Portobello Market

Summer in Madrid is hard to deal with, especially these last few weeks, so here I am home trying to avoid the heat, and while I'm here, I've decided to do another blog post before 2016 arrives. Today I'll be talking about the Portobello Market, which you can find on Portobello Road (obviously), next to the Notting Hill Gate tube station.

In order to get there you just have to follow the crowd, walk by the Book & Comic Exchange store and keep walking through some streets that have very CUTE houses that must cost a pound per square centimeter per month (basically because it's Notting Hill we're talking about).

 

And then you'll get to this deserted street (yes) (especially on the weekends). But it's worth it.

 

The most interesting thing about this street are its antiquity stores and stalls, which go from the beginning to the end of the road, and of which I am a fan (something you might have noticed if you've been reading this blog for a while).

 

 

These stalls are there from very early in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon, so I'd recommend you go early in order to make the most of it.

Of course, not all of it are antiquities. You can also find a toy store, cafés, clothing stores, bakeries, and even a store and bar selling Spanish products (Garcia & Sons), which was nice in my case since I was able to find really good Spanish tuna.

If you keep walking straight (if you come from Notthing Hill Gate station) you'll see on your left at some point a wide street where there are more stalls.

 

 

As you can see there are lots of things to do on the area and all kinds of stores. If you decide to spend the day there, in order to rest and/or have a sandwich you can go to a small park you'll find on one of the streets to the right (I'm giving you the best directions on how to get there, eh?) where in summer you'll find some beautiful tulips (even though I'm not the biggest flower fan, they do look really nice!).

And then, if you want to keep walking or go shopping (since that's why many people come to London), you can go back to the station and keep walking the other way until you get to High Kensington, a nice but expensive neighborhood that's nice to look at and at the end of which is the Holland Park, which I'll talk about in the future (as well as High Kensington Street).

Book and Comic Exchange

Dear friends of the world wide web, hello again. I hope you're doing well. I've moved out of my parent's house and I'm currently living with my brother, a friend, and a little cat named Milou. Which means I spent quite a while without an Internet connection... But now I can surf the web every night and watch episodes of Modern Family and Criminal Minds 24/7.

On 14, Pembridge Road you'll see this little second-hand bookshop, part of the Music & Goods Exchange chain, which in their different shops sell all kinds of second-hand products, such as records, books, clothes, and more. In this store you'll only find books but there's another store in Berwick Street called 'Music & Video Exchange" (filled with records, cd's, and dvd's) (in case the name didn't make you reach that conclusion).

Already on the outside there are some wooden boxes with books at 50 cents. They're not usually very interesting but they're worth checking out!

Once inside you'll see that everything is organized by genres and alphabetically, which is always nice because some bookshops can get messy...

Furthermore, this bookshop is right next to the tube station and five minutes away from the Portobello Market (which I'll talk about here soon!)... What else could you ask for? Probably tons of stuff but this isn't bad for starters.

Inside you'll also find some stairs that will take you down to an area filled with comic books, manga, and other books that are even cheaper. THUS it's a total BARGAIN.

Actually this store is not that different from the thousands of second-hand bookshops of London, but they have a lot of comics and manga, and that's not so usual. Also, the price of the books keeps lowering every month. I remember I saw an awesome Quentin Blake illustrated Christmas book that cost 5 pounds, and I ended up buying it a few months later for 2. So be sure to check it out.

And now I'm off to have a salad.

Camden Town

I've been meaning to listen to Eels for a while now, and I finally did when my friend Marta made me a mixtape comprising the song "Little Bird". The day after that I bought "End Times". I highly recommend it! And that is all as far as music is concerned (for today).

I haven't updated this blog in a long time because I've been enjoying summer and holidays. In a few weeks I'll be back to university again and so I wanted to get away from everything! But now I'm back and ready to keep translating the entries I posted on my Spanish blog - and hopefully I'll do it more frequently.

So, Camden Town. Since this is a blog about London, I guess I have to talk about this market. Even though it's not my favorite place in London, it does have plenty of interesting and even amazing stuff - it's so big that it would be hard not to find something one likes. And since it is so big, I will only talk about the area I liked the most - the Horse Tunnel Market, in the Stables Market - and let you discover the rest on your own.


Just so you know, over a 100,000 people walk around Camden Town during the weekend, and so the Camden Town tube station closes on Sundays from 13h to 17h (i.e., you can't go in but if you come from somewhere else you can get out). Mornington Crescent is not too far, though, so it's not that big of a deal. I also recommend you try avoiding going there on Saturday or Sunday because, as I said, it's crowded.

The stalls I like the most in this area of the market are the vintage ones (there is also a pretty nice toy store). You will find old trunks and suitcases (quite affordable, by the way), telephones, second-hand books, maps, old magazines and newspapers, etc.


I couldn't find rubber stamps though, and I'm a huge fan of those, but there are tons in Angel on Saturdays and sometimes at the Portobello Market (about which I will talk soon).

What you will definitely find is a lot of second-hand clothes.


Nice and useful flannel now that autumn is slowly approaching (not in Spain though...). Oh and don't come thinking these clothes will be all cheap, because for instance, these shirts cost 15 pounds... okay, it's not that expensive, but I thought you should know. There were also some Ray-Ban sunglasses for over 60 pounds. I also tell you this because this year has been the first time I've gone to tons of second-hand clothing stores and I always thought everything would be much cheaper. I guess it also depends on what you buy and where! Anyway. It rules. If only because of all the awesome maps.

Hunky Dory Vintage

On 226, Brick Lane, one can find the store pictured on this entry: Hunky Dory.

It's a little shop that sells second-hand clothing. As you enter, on the left, you'll find men's clothing, and to the right, women's. The shop is small (it's basically what you see on the picture) so there isn't a huge variety of items, but the ones that they sell are pretty cool (which is not always the case in vintage shops) and affordable. I always thought second-hand clothes would be really cheap, but this year I've found out I was wrong. Of course a lot of things are not expensive at all, but the ones I like the most (such as corduroy blazers) are quite expensive! Anyway it's understandable, since what they sell is most of the time in very a good condition.

Personally, as I told you, I'm a fan of the men's blazers you'll find on the left and the little box full of bowties close to the window.


The staff is also very nice and the changing rooms are not too small. All in all, it's a cozy shop, and it is much more attractive than the other ones on that street (and there are a lot!).

Basically, if you like thrift shops and vintage clothes make sure you check Brick Lane and the surrounding area, especially Spitalfields Market (on Thursdays), but I'll talk about that in another post.

Peace!

Any Amount Of Books

Dear friends, I'm back home after a pretty cool year abroad, and really happy about it (though I do miss London). But I still have a lot of things to talk about here, so let's go.

We've already established (at least I have) that bookstores are the best thing ever, and if they're beautiful, then it's even better. In this case, we're not talking about the prettiest bookstore in London, but it's located in a very nice area (namely Charing Cross Road), where one can find many interesting (and often cheap) bookstores... and in this case, it is basically because Any Amount of Books is a second-hand bookshop.


This bookstore's catalog is available online on their website, but as I saw when I went there, they have a lot of different books from a huge variety of genres. I even found a couple of plays from my Modern British Theatre After '56 course (and for only 2 pounds!). Aside from having hundreds of second-hand books, they have books that are otherwise quite hard to find (although I don't suppose any of you are looking for rarities...) (but hey, who knows), and, what I found most odd and funny, leather books to decorate the house! So if you're looking to redecorate your house and want to emulate Dumbledore's office, this is the place to go (although beware! for each book costs between 10 and 15 pounds).


To sum it up, it's a pretty cool place. Also, they open from 10h30 to 21h30 every day, something quite uncommon in this city where everything usually closes around 18h!

P.S.: Since this is my blog... I will promote myself! A friend and I recently built a simple website to show my photography... You can check it out here. I hope you like it!