Day 3 - Markets, Day 4 - C2C's sunday, Day 5 - Last day in London

Day 3 – Markets

This day was market day! After breakfast we first went to the Greenwich market, a market with all different kinds of self-made things. We looked around a bit and then took the tube to Borough market, a market with a lot of food. We had a long but inspiring talk with a guy at the ‘Borough market bags’ stand about politics; the Brexit and America, amongst other topics. I especially came to this market to try the Raclette dish, where they pour melted cheese over vegetables and potatoes, but unfortunately that stand wasn’t there that day. So, we had to find another place to have lunch. From previous trips I remembered Beigel Bake at Brick Lane, so we made our way there. We did this by bus, which is much more fun than doing everything by underground since you can see a lot more by bus. At Brick Lane we bought bagels that we ate at a small park nearby.

After our lunch we made our way to Camden, where I was planning on getting my second tattoo. I got my first one 2,5 years ago, in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was time for a new one. Unfortunately, the shop I found on the internet didn’t have time to do it at that moment (because I wanted a small tattoo I didn’t make an appointment), so we left and went to a pub instead. Here we met with Nabil, a guy I met in London when I was having a beer in a pub (when aren’t I?) with Matthew and Pim. Nabil came to visit Amsterdam this summer and we went to the Gay Pride together, which was super fun. Since I was visiting his city now, we decided to meet up again. We had really good conversations and a few beers and munchies. Around 8 me and my parents decided to go back to Greenwich to have dinner there, so we said goodbye to Nabil. When we got back, however, I wasn’t hungry at all so I went back to the hotel while my parents had dinner at Jamie’s Italian. I had a nice shower and went to bed after that!

Day 4 - C2C’s Sunday

On Sunday my mom flew back to Amsterdam so we enjoyed our last breakfast together. There was this guy working at the hotel who came to our table all the time to tell stories about his car, his children, everything. He was kind of crazy but really fun to talk to. He insisted on taking a picture together haha.

After breakfast we helped my mom to take the right train, and me and my dad took the bus to the O2 after that. It was the first time for my dad to visit the C2C festival and he really liked it from the beginning. We first went to the Indigo stage, where Seth Ennis was playing a set. After that we went to the cinema to watch the 50 years of CMA awards and a behind the scenes of the forever country video clip (a collaboration between big country artists). This was really cool to see! When the movie was over we went to the town square to look around the market. My dad bought a custom made belt with his initials on it, pretty cool! After that, we decided to have lunch at Goumet Burger Kitchen (best burgers, omy). We ordered sweet potato fries and they came with a sauce called baconnaisse: how perfect can a sauce be?! It was so good.

After lunch we went to the Indigo stage again to watch Cassadee Pope perform. Dad didn’t like her that much, and I admit that her music is more pop than country, but I did like it. However, at 3 I was meeting Jake, a friend of my flatmate at the University of Hertfordshire, so we couldn’t stay long at that performance anyway. Jake took us to Slugs and Lettuce, a pub within the O2, where we bought him a beer and had a nice chat about how we both were doing and our plans for the future. He wanted to arrange a free C2C item for me, so when we were getting the tickets for the arena from the Ticket Box, he asked his manager if he could give me a free program book and his manager said he could! It’s a really nice book with something written about every artist that performed over the weekend. Thanks again Jake!

For us it was time to go into the arena to see the first performance; the Brothers Osborne. It didn’t take us as long as it did me and my mom on Friday, so we still had time to get some beers and find a place to have dinner later. The Brothers Osborne where really good and played a nice set. As a small show between the headliners we saw Drake White, and he was really good! The second headliner of the evening was Maren Morris, another pop artist at a country festival. We both didn’t really like her performance. Her music is like Sam Hunt’s; catchy, but definitely not country. My dad even went away during her performance to get new beers. As a small show this time Lucie Silvas sang a few songs, including a cover of Who’s Lovin’ You from Jackson 5, which was really good. The surprise of the evening was the headliner after that: Marty Stuart. He is a true country artist, and especially after Maren Morris he reminded the audience of what real country is: he was incredible! He even let his band mates sing a few songs, and he also sang a tribute song for Johnny Cash (with a short guitar solo of Walk the Line in it).  After his last song we quickly went to the toilet and got pizza to be back in time for the Zac Brown Band; the main headliner on Sunday. They opened with my favourite song (homegrown) so I thought it couldn’t get any better; but it did! They were so good and even played a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Baba O’riley by The Who. It was amazing!

Day 5 – Last day in London

After our last breakfast at the hotel we packed our suitcases and took the underground to Blackwells, a bookshop I wanted to visit. It wasn’t any special, so we walked to Black Garden Tattoo, another tattoo shop I found online. A tattoo artist named Mills had time to tattoo me, and he had a few good ideas for the eight note I wanted to get on my ribs. After a few sketches and trying we decided to go for it. It was a bit more ‘painful’ than my first one, still not too bad though, and I think there are a few reasons for that. My first tattoo (that little star on my foot, I wrote about it here) was smaller than this one, which is still just about 2 by 1 cm. Also, the place of the tattoo is different, and lastly, I think I kind of forgot about the ‘pain’. When I was satisfied with the result I paid and we made our way to a Tesco’s to get a meal deal for lunch and some stuff I really missed about the UK (chocolate fingers and millionaires’ shortbread for example). We had our lunch at Soho Square Gardens, and had a good talk in the sun there. The last thing I really wanted to do was to visit the House of MinaLima, an exhibition of the graphical art of Harry Potter (and Fantastic Beasts) movies, and it was really good! It’s free to visit, and every half hour there is a guided tour. I highly recommend going here if you’re a Harry Potter – or Fantastic Beasts fan, or if you like graphical art. Just before we had to make our way to the airport we had a last beer at a cafe, after which we took the underground to London City Airport and had a pleasant flight back to The Netherlands!

It was an awesome trip, and I am very blessed with such cool parents! Can’t wait to be back in London again. To be continued…