London has come to be one of my favorite cities. This year I could spare just two days there but managed to fill it with many new experiences. Read on to see all of the new places I discovered!

Day 1

After a perfect english breakfast at Laveli my good friend (and host) Charu and I headed to the Embankment area. We walked over the Thames and headed to Tate Museum of Modern Art.

Tate Modern & Borough Market

Once we explored many of the Tate exhibits, had an espresso on the balcony and admired more views of the city from the terraza, we made our way to Borough Market. The outdoor market smelled incredible. Shops with every imaginable type of food was packed into the street market located (partially) under London Bridge; Charu and I succumbed to a baklava vendor with more varieties than I ever knew existed.

Cocktail Hour at the Shard

Instead of heading up to the observation deck of the Shard, we decided to have a pre-dinner cocktail at Oblix. The views were stunning and we found the perfect spot at a window in the lounge to enjoy a glass of wine.

After a very happy hour Charu led me to Oxford Street and down a little alley that surprisingly opened up onto St. Christopher's Place where we had a Turkish dinner at Sofra.

Day 2

My second day in the city was one of exploring East London. First stop, Spitafields Market.

Spitalfields Market

A live band lured us right to the indoor-outdoor marketplace packed with vendors and people. The market itself reminded me very much of tourist traps you find in New York, but of course as a tourist it was fun perusing the handcrafted items at each stall. After exhausting the shops for entertainment we explored deeper into what I have come to think of as the Brooklyn of London.

We continued the day by getting lost in little lanes and discovering vintage shops. A major highlight was finding a fish and chips place that serves saveloy, my hard-to-find favorite from childhood. After giddily ordering from Poppies, we took our meal to "the sitting room" hidden within the 106 Commercial Street market and sipped on canned gin and tonic while overlooking the shoppers.

106 Commercial Street

Brick Lane & Shoreditch

After lunch we continued our day of getting lost in the shops and stalls along brick lane. Later we drooled over Dark Sugars truffles and made the hard decision of picking a few before heading to Shoreditch High Street and caught a bus that would take us back to the tube.