Aesthetics as An Entry Point to Something Bigger In Travel at Cream Dream Bakery
I Went for the Pretty Coffee Cup—And Left Thinking About Ukraine
This week a coffee cup caught my eye online. It had illustrations of London, shown through a small paper window from Cream Dream Bakery. A twist of the sleeve reveals sights of Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Covent Garden market.
So when I was in the neighbourhood on Wednesday for the M.C. Escher exhibit, I thought I’d pop by and get one. I filmed a little video and posted it to my Instagram:
My post got a lot of likes on TikTok and Instagram: the pink cup was so cute! I had a nice time at Cream Dream Bakery, reading up on Ukrainian activism. The café provides a calm, pink-tinted atmosphere. It promises a place to “savour slow mornings” and enjoy Ukrainian dishes. All their pastries and coffees are gluten-free and plant-based.
The thing is, I didn’t know about the Ukrainian angle until after I was already in the bakery. And I enjoyed learning more about what was happening in Ukraine, through newspapers and other reading materials provided. But I’m not sure that I would have put Cream Dream Bakery on my radar if not for the specialty coffee cup—which I’m weirdly kind of ashamed of.
It’s important to me to be someone who participates actively in the goings-on of the world, especially when it comes to pain and suffering. Ignoring the harm doesn’t help anyone, and my ignorance is something I try to remedy with education. I don’t want to ignore bad things happening, as long as they’re not happening to me.
People who travel regularly are often plugged into this; if we want to experience the places that communities have built up in places we don’t call home, keeping your cultural understanding updated is key. Otherwise you end up in places where tourism does more harm than good.
But—and I think a lot of people have been feeling this acutely, recently—there’s so much bad stuff going on right now. To keep on top of everything sometimes feels irresponsible. The war in Iran, the war in Ukraine, Palestine/Israel…it all feels like so much.
And that’s on top of that non-person-to-person conflict like that people can’t afford their groceries and the world is heating up more and more each year. It’s enough to make anyone want to lie down for several hours. This kind of self-inflicted knowledge overdose isn’t healthy, especially if it leads to feelings of further helplessness.
So I think we choose our battles; choose the things that we know we can stay impactful on. I limit my consumption of the world’s horrors before getting overwhelmed. And I know a lot of people do this—we donate to charities, volunteer with organisations who provide aid to war-torn regions, and keep hope in our hearts. But falling down a rabbit hole of despair you can’t get out of doesn’t help anyone.
Still, it was nice to spend some time at Cream Dream Bakery. I had a coffee, eavesdropped on conversations, and perused the Ukranian literature. Am I a little embarrassed that the thing that got me through the door was a pretty coffee cup? Yes. But I’m glad I went, and if I’m a better person for knowing the goings-on in Ukraine, I’m glad it’s enticing people like me.
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