An hour after writing the last post about it being another cloudy day forecast, the cloud started to break and we’ve ended up with a beautiful mostly sunny day in the end.
The morning was spent wandering around the vast expanse of the Camden Markets. They are huge, but I wouldn’t say that there was anything that we couldn’t have got in Sydney. Dana picked up a few t-shirts and some bracelets. Nerida commented that if she was 10 years younger there were a lot of dresses she would have loved to get.
We came close to buying a nail kit for Dana that created transfers out of nail polish in finely etched metal that you then stuck onto the nails.
The number of shops selling goth and punk wares was also interesting, as was the sheer number of tattoo and piercing parlours. Was also amused by seeing some 50+ goths in full regalia wandering around.
Had some lunch at the markets, Dana had a huge slice of pizza, Nerida some sweet and sour chicken and I had a nachos. Never thought about putting diced carrot, corn and peas in with the mince and kidney beans but tasted good.
We then wandered to yet another section of the markets where Nerida and I had a really good espresso coffee each and Dana got a strawberry and banana smoothie. Took a while to make as the guy was flustered as he was running out of ingredients, but tasted great. Watched a boat rise through one of the locks on the canal while we drank the smoothie.
Started to wander back to the tube, stopping to look at some Doc Martins on the way. They had some on special in Dana’s size, but had a really high heel which we all thought wasn’t ideal. Otherwise the prices after conversion weren’t too different from what you’d pay in Australia.
As it was only early afternoon by now we decided to head into St James Park and enjoy the sun. The walk from St James tube station to Buckingham palace was along almost deserted streets and felt weird with how crowded the rest of London has been. looked at Buckingham palace again, but still didn’t see the queen.
Wandered through the park and had a sit on a seat for a while just enjoying the day. Saw squirrels again
and Nerida even tried out one of the deck chairs they have in the park
And said it was really uncomfortable and not worth the £1.50 per hour they charge.
As we headed back to Trafalgar Square for the tube noticed it getting very crowded and noisy. As. got closer we saw that the roads were blocked off and there were lots of rainbow flags and whistles. We’d manage to stumble onto the London gay pride march. Managed to find a tube entrance that wasn’t blocked and sunk below ground level and onto the tube.
After coming home, Nerida and I decided to head off the other direction from Tufnel Park to check out the shops that way as there was meant to be a larger supermarket than the mini Sainsbury we’ve been using, so hopefully better range for dinner. The Morissons was certainly bigger, but utter chaos. Found enough for dinner and escaped as quick as we could. Certainly more variety but not worth it in the end.
Back to the flat for some card games and packing for leaving Paris in the morning.
