Week 3: Two Markets and a Festival

This weekend I went to two street markets: the Portobello Road Market and Camden Market.  I also went to the Mayor’s Thames River Festival.

The Portobello Road Market was like a typical outdoor market that you would usually think of, full of little trinkets, art, thrift items, jewelry, clothes, and food stands.  However, it was massive.  So long that we didn’t even cover the whole thing.  The plan was to double back as there was a section where it split off, but by the time we got to the end we were simply too tired. Also,  this market had many stalls dedicated to antiques and there were many antique shops along the road.  There was a lot of cute handmade jewelry and so many things I was tempted to buy.

I didn’t know beforehand, but I discovered along the way that we were in the Notting Hill Area.   I had just seen the film Notting Hill, for the first time, in my British Cinema class that week.  I know, I know–it’s a classic.  I saw a bookshop that inspired The Travel Book Store in the movie.  Apparently, the iconic blue door of William’s house was auctioned off for charity.

That day I decided to stop by Camden Market as well.  I had been hearing lots of good things about it and figured why not since it was such a nice day out.  Camden Market is actually a series of markets in the area, and I also just barely scratched the surface of what it had to offer.  The vibe of this market, and the area of Camden Town, was definitely younger and more rocker and hip.  There were so many things I saw that I made a mental note would be perfect for my friends for Christmas.  I browsed the Camden Lock Market and the Camden Stables Market.  There was also a ton of mouthwatering street food.  I tried a bit of my friend’s fish & chips and agree that it’s much better here.  Usually I’m not a huge fan of fried seafood in the states, but here you could tell it was very fresh and it wasn’t just fried to cover up something mediocre.

Sunday night I checked out the Thames River Festival that is held every year.  The Paralympics Closing Ceremony also happened to be taking place at the same time, and I was able to catch some of it on TV as we had dinner in a pub (coincidentally, I was watching the Paralympics Opening Ceremony in a pub the first night we arrived in London).  There was a parade, and what I loved was that you were able to go into the streets to get up close to the parade participants.  They were also very open and came up to make faces at and take pictures with the crowd.  I feel like that’s something you don’t get to do in America as it is usually barricaded off.  Later on we watched the fireworks from the balcony of a pub, and I thought it was a great show.

A float from the Thames Festival.