Saturday, June 21

It’s been a busy weekend! I will have to break up my posts to make sense of everything. Megan’s younger cousin and her friend are visiting for the week, so Brielle and I accompanied them on touristy activities this weekend. First up: Portobello Market! We rode out to Notting Hill and mingled among hundreds of people cramming stalls that stretched for blocks. It was huge and very, very crowded. Stall vendors were selling everything from clothes to trinkets to fruit to fresh fish. The breadth of the market was incredible.

We all separated on our hunt for lunch among the food stalls. The girls chose nutritious strawberry crepes drenched in chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Megan and Brielle chose mixed bowls of food from Ghana – they said it was excellent but incredibly spicy! There may or may not have been a sprint for bottled water.

I continued searching until I came across a stall selling Spanish paella. They were making several different batches at once in massive steaming woks. My bowl was absolutely delicious—seriously one of the best dishes I’ve ever tasted—and created quite a bit of food envy. Well, maybe not for the girls with their crepes.

After eating we wandered along the length of the market, which was really so large as to be overwhelming. People thronged along every inch of the narrow yet colorful streets. Along the way we visited the bookstore that was used in the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie Notting Hill. Very cute (and no doubt extremely pricey) shop. As we left I made my sole purchase from the entire vast market: a pound of delicious sweet cherries. Fresh fruit always tempts me.