Covent Garden

There is never a dull moment at Covent Garden, a labyrinthine open space peppered with restaurants, vintage markets, craft stalls, and independent boutiques. There is festivity in the air. This is compounded by singers, magicians, and miscellaneous street artists performing at every corner. Explore the rich history of the area by visiting the London Transport Museum or the Royal Opera House. Pick up a unique gift at The Apple Market, which boasts of a variety of quirky craft stalls. For lunch, head to one of Leicester Square’s numerous al-fresco restaurants.

Covent Garden Market has been on the London‘s tourist checklist, pretty much since its start of existence. Pass all the anarchic t-shirts, street performers and stairwell opera singers, is a prominent street food market taking place, serving spontaneous home cooked dishes and desserts. Skip the high street food and go for some garlicky lamb pita, a hog roast blag or some freshly baked lincolnshire cheese tartlets.

Every Thursday, the Covent Garden Real Food Market opens to offer take fresh produce, gourmet street eats and comfort food, farm to table products from England’s countryside. An absolute must for anyone wanting to sample the best vegetables, cheese and meat from rural England while stuck in London‘s concrete bustle. My highlight and must-visit stall is Jacob’s Ladder Farms - run by a collective of sustainable farms from Kent and Sussex - which sells the highly recommended grass-fed, biodynamic beef burger. Topped with rocket, a duo English cheeses in the Lincolnshire Poacher and Stitchelton Blue, the flavor combination is out of this world and enough to make me want to give up the city life, quietly retreat to the countryside and surround myself in the tastes and smells of Old Blighty.

To a Hermetic Voyager synchronicity is the link between the temporal and the spatial, the intersecting point where human experience resides. To truly live is to improvise but not without a vague sense of destination. I have been to London many times. And it is never the same to me. Although I am greeted by familiarities - mostly in the atmosphere, the way the air feels in the tunnels of the underground as the train approaches. The doors opening like gaping mouths of a beast that will carry us through the network of arteries beneath the city. Mind The Gap. From tour guides to guide books, I look for unusual encounters that deepen my understanding of world and of self. Each journey is an exploration beyond what I think I may know. We found our guide book in a soaked alley way of Covenent Garden. “Synchronicity bridges the gaps between the conscious and the unconscious, between the world of mind and the world of objective events.” And so we follow ...

This is not a free show. Not, that is, if you are satisfied with the performance. Various performers - singers, acrobats, puppeteers and so on - dazzle audiences with impromptu entertainment at the center of the Covent Garden Market. If you haven’t already been awed by the eclectic mix of artistry, home-spun and professional, filling the stores and stalls of the Market’s labyrinth layout, you will be wonderstruck at center stage. Pictured here, two young men balance and bend to the sound of a Jamaican CD on a portable player. Their energy went hopping and hurling and inspired rhythmic audience participation. And when they passed that hat around for a few pounds sterling “if we were satisfied” I had no qualms about throwing half a dozen in.

The West End of London is synonymous with theater—and it’s some of the best in the world. Whether your taste is for hoofers and belting showgirls, broad comedy, or dark, psychological drama, there is always a production that will suit your mood. You really can’t leave London without taking in a show, and it’s great conversation fodder for talking with locals. For the sellout shows, try queuing for returns; for a cheaper price, try the official “half-price tickets” booth in Leicester Square. And lastminute.com has good deals, as does officiallondontheatre.com.

Comfortably positioned on Long Acre, a winding stretch of a street that connects Holborn to Soho, the Covent Garden tube stop is within steps of what makes the neighborhood popular. Watch street performers sing and dance, peruse shops of all budgets, and eat from a global menu quickly after swiping your Oyster card at the exit. But, with all of this convenience, there’s also a catch: On the weekends, this is one popular tube stop. If you have to be here on a weekend night – say, after making a quick dinner purchase at the Marks and Spencer across the street – prepare to brave the crowds. But, the Leicester Square and Holborn stops are just a few blocks away, and perhaps worth the extra steps.