Borough Market is a Mecca for foodies from all over the world. London, 2024.

Borough Market is one of the oldest and largest food markets in London, which has existed since the 12th century. I have heard many stories and contradictory information about the favorite food spot not only for the British but also for tourists, starting with the fact that it is truly a holy place for those who love to eat, who are gourmets and true connoisseurs of delicious cuisine, who are used to food having billions of shades of flavors and aftertastes and leaving a whole trail of memories, using all the senses....

But what is so unusual and controversial about it? It's simple: this holy place is literally located under London Bridge, and on the one hand, you hear the constant hum of cars and feel the vibrations of a big city crowded with vehicles with your whole body, and on the other hand, the aroma of food that you can't resist and want more, and this aroma of food is mixed with the real "aroma of the streets".... Of course, the "the aroma of the streets" is not present everywhere, but in sufficient quantities to feel it.

Here you will meet men who look like actors from the TV series "Suits" and billionaires who came out of another business meeting from the charmingly bizarre skyscrapers on the opposite side of the Thames, and it is also here that you will see a huge number of homeless people living under the bridge....

I didn't visit Borough Market on my first trip, but I decided that I needed to go there this time. Unfortunately, I didn't think about the fact that this market has a schedule and may not be open on Mondays, and I came on Monday because it was the only day I had time and was in that particular area. So, I was unlucky - I didn't taste the goodies and didn't see the "suits" from the cover of the magazine :-) :-) :-)

But I saw a slightly different, hidden, and more eerie side of this place.... It turns out that when everything is closed, there are almost no people there: no suits, no billionaires, no ordinary people who also like to eat delicious food, no tourists.... except for tourists like me who simply did not know that Monday was a day off; and the homeless who live under the bridge. First thing, I was looking for the Borough Market for a long time to get there because when there are no people, you don't know where to go and it's hard for your brain to understand that you have to go literally under the bridge. "Well, a food market can't be located in such a strange place, right under a bridge!???" Secondly, the place is really historic and beautiful, but without people in the evening, when it's about to get gray, it's a little scary. At such a moment, you begin to vividly feel billions of hidden stories from different centuries.... and the sounds and voices of this place, and it's scary.... Thirdly.... When there are no people who come to Borough Market for the culinary ecstasy, because everything is closed, the vast majority of people are those who live under the bridge. I honor people who, for whatever reason, do not have their own home or place to live, feeling a compassion, and whenever possible, I help them with money or buy food. In Ukraine, I had a spiritual practice - I fed the homeless and did it quite often, so I helped them and myself. But here, under London Bridge, it was a completely different situation - there were a lot of homeless people, they were quite aggressive and seemed to be under the influence of drugs.... I had never seen such people before in real life, only in American movies. My whole body clenched as if preparing for an attack or assault, and my heart started pounding, the process in my body happened so fast that I didn't even have time to control the reactions of my body and brain. This is the only place in London where I didn't feel comfortable and where I was frankly scared.... They were staring at me so hard that I wanted to get out as quickly as possible. They were shouting, laughing, and swearing, saying something probably in English slang, using profane language that I could barely understand. One of them, very tall and very thin, quickly came up to me and shouted: "Give me money for food!" I had one second to react and really didn't know what to do: "If I don't give him money, I might get physically beaten by him because he was already waving his hands uncontrollably." "Giving him money means opening my bag, then opening my wallet, which means he can rob me in a second." I said quietly: "I don't have any money!" and after doing some acrobatic pirouette to the left, I was already far away from him, only to hear him from afar: "Greedy BITCH!", which chilled me to the bone. I don't know how, but in a matter of seconds, motivated by fear and panic, I was already on the opposite side of the Thames among the fancy skyscrapers. The reptilian brain's "Fight, Flight or Freeze" program worked - our reptilian brain can indeed save us in critical situations, making us superhumans with cosmic speed. But, if a person constantly lives in the "Fight, Flight or Freeze" mode, he or she not only cannot live a normal and full life, he or she cannot even exist normally.

Think about how often and in what situations this "Fight, Flight or Freeze" mode is triggered in you. And if the honest answer is "All the time", then you need to think about getting help immediately because the body cannot live in such a program permanently, sooner or later there will be a complete failure in the entire body.

Take care of yourself and love yourself.

As for my specific situation, I don't know how he or anyone else would have behaved and whether he would have hit me or robbed me. Perhaps he yells at everyone like that and the word "Bitch" for him is like "Hi! How are you? Well, if you don't help me, that's fine!" or maybe not. But in this particular situation, turning on the turbo mode with a cold mind and a hot heart is the best recipe.

P.S. And I will still get to Borough Market on my third trip to London not on Monday...., but when all the shops and cafes are open, full of people from all over the world, and the tempting aroma of delicious food is felt....Because I am a real foodie....

April 17, 2024.