, murkage dave, and manik mc.