We decided to do something a little different and plan a date for an afternoon where we actually didn't plan it at all. The idea was to go somewhere at random, so since we live next to a large bus station, we decided to hop onto the first one with a destination we hadn't heard of before and just get off at the end point. From there we would just walk around and see what's around and take it in--if there was anything to take in. So we got on a bus and went for a ride. At first we went through a couple of neighbourhoods we already know, Stockwell and Brixton, but after that, we had no idea where we were. We saw some lovely tree-lined roads, beautiful flower gardens in some people's yards, and some funny signs and names of stores along the way. The end point was West Norwood, so that's where we got off.
The end point was a bus garage, and it appeared to be on the edge of an industrial zone, so we decided to walk back a few blocks to where we had seen some sort of market. It turned out it was a food fair with what looked to be a lot of yummy things to eat and various products we could also bring home, such as honey and beeswax products, socks or Italian cheese. One of the booths was advertising the South London Theatre, housed in an old fire hall built in 1881 we passed that appeared to be a little run down but was sort of beautiful, despite its apparent need for upkeep. The lady advertising the theatre is Canadian, as it turned out. She asked us where we were from and then told us she was from Kitchener and had been living in London for 38 years.
I saw another building like the old firehall, an old library built in 1887, across the street, so we crossed so I could get a photo. From the place I had taken the photo, there was a church right behind, and the main food fair was in the churchyard, so we looked at all the different foods being sold, wishing the whole time that we hadn't eaten lunch. But there was no way we could have known, especially since the whole point was to go somewhere random we didn't know anything about.
We were planning to get a treat from a lady selling cakes and doughnuts with fresh flowers on them, but the one we were planning to buy, she ended up selling the last of it as we were waiting for the ladies ahead of us to make their purchase; as they did so, they walked away with the dessert we were hoping to try. So we kept going and ended up finding a Brazilian food stall selling churros filled with chocolate or salted caramel. I was so excited because when I lived in Mexico, that's how churros would come, was filled with some sweet sauce. But in Canada, all you ever get is plain churros and a chocolate sauce to dip them in. It really isn't the same thing. So having a filled churro like that was a treat I hadn't had since I lived in Mexico 20 years ago.
After finishing exploring the market, we walked into the West Norwood Cemetery that was just a few steps away. If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that I do go to cemeteries from time to time as a way to reflect, and here in London, some of these big cemeteries, as the West Norwood one was, sometimes have famous people buried there, so we thought we'd give it a try. I decided to check Google to see if there was anyone I recognise, because the cemeteries are so packed that unless you know where to find a headstone or grave, you could walk around in them for hours if you go blindly. There was almost no one whose name I recognised, but I did find one: Charles H. Spurgeon, a British-born minister from the 1800s whose writings I have read some of over the years and that I quite enjoy in terms of his perspectives on certain aspects of faith. I couldn't find any real directions to his mausoleum, where his wife is also buried with him, so we used cues in the photos online to try to locate it, and we were successful. It's also near the mausoleum of Sir Henry Tate, who I didn't know anything about, but I correctly guessed was who the Tate Britain museum is named after. As interesting as it was to see the burial place of a writer I enjoy, I also just enjoyed the quiet beauty of the cemetery. It was not a grim place, despite the grey skies. Cow parsley was blooming over a large portion of the cemetery, and headstones were jutting out from it, including a lot of Celtic ones. Bluebells were blooming in woodlands everywhere in the UK right now, and there were patches of them here and there. And there were cherry trees, most of which were done blooming, but as their petals were falling, there were tombs that were covered by them. And the place was quiet but for the sound of birds singing--except for squawking parakeets at times.
But it was contemplative, and the ones with cherry blossoms on them was somehow so peaceful; I thought how beautiful it would be to lie there in a place of such peace and quiet and be covered by pretty pink petals every spring.
When we were done visiting the cemetery, we walked a bit farther down the road, but there wasn't much to see there, and as the weather had started to get a little chillier, it seemed like a good time to come home. It was a fun way to spend a date, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We might do it again in a little while and try somewhere new.
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