Endless Stalls and Market Halls

Only 2 more days left on my latest London odyssey. In the past two days I’ve met a number of well interesting folks. There was Chris and his crew who allowed me to tag along with them to the Camberwell squat (http://www.wombles.org.uk/article200704839.php), and then to a Dancehall night in Shoreditch. On this journey I met Nathan, a cute boy from Chicago, who doesn’t like to say he’s American, and Philip, a German pilot working in London in finance who gave me a U.S. geography lesson. Who knew that Kansas City straddles Missouri and Kansas. Philip did, I didn’t. I didn’t get home from Chris’ place in Hackney until 6am, but the bus ride to the Tube at 515am was phenomenal. The city was coming to life slowly before my eyes, and what was truly remarkable was just how quiet it was. I didn’t think it was possible.

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend from Ottawa at Camden Town. We were part of the crazy mass of people snaking our way through the endless stalls and market halls. Don’t be fooled though, the first market you see getting off the Camden Town tube, the one with the big green sign that says “The Camden Market” is crap. It's Che, Che and more Che surrounded by a bit of Bob, lots of pretty dresses, and tonnes of pre-fab tees with terribly unoriginal slogans! I was pretty discouraged after going through this stuff, but then we explored a bit more and discovered the artist stuff a bit further up, and boy, was it ever worth it. Lots of great stuff, we had a wonderful day. I still prefer Portobello, mostly because of its antique market, where, by the way, I picked up a print of a world map from 1751 on Friday, a thing of beauty. I also think Spitalfields was more up my alley, but that was a year ago, so I’ll go check it out today and let y’all know which market is the hottest.