✈️🤯 Hot take: Europe is a weekend trip

🍻🏀 Just in time for tip off … Time Out Market’s bar is back open, and they’re broadcasting EVERY March Madness game. The best part? You can try allll the new bites: pizza at Lala’s, wings at Ms. Cluck’s Deluxe, tacos at Taqueria el Barrio, and more. Seating is open, so show up early!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Hot take: If you can sit in six hours of Cape traffic for a long weekend … you can sit on a six-hour transatlantic flight for one. At least that’s what I told myself when I found myself in this … “situation” last summer. 

TikTok is currently obsessed with day trips across the pond … So I did what any curious journalist would do: I got on a red-eye flight to London last Wednesday and flew home Sunday morning. 

Here’s what I learned:

😴 A morning power nap > a fitful night of plane sleep. Yes, do your best to get some in-flight shut eye, but from one girl in economy to another: Don’t bet on it. A solid two-hour post-flight hotel nap is enough to give you a second wind for the afternoon. 

📍Say it with me now: I will NOT make any firm plans on day one. You’ll be running on caffeine and delusion, babe. Use it as your chance to get the lay of the land without the pressure to pay attention. For us, that meant snapping pics of the greatest hits: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey. And then just … wandering. We stumbled into gorgeous bookstores, this buzzing food hall, and one of the city’s oldest fish-and-chips shops.

⚓ After day one … anchor your days. Pick one to two high-priority plans — the things you’d be genuinely sad to miss, ideally with reservations — and build around them. Friday’s anchors were lunch at Indian restaurant Dishoom and the splurge-worthy afternoon tea at the Ritz. Saturday’s anchors were the Tower of London and a matinee in the West End.

🚶 Fill the gaps with ~wandering-forward~ activities. Think: Exploring Notting Hill, snacking through Borough Market, and shopping in Marylebone — all of which can be stretched or cut short, depending on the vibe. 

📝 Ask a local before you ask TikTok. If your FYP is pushing these viral chocolate strawberries at Borough Market … keep walking … to this flaky, buttery sausage roll from The Ginger Pig. Shoutout to the cheesemonger — your rec did not disappoint!

🪫 Accept that you’ll never quite fully recharge your battery. We lucked out with daylight savings (only a four-hour difference), but still felt it. A consistent bedtime routine will be your BFF.

✈️ JetBlue is *that girl* if you’re flying economy. Everyone got complimentary booze, they had all my plane comfort movies, functioning WiFi (!), and Dig Inn was an in-flight meal.

✅ Would I do it again? 100%. Would I choose it over the Cape if I saw a good flight deal? In a heartbeat.

🧠🍻 You’ve been training for this your whole life (a.k.a. watching Jeopardy every night for as long as you can remember). FiDO Pizza hosts Geeks Who Drink Jeopardy! Bar League Trivia every Sunday at 3 p.m., where Daily Doubles, Final Jeopardy chaos, and competitive teams meet hot pizza and cold beer. Prizes are up for grabs and the full menu is available — including a gluten-friendly pizza crust (+$4) made with deglutinated wheat and baked in a shared oven. Grab your trivia team, reserve a table, and see if all that random knowledge pays off.

👩🏼‍🎓 Northeastern’s graduation is what dreams are made of. Translation: Hilary Duff will be its 2026 commencement speaker! For our non-millennial readers, Duff was a 2000s teen idol known for her starring role in Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire,” plus countless other shows and movies (she’s also gearing up for her first global headline tour in two decades!). Northeastern dropped the news in an Y2K-themed reel, complete with a sparkly flip phone and a "The Lizzie McGuire Movie” poster. Let’s just say, other schools were appropriately jealous. She’ll give her speech at Fenway Park on April 29.

🎸 Somerville’s PorchFest has a new addition to the lineup: TONS of porta-potties. The beloved DIY music festival that takes place on neighborhood porches returns May 9 with tons of great music … and “at least double” the porta-potties, a spokesperson said. This potty palooza is part of the festival’s beefed-up safety guardrails following some WILD crowds in 2024. Think: Banning performances on main streets and enlisting a group of volunteers. Plastic thrones aside … You can sign up to volunteer, perform, or host here!

🦞 Inflation is coming for Boston’s lobster rolls. Restaurateurs predict the price of lobster rolls will approach $50(!) this summer thanks to soaring business costs, inflation, and climate change. The uptick puts local businesses in a tough situation: Jack up prices, or leave the rolls off the menu entirely. Either way, they risk alienating regulars and tourists alike who expect to see the local staple on the menu. And with Boston’s banner summer of tourism coming up, many will have to decide soon.

🦆 The Duck Boat Challenge is BACK. On April 11, teams of ten will race against the clock to drag a 21,000-pound duck boat across the Common, a.k.a. The Duck Boat Challenge. Yes, it looks as wild as it sounds. The event debuted last year as a way to raise money for youth sports in Boston, and Curry College football team took home the W (surprise, surprise). If you have $1,000 to blow, you can register here before March 27. Otherwise, spectating is free! 

😂 Watch comedians fight to the DEATH. Or … until they get kicked off stage. Tonight at The Rockwell, local comics will compete in a standup battle judged by the audience until one remains.

📚 Stay booked and busy. It’s easy at Bow Market’s Book Fair on March 21! On the docket: Bookseller pop-ups, author signings and panels, crafting workshops, and WAY more. 

🥵 Heat up the dance floor. This “Heated Rivalry” queer dance party and drag show at Nathálie Wine Bar on March 21 may be hockey-themed, but trust us, there will be nothing icy about it.

🌈 Celebrate the festival of colors. A.k.a. Holi! Head to Adams Park on March 21 for Holi Mela 2026, with food, dancing, and tons of color. Seriously: Don’t wear anything you don’t want to turn rainbow.

🪩 Dance the night away (but be home by midnight). You can truly have it all at High Street Place’s Home By Midnight bash on March 21.

🧶 Get hooked on fiber arts. Get it? Boston Public Market’s Fiber Fest on March 21 and 22 features local pop-up vendors and fiber arts workshops, like this adorable denim patch class!

👖 Thrift your new spring wardrobe. Select Markets is back with a springy thrift market at the Revere Hotel on March 21 and 22. Think: 70+ vendors, $10 piles, temporary tattoos, and tooth gems.

🛍️ Shop ‘til you drop in the Fenway. Time Out and Mighty Squirrel Brewery are both hosting vendor markets in the neighborhood this weekend with oodles of local art, vintage, vinyl, and more!

🎨 Boston is gearing up for a one-night culinary experience featuring four legendary Boston chefs: Lydia Shire, Gordon Hamersley, Jody Adams, and Joanne Chang. They're collaborating on Dinner Under the Dome, a four-course dinner created exclusively for this evening, woven together with live art activations by Boston Center for the Arts artists. Proceeds support BCA and its resident artists. Reserve here.

If you see a pile of trash on City Hall Plaza, it’s probably Alex Alex. The Dorchester resident has gone viral on social media for collecting pieces of broken city infrastructure like bus signs and traffic cones, loading them in a cart, and lugging them to City Hall.

Alex, who ran a longshot campaign for mayor last fall, said his actions are about bringing the city’s inaction and misallocation of resources to light. The idea came about after his concerns were brushed off by city officials (though they seem to disagree). 

So far, he’s picked up over 5,000 pounds of trash and racked up the views on Instagram, where his mission is resonating with viewers. “I’m not invited to these rooms where policies are being made … but what I can do is point out infrastructure that’s physically visible to everybody,” he told Boston.com.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🚧 Thanks for reading! Say what you will, but five miles with 200 pounds of trash is DEDICATION.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, FiDO Pizza, for supporting local journalism and giving us all a tasty neighborhood spot to keep coming back to. 

👃 The results are in: 45% of readers said neti pots and nasal spray are their go-to allergy season hacks. One reader said: “Hiding in a hole until the forbidden yellow dust is gone!” That’s one way to do it!

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].