A Little Weekend in London pt.2

06:19

So this is a little late as a second installment of what happened the weekend before last! But ahh well, here we go.
The second day of my little London trip was more fun than I had anticipated - the Notting Hill Carnival was our first destination! As I mentioned in my last post, it really was an assault on the senses - the colours and smells and sounds all mingled into one colossal colour explosion of fun and creativity.
We arrived at Notting Hill Gate at about 9am because we'd heard that was when it was supposed to start - all I can say is LIESSSSSSS. It was all LIES. But we'll come back to that later. So we couldn't find where the carnival was actually supposed to start, so we ended up just walking around the food stalls that were just setting up, for about 20 minutes, and on our wanderings we came across a stall selling halal jerk chicken! None of us had ever tried jerk chicken, but we'd heard great things about it and it always smells amazing *cryface* so we decided that after the carnival we'd return and sink our teeth into the (as we would discover) illusive halal jerk chicken.




So anyway, after walking through the beautiful, chic but sweet tree-lined streets of Notting Hill, and with the help of trusty Google Maps, at around 10:30am we found the starting point of the carnival. We had a spot right at the front as apparently it hadn't started yet and we were - as we would find out - STILL 3 hours early! We all needed the loo by this point (sorry, tmi) and none of the staff knew when it was starting...but anway - at about 1:30 or so it finally began, and it was well worth the wait.
There were colourful costumes, trucks with steel drum bands and great dancing, some of which was a little uncomfortable xD But anyway, here's a couple of photos I took.






There was also a child sleeping in a huge buggy covered in pink flowers, like a huge flower head with a child in the middle; and in amongst all the racket of drumming and music that I would use in a wedding and that was so loud I could feel it in the core of my being...she was SLEEPING.

We left the carnival about 2 hours later, eardrums mushed and stomachs rumbling. and went in search of that halal jerk chicken we'd eaten with our eyes earlier. Unfortunately none of us had the bright idea earlier save the location we'd found the stand of beauty in...so after searching for another half an hour or so, we gave up and went to Pret xP we were so hungry we literally didn't care what we put in our mouths...so it was amazing I have to say, alhamdulillah.

So my my train back home was in an hour and a half, and we wanted to go to Harrods, but by the time we got there we could literally only spend 10 minutes in there. But that 10 minutes was amazing...it was like entering into a different world! Nevermind the products that were being sold there, the Muslim women gliding around were what caught my eye. They were so elegant in their chic black abayas and their shaylas draped loosely around their heads...faces perfectly made up - they were just beautiful. Aside from the face full of makeup, women dressed like this and working it like bosses make me want to dress that way, with abayas and floaty garments and hijabs...they made me feel like such a hobo! But I guess that's the danger of those sorts of places - you're surrounded by riches and rich people, you compare yourself to them without even realising and as a Muslim I found myself wanting to dress in abaya but for a completely wrong reason. Anyway, it is a beautiful shop that I want to visit again but next time spend the day there - and next time I'll dress up! :D

Look at the price of those macarons! Speaking of which I went into Laduree for the first time - in Covent Garden - and cried because of all the yum :o


How crazy are these chandeliers!



And take a look at all these types of tea and all the beautiful tins :o I was in heaven to be honest. It was so pretty.


So that was the end of my little London trip. It was such a great weekend which was made 10 times better by the 4 hour train journey back up to Liverpool I had ahead of me *cryinglaughing*

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