One of the stores I walked into had framed art works, and I saw a very interesting piece of street art. It was of a guy wearing a kerchief and wearing a cap backward in a position to throw a bouquet of flowers. The colorful flowers seemed out of context at the first sight, because I would expect more of a hand grenade for a guy dressed and posed in such way. However, I could feel the artist's hope for peaceful resolution of violent conflicts in the world. Later in the day, I was told that this piece of art was done by a really famous street artist Banksy, who stays anonymous yet has several iconic works with satirical and subversive messages.
I went pretty far down the street and saw a really cute cafe so I went in for a cup of coffee. As I was walking out of the cafe, I saw a street musician in the market and took a moment to listen to his music. With a warm cup of coffee in a hand, beautiful houses and lively market in my eyes, and peaceful music in my ears, I loved every step of my walk!
After fully enjoying the Portobello Road market, we were headed to Camden market. It was full of stores with colorful and creative signs and seemed to be a lot busier than the Portobello Road market. For lunch, we could not resist the famous fish and chip from Poppie's and loved it so much!
The next market was Old Spitalfields Market. It was an interesting market because it was full of market stalls instead of stores. I liked that the market space is covered on the top, which made it nicer for us to shop up without getting cold. I tried to spend all of my changes I had left, and it worked out with my bargaining skill!
There was an optional tour of Brick Lane, so I went with a bit more emotional mind thinking that it was the last day in London. This area has a large immigrant population, especially Bangladeshis, which also means a variety of cuisines. Most recently, the area has also become popular for its vibrant art and fashion with a regular display of street arts including graffiti. There were multiple pieces done by Banksy, the artist of the art piece I have talked about earlier in this post, and more. I really liked the vibe of Brick Lane! In the middle of the tour, we ran into a bakery which is well-known for its rainbow bagel so we had to try it. It tasted very nice just like its vibrant colors!
The day ended with the dinner at Medieval Banquet. I had never heard of it but I was told that there are multiple Medieval Banquet places in the United States but in a different format. The one in London was smaller in scale but a lot more engaging than those in the U.S. so people who had been to the ones in the U.S. seemed to like it even more. After the dinner, they played a lot of American pop songs so we all went up to the middle of the restaurant where all the Medieval performances were done and danced the night away!
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