This Photo Friday comes with a bit of a back-story. Ye have been warned.
So yes, as aforementioned, I had a little day-trip to London last Sunday. As you probably know, I'm a bit of a vintage fan (maybe slight understatement there). When I started uni I met fellow English student Max, who is also a huge vintage lover and is now one of my best friends. We'd been talking about going to London so he could show me around Brick Lane for months, and since we both live roughly an hour away from the capital we thought it was a convenient place to meet up during the summer. So, we picked a date, and I hopped on a train and the underground and found my way to buzzing East London.
Firstly, let me just mention that it has rained almost every single day since I came back from uni. Not on Sunday. The sun even came out for a while! (THANK YOU JESUS).
Secondly, this day that we planned? Didn't quite turn out the way we expected, but in the best possible way! Here's the story. When I got to our appointed meeting place Max and I did a lot of talking at a hundred miles an hour, as usual, and he told me about these Texan girls who'd stopped him to ask for directions. He'd given them some helpful advice and recommended an Indian restaurant down the street, and thought that was the end of that.
Well, we strolled around for an hour or two (I took in the sights like a kid in a candy store), and when it got to lunchtime, we decided to go to the place Max had recommended to the girls. We walked in, and there they were! So, of course, we all sat down together, and by the end of our meal we could safely say we'd made new friends. Dena and Mackenzie were visiting the UK as Mackenzie's parents had just moved here, so we were happy to tell them all about our rainy country.
The rest of the day was spent doing more walking and talking, as we compared our cultures and our college/university systems and browsed more vintage markets and yummy food stalls. We ended our outing at the most amazing cafe (as shown further down), drinking calorific hot chocolate and listening to an Americana folk band who just happened to come in and start playing (Dena and Mackenzie loved it).
In short I had a really wonderful day, as you probably guessed, so all that's left is to leave you with a few photos, because as they say, they're worth a thousand words.
Enjoy!
We started out in Columbia Street. If you've ever watched My Fair Lady, you'll know what the Columbia Street flower market is like. True Cockneys yelling a lot and joking around with one another as they sell their wares!
The sheer volume and variety of flowers was almost too much to take in!
Mandatory photo of my favourite flowers right there. So. Pretty.
The prices were quite reasonable too! I wish I could have taken more pictures, but it was SO busy I thought I was going to be trampled, so mostly you would have gotten shots of people's heads in front of me. Anyway, onwards to Brick Lane!
The mishmash of fruit stalls, foreign tourists and cute vintage shops like this is what gives Brick Lane its charm.
Cool looking people carrying these awesome blended fruit juice drinks Max and I decided to try for ourselves:
They were so good.
There were so many adorable shops like this, and sadly not enough time to explore them all! We did wander around this enormous vintage market in a basement though, which was so interesting, but no photos were allowed unfortunately.
By mid-afternoon, the street was completely packed.
This photo (and a couple of others, with their kind permission, was stolen from Dena and Mackenzie's blog- panchoandleftey.wordpress.com They did a whole post on our London adventure, so if you want more pics, go check them out! Anyway, this pic. It's awesome.
Shots like this make me miss living in London, even though it was over ten years ago.
This is where we stopped for hot chocolate. Upstairs- awesome cafe packed with trendy people and groups of girls dressed like 50s pin ups. Downstairs- racks of vintage clothing I can't really afford so thought best not to look too long at. Amazing place though.
Afterwards we briefly met up with Max's mum who'd been in the city for a teaching conference, and she was kind enough to take this photo of the four of us (the graffiti, according to her, added to the effect: 'LOOK STAND THERE BY THE GRAFFITI AND ALL THE MANKY ORANGES ON THE FLOOR, YOU'LL LOOK SO POSTMODERN AND EDITORIAL'. She was amazing, and hilarious).
Well I think I've done enough jabbering on for one day, so I'll be off now! Hope you enjoyed this somewhat jumbled post (I'm ill, so don't be too hard on me), and have a lovely weekend everyone.
C.
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