2010 Trip: London Day 1

12th June 2010

I caught the bus to Notting Hill first thing this morning. My destination, along with most of the rest of London, was the Portabello Market. This market, which stretches more than 10 blocks, is divided into different sections covering new and used clothes, antiques, produce, and food stalls.

From tacky sunglasses, jewellery, and clichéd slogan-imprinted t-shirts, to a shop where all of the windows are full of old Singer sewing machines. Huge piles of bread, massive stew pots, and fresh coconuts (first time in years - oh the memories!). Ethnic food stalls and even proper Cornish pasties. While many sections of the market were quite cool, they were tempered with long sections of crap. Ah well.

From here, I headed south to Victoria station. I spent the next few hours wandering along south bank. I explored little art galleries and watched the traffic on the Thames. My first main stop was the Borough Market, which I think is the best market so far on the trip. Vegetable stands selling tens of varieties of mushrooms, fresh oysters prepared on the spot, drunken cheese (prepared by standing it in wine), some of the most amazing granola of all time, cheeses, meats, beers, and huge raspberry meringues that seemed to have exploded from their original shape.

In my continuing effort to understand and appreciate modern art, the Tate Modern was my next stop. Unlike the rest of Europe (and definitely unlike America), museums in the UK are free! Some of the works were quite interesting, but I didn’t opt to stay particularly long.

I continued walking along the river shore and my next stop was The Scoop, a new performance space, just under the City Hall. I stopped to watch a performance of a rather good drumming group and a local female rock/rap singer (who I have entirely forgotten the name of). The MC was a rather charismatic guy with incredibly strong posh accent, purple lycra pants, a waistcoat, and bow tie. An interesting look!

From here, I strolled across London Bridge, past the Tower, and north until I got rather lost in the City. Being a Saturday, this centre of finance was totally deserted, like a ghost town. Huge skyscrapers created a very surreal and eerie experience, eventually after under passes, tunnels and roads with u-turns, and lots of walking, I found myself near St. Pauls. I was pretty tired, so I called it a day and grabbed some dinner from a Waitrose on the way home.