United Kingdom
Culture, cuisine and comedy night
A visit to the British Museum, Covent Garden & China Town, dinner at Dishoom and stand-up comedy night.
The British Museum
Filled with over 13 million objects, the British Museum hosts one of the biggest art collections in the world, with items from every corner of the globe. The collection is displayed per region, and you can definitely get lost wandering around the many different rooms and levels. For me, the most impressive artifacts were those in the Egypt department, including invaluable artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone and the mummy of Cleopatra. Entrance to the museum is free, but you need to book a timed ticket in advance. Even if you have a ticket, on busy days you can still expect to queue for up to 40min for the bag check. Only those with a paying ticket to one of the temporary exhibitions can skip the queue.
Covent Garden and China Town
We left the museum close to dusk and took in the last bit of daylight while delighting in the Christmas atmosphere around Covent Garden and China town. We sifted through some second hand gems at Wow Retro London Covent Garden and made a mandatory pub stop at the authentic 'Nell Gwynne' for a pint.
Indian cuisine at Dishoom
The best place to eat Indian food outside of India is without a doubt the UK, and the Dishoom restaurants are a favorite of many locals. They choose not to work with reservations and even at 5:30pm, there were already a fair few people lining up. Luckily Dishoom did not leave us out in the cold. Hot chai was served while outside heaters kept us warm throughout the 30min wait. Indoors, the excellent service continued and the dishes came out quickly and with a smile. Our favorites: the dishoom house chaat and the chicken ruby.
Stand-up at Top Secret Comedy Club
We ended our night with the 8pm Monday stand up comedy show at Top Secret Comedy Club in Drury Lane. Not really true to its name, the shows usually sell out, so I recommend booking a £1 ticket in advance. If you want a spot close to the stage, it's best to come early, but if you prefer to avoid being the topic of one of the jokes, you can also hide away in the back like we did. It was a great night with 6 comedians - all were funny and a few were absolutely hilarious.
