Schwartz's on Sabbatical...the usual havoc ensues: In Search of Bagels and Banksy

I love a good mission when traveling. And I don't mean a mission to reach a tourist destination. That is more of, well, a destination. I remember our friends Kecia, Tyler, and Henry going on a mission in France to find this specialty store that sold salted caramels. If I remember correctly, it was an out of the way place that turned out to be closed. Somehow, miraculously, the store owner was nearby and able to open her store for them. Do I have this right Kecia?

Anyway. Today our mission began on our comfortable couch in our homey flat. It was about 12:30 pm and the kids had only woken up an hour before. Brad was long gone, wondering the aisles of Egyptian mummies in the British Museum. I told the kids to get their shoes on - we were going to find bagels in the East End of London. I kept it loose. I had read in a guide book the night before that good bagels could be found somewhere along Brick Lane - where Jewish immigrants settled at one point in the early twentieth century. My kids are suckers for a good bagel and we are all still mourning the loss of Kettleman's Bagels down the street from our house in Portland - the closest thing to a NY bagel.

So off we went. An 8 minute walk to the Tube station. Black line headed south to Bank station. Transfer at Bank to the red line and onto the Mile End stop. Lots of stairs and escalators in between. We finally emerged at the Mile End stop only to discover we had overshot Brick Lane by a lot.

So we hopped on a bus. We asked the driver to alert us when to get off for Brick Lane. At this point, we were deep in the heart of East London. Far from the throngs of tourists that crowd the top 10 sites. Women in burkas. Men headed into mosques. Indian eateries. Women in long flowing skirts pushing prams. It was a place where people had come on their own mission. A much, much bigger one.

Finally the bus driver gave us the signal and we got off and headed towards Brick Lane. Lucas was skeptical. Brick Lane was lined with curry shops and restaurants. "I don't see any bagels Mom" Lucas repeated on and off. We were now easily an hour into our journey. Curry house after curry house, Brick Lane meandered on and on. We called Brad on the cell and he went on his own journey to reach us. The vibe on Brick Lane started to shift after several blocks. Suddenly it felt like we were in Portland. Art galleries. Funky shops. It was a mini Portlandia but grittier. And there it was. A food cart advertising bagels. We felt right at home - they were just like the food carts that crowd every nook and cranny of Portland.

So mission accomplished? Well sort of. The bagels were served with burgers in between and a special sauce. As Lucas put it, the food cart was hardly a Kosher Deli selling bagels made from the same recipe brought over from the old country. The burger bagels were tasty but we continued to keep an eye out for the real thing.

At this point, Brad joined us with a new mission. We had innocently stumbled upon Bansky's stomping ground so off we went to find his graffiti art (FYI - Bansky was a famous street artist here in London in the early 2000's - a lot of his work has been painted over). We picked up a guide book, hoping to follow a map that would lead us to his work. Lucas was thrilled as he has been a long time fan. We saw this car he once painted on but has been defaced and enclosed in glass. I don't think Banksy would be very happy about this: