Today I decided to take it easy and go hang out with Noel. So, after a quick cereal breakfast at my
apartment I headed on the northern line to Camden Town station. It was a quick
tube trip so I got there around 11:30am. Camden is fantastic! The shops on the
main street are for goths and punks and other wacky fashion cliques. Also, a
lot of the shops have giant statues on the sides of the building. I saw a store
just for punk shoes and on the building was a giant metal spiked platform boot,
wild! Camden Lock has a giant market, lots of food and tourist-y souvenirs but
also lots of handmade gifts as well. I got a few things there as well as some
West African food! I’ve made it a goal of mine to try as many foods from different
places as possible. I figured the food would be more authentic here since it is
closer to most other countries known for food (not a lot of Canadian food to
try in the US…). The food I got was red rice with this off tomato mush on top
and then some chicken, corn, and lettuce. Quite delicious! There were so many
things to behold in Camden, a man riding a double decker unicycle, a magician
fooling a little kid with some pretty cool tricks, a tank of fish that would
eat dead skin off your feet if you put your feet in there…such a diverse
culture of what-on-earth?
I walked around that market till
1:30pm and then decided to head back to the tube, however what I didn’t know
what that on Sundays the Camden Town station becomes an exit-only station and I
was on the wrong end of the deal. So I took a nice 15 minute walk to the next
station which featured a 10 minute walk down a spiraling staircase, I’ve never
felt so dizzy before in my life. I did make it back after a nice read of my
book (I’m aiming to finish it by the time this trip is over, 500 pages, wish me
luck!) and then I took a shower and relaxed for a bit.
Around 6pm Noel and I started getting a bit bored of just hanging around a lounge so we looked online for some fun, cheap events. I
happened upon a website called Angel Comedy which I thought was a comedy club
for comedians to do their acts, and Sunday was “First-time comic night” and was
free. Hell yes! A night of watching comedians sweat their way through terrible
jokes and me being there to witness it in all of its glory!? It was a must see. So at 6:30pm we went
to 12 Pins for some food and drinks and then headed to Angel station for the
comedy club. Now, I thought this place was a comedy club when in reality it was
a small stand-up comedy show in the attic of a bar. So the website told us to
get there at 7:30pm to ensure a seat but I figured since it was Sunday and it
was “First time comics” night, not many people would go. Apparently, London and
I are in accord when it comes to schadenfreude (pleasure derived from the
misfortune of others, what a surprise, it’s a German word). After getting lost
for 20 minutes in the back walk-streets of Angel we asked a fro-yo vender where
the “comedy club” was. “Oh that one inside the bar? Yeah it is 2 blocks that
way”. In a bar? Thanks website. We made it to this bar at 8:05pm and headed up,
expecting people but still expecting a seat, nope, that place was packed! On a Sunday!
In a BAR! So Noel and I chilled at the bar for a bit and then headed back to homebase, happy to have been out and definitely wanting to go back and see some
terrible comics. Overall good day of exploring!
