Garnet's Life Adventures

Camden Town Experience

I can hear everyone already, "where are the picture?" Well I woke up a little late due to the fact that I'd by accident hit the cancel button instead of the snooze button when it first alarmed at 7:17am. When I woke up again my friend Louise was sending me a text message to say she was just getting up but would still like to join Dad & me in Camden. I replied back that I was just getting up as well so not to worry.

Dad and I showered, had some tea and rushed off to walk down Kentish Town Road to the Camden Town Underground station (20 minutes). We then turned right and went up Camden High Street looking for the market. This is when I started to kick myself for not having my camera!! Both sides of the street were covered in people of all ages dressed in "Goth." When I say all ages, you first passed a little girl (maybe 14) in neon pink spider stockings with platform black boots, just beyond her was a grandmother aged woman with hot pink hair, dressed all in black with piercings in her ears, lip, eyebrow, and chin.

We, well more dad, were hungry so we wandered up the road looking for a place to eat. You would think this is an easy task, but we were surrounded by clothing & shoe shops. At the end of the block just before the canal there was a little cafe on the right. While we were sitting having breakfast, Louise had arrived in Camden Town and found us. At the end of our meal, we asked about boat trips on the canal - Dad was able to get a senior's discount while Louise & I signed up for the student discount on the 2.30pm boat (What a deal!!)

We decided to browse through the Camden Canal Market first. It is s huge - on both sides of the High Street. LOTS of Goth clothes, touristy t-shirts, food stalls, shoes, jewelry, bags, hairbands, scarves, pants, sweaters, skirts, face masks, tattoo & piercing parlors, but over all I'd say it was mostly Goth stores with stockings in all different colors and designs, make-up, boots, over the knee socks, etc. Louise pointed out a girl's outfit and giggled as she said, "we should buy you that get-up and you can wear it home on the plane for Matt to pick you up in" It would be very funny, but I'm not sure how I'd do with the airport security with all that metal on my face, ears, shoes, and clothes. Plus I wasn't sure if I could get my hair to stay spiked in a mohawk for that many hours on the plane and it would suck to get 1/2 way across the Atlantic and have the spikes start to fall apart, ya know?!?!?!?!!

After about 2 hours of browsing through all these stalls we went to Henry Bean's Pub for a late lunch. After that we had to run over the catch our 2.30 boat ride. I know, again where is my camera??? At home :( But I promise I will go back another day and take photos from the canal walkway. We rode the canal boat through 1 set of locks (rising 8ft) and down to Little Venice, near Edgeware Road, turned around, dropped off all but 6 passengers and we headed back - Louise and I were checking out the house boats, we think we need a "Sara Louise" to live in for the year. After hearing the price, we're going to look into just being house sitters for the rich "Arab Oil people" (as the tour guide called them) they're houses cost about 6 million pounds (that's about 12 million US dollars!!) We figure it will be easier than finding a house boat that we can afford on a student's budget.

When we reached the end of the boat trip we were all in need of a little sweet so we headed north looking for a little cafe to have some tea and cakes. This turned out to be a lot harder than we thought since most of the shops on this street were Goth clothing stores. We did finally find a Nando's (chain of Chicken rest.) we ordered hot chocolate and custard in pastry - it was small but hit the spot! It was getting close to 5.15pm, so after we were done eating we decided it was time to head home. We walked Louise back down through the sea of shoppers to the underground station. From there we headed north on Kentish Town Road. Dad & I stopped into Somerfields to grab a few things for dinner. We arrived back home around 6pm. Dad is now across the road drying his clothes at the Laundromat - apparently he doesn't like to use the free clothes dryer I have - line dry :)

Tomorrow morning we are off to visit a family friend in Oxford, her name is Beth.

Before I sign off for the day, I wanted to report the exciting news for England, especially after hearing about the tragic earthquake on the Pakistan-India border this morning. Those who weren't shopping at the markets this afternoon were glued to the "teles" in all the local pubs to watch . . . "MANCHESTER, England - David Beckham was sensationally ordered off but England hung on for a 1-0 win over Austria that keeps them in control of their own World Cup destiny. "

posted by Sara @ 6:37 pm