My friend in London had just moved to a new pad in Bethnal Green in East London. I bought a sneaky train ticket to Belfast on Friday afternoon, from where I hopped over to London. My chariot was named EasyJet. Nobody asked me my reason for travelling. I didn’t even need to produce a passport. I felt vaguely criminal nonetheless, half expecting an announcement over the tannoy to announce ‘Stop that man. He is danger.’ No such luck. The National Express dropped me at the Bethnal Green station where my friend waited. We walked along Regents Canal to his lovely new home in the East End. That evening we dined in a local Spanish tapas restaurant. Back at home in Ireland, such frivolity was still not permitted. Restrictions here in London were not fully lifted but dining indoors was back on the menu.

Every time I go to London, I try to do a ‘big-ticket’ tourist item. Last July on my previous visit to London, I had gone to the Tower of London. This trip’s destination was St. Paul’s Cathedral. We walked into town via Brick Lane – one of my favourite streets in London. So many amazing restaurants on that thoroughfare. St. Paul’s was as spectacular as expected. Almost Catholic in its extravagant interior. Even more impressive was the outdoor walk around the rooftop dome. The views were breath-taking. And unexpected – I hadn’t expected to be climbing towers that day.

In the evening we had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant before heading to the West End Duchess Theatre, to see the ‘Cruising’ show. This venerable old theatre had been showing ‘The play that goes wrong’ for several years. However, as theatres were still operating at a 50% capacity, ‘Cruise’ was doing a 6-week run before normal timetables resumed. ‘Cruise’ tells the story of what should have been Michael Spencer’s last night on earth. When he’s diagnosed with HIV in 1984, he is told he’ll have four years to live. With the clock ticking, he and his partner Dave decide to sell their house, their car, and spend everything they have, to party like it’s 1999. Except then he survives. Written and performed by Jack Holden ‘Cruise’ is a tribute to the veterans of the AIDs crisis; very moving with an amazing 1980s soundtrack. It was a wonderful return to indoor theatre, for my first show in over a year.  Afterwards we traipsed to Soho where the heaving crowds frightened us. Restrictions had been eased, not lifted. This felt chaotic, however.

The next day, another friend took a train to London, where we visited the Postal Museum (including the underground mail train) and the Charles Dickens Museum. We headed back to Soho, where we dined in Chinatown, before heading to Compton’s of Soho for some convivial beverages.

I slept well that night.

The following day I flew back to Belfast and took the train back to lockdown Dublin, feeling a great sense of happiness. I was back on the road again. My first foreign trip of 2021 was complete.