Londoner Sunday

You know the type of person who has a natural sense of orientation? 

I mean, the type you would trust without question to drop you safely home if you were forced into the deepest part of the forest. The type of person who is a living compass.

Well, that´s NOT me.

I am more the type of person who is lost by following any new itinerary (and also at well-known places, unfortunately), inmediately panics and finishes her day crying on a dark corner where no strangers can see her misery.

That´s the reason why I always carry charged batteries and full-working GPS on the mobile, plus a giant printed map on the bag when travelling. There was a time in which I used to have a complete Lonely Planet with me at all times when abroad, but that´s psychotherapist material, I am pretty sure.

Anyway, knowing all this, you can easily imagine how anxious I got on Sunday morning when, after a really nice walk around the London Olympic Village and a yummy late-breakfast, my friends told me they weren´t very sure about the underground services for the day and suggested me to take the overground instead in order to visit Camden.

I was all like "WHAT? " , "Overgrou... WHAT?"

Mainly because I can be the drama queen when orientating, but also because I was not far from joining the zombie army at that point of the weekend.

Seriously, walking through the crowded streets can be exhausting.

Don´t you believe me? Ok, I warned you, suffer the consequences of your skepticism!

 You see? Those creepy beings are the over-zombified version of my friend Lorenzo and I on Sunday morning. 

A good dose of dark circles has been undertoned to protect your fragile sensibilities... 

But I´ll add here some extra pics with the contents of our yummy brunch so you can forget the trauma.

After about half an hour of directions (and lots of capuccino) I decided I was ready to go and headed to the overground station.

I should admit this time the experience was acceptably good, with no weird remarks on my way to Camden. When I finally arrived, I started taking pictures of the whole station, street and everything in between, as I was trying to have graphic help in case I would lose on my way back.

I can be a total orientation disaster, but in these many, many, many years of experience I learnt to go previsional. No, I am not exagerating: here you have the proofs again.

Well, I once actually found out where was Camden located, everything was much better.

I already told you about my favourite stops on the shopping race, so I am skipping that this time.

However, this is another chance to talk about what I liked the best and the worst about the market in this ocassion.

Comparing this trip with my long previous UK stay, I found some little differences about the neighbourhood. First of all, many chain business have opened offices around the area in the last few years. You can find Costa, KFC, Barclays and many other corporations around there. If you sum up the tourist/souvenirs shops to the equation, you don´t need to be a genious to see that mainstream businesses think Camden is a good investment.

As a matter of fact, tourists can be a source of trouble themselves.

They collapse the access to every single shop by taking pictures of them in front of the venues, and they even like to go indoors while touching everything and casting cubbish glances to any alternative costumer who is ACTUALLY interested on shopping. If I could, I would just ban them from the entire place but... oh, alas!

If you let me a word of advice, I would just recommend not to go on Sundays, as it is the most crowded day around. I already knew this, but coudln´t help myself as Sunday was my only free day to visit the market.

After a coupe of hours of intense shopping, I decided it was time to eat something "light".

I am totally laughing at myself while writing this... As if it were possible at all to get something light at the market. Besides, with all those delicious exotic food posts, who in the name of God cares about healthy snacks? Not me, anyway! A good plate of curry chicken was fuel enough.

After some more shopping, I decided better not to tempt destiny and go back before it was dark enough to put myself in trouble; so I met my friends at home to go out for a last weekend drink as official goodbyes to my very short London adventure.

I hope at some close point there will be more chances to see them!