DAY 8

What a successful day! Progress has finally been made!!
We woke up early to explore the famous Portobello Market, which is literally around the corner. It was a beautiful day too - we actually had sun!!!

There was so much to look at!

Lots of little colourful houses on the way...

Interesting sign shop

More colourful houses on the walk...

If only I took my DSLR, this would have been a better shot.. awesome vintage records & things:

Heaps of teapots, which I hope to collect once I have a budget!



My new favourite boutique - great prices, super cute stuff! They have 2 locations in Portobello Market.




Lots of fresh veggies and fruit, mostly local. I bought some strawberries from the Netherlands.

This stall had a large variety of olives - mixed with spices, mashed, you name it!

Near the end of the Market, there was a HUGE book stall and a massive maze of vintage clothes.

We stopped at Coffee Republic to try some real Italian espresso, not too shabby. It was nice to watch all the interesting shoppers pass, and the "gas" men in their fluorescent yellow jumpsuits. Carol called and she was my first phonecall on my mobile. It is one of those touch screen type phones. I'm having a bit of difficulty adapting to it!

The pasties stall looked delicious, but unfortunately not dairy-free.


We missed organic day at the market (Thurs) but there was still plenty of fresh produce:

Lots of shoppers out - Fri and Sat are generally the big touristy days. There were some familiar stores about like American Apparel and Lush.

The market continues down lots of little side streets.

Another church on the way home. Love all the neat buildings.

There are a lot of mysterious alleyways that make you wonder where you'll end up...

On most of the streets the flowers and bushes sort of spill out onto the street and attack you whilst you stroll past.



Cool looking house on Portobello Rd

In one of the pizzeria shops windows:


Then we popped into the bank to see if my debit card had arrived! It had, hooray! I was able to call BT to get the landline set up. By Tuesday it should be working and I can give out my number + run over to Orange to arrange the internet. I really hope they don't give me a hard time because I still haven't received a bill.

We have the doors wide open and the fresh air is coming in, so lovely!