Old Orleans

We started our adventure today with some chips from Mr Fish in Queen’s Park, which Mitch had told us were the best chip shop in London. They were very good and I managed to nab 20 chip forks so I can make a Tatty Devine chip fork necklace.

We picked up an iSpy London book to help us with our adventure. We’re hoping to get it finished by the end of the year but it gave us the idea to make a grown up’s version with fun stuff like: get your photo snapped at Rough Trade or drink bubble tea in China Town.

First we jumped on the newly reopened East London Line.

I know East is a bit old fashioned but we weren’t expecting people to be dressed like this… hehehe!

We headed down to Railway Avenue to visit Brunel Museum.

The museum was really cute and only cost £2.

The Brunel tunnel was the first underwater tunnel beneath the Thames. It first opened as a shopping arcade and they held a banquet in it. Today the tube runs through it.

We liked the benches they had outside in the courtyard.

We were in luck as it was a special day at the museum where they were giving people train tours of the tunnel and letting them go down in to the old entrace hall.

This was the first time it had been opened in 140 years and we had to squeeze through a little mine entrance and climb down a rickety staircase. It was really cool inside.

Afterwards we went on the hunt for a Cockney cash machine which Ben from Leap had told us about.

We found one but they don’t support Cockney as a language option anymore, so we couldn’t withdraw any bangers and mash.

I love these statues that they have in Spitalfield's Market. They remind me of the London bookstands I keep seeing in shops.

We decided to head out even further East and got the train past Stratford, where the Olympics was coming together nicely!

Eventually we got to Lakeside shopping centre, where we got to be mallrats and it felt like being back in West Edmonton Mall – my Canadian home away from home as a teenager.

They even had gumball machines.

We went to Taco Bell, which is the only one in the UK.

The food was just as good as I remember and just as cheap – a hard shell taco is only 79p.

Just like I would have done in Canada, we went for a snoop around the pet shop after which had super cute bunnies. The rest of the animals were all snoozing.

After shopping for a while we went for dinner at Old Orleans. A restaurant on a fake riverboat which looks similar to the ones we saw in New Orleans.

The food was really good, we ordered burgers with diced home fries, corn bread and a pitcher of Hurricane (which wasn’t as strong as in Nola). The person next to us ordered food that came out sizzling with a huge cloud of smoke steaming off it.

Afterwards we had more cocktails. I went for a Louisiana Jam which was Southern Comfort, apple juice, sourz, apricot jam and mint served in a jam jar. Jam in drinks is actually really nice.

Tom had a Bywater Bramble which came in a glass with a scary face on.