Notting Hill Carnival

Very colourful parade

Every August bank holiday (basically just a public holiday) the Notting Hill Carnival is held in West London. As I had a free day before I was back at work on the Tuesday, I decided to go. So, Tom and I caught the train/tube to Gillian and Veronica's, where we left our suitcases. It was also convenient as their place is only a few metres from the tube station, and all the happenings of the carnival! From one window you could just see the colourful parade. Another window had 'carnival views' as well... although not as enticing; it showed the portable urinals. Yes, that's right, a nice view of the urinals :S 

LOTs of people

We went for a short walk were we got a fairly good view of the parade.. it was pretty packed! After watching the parade for a bit, I started to get hungry, so had some Caribbean 'jerk' chicken, which is basically BBQ'd chicken, but very tasty!! When I had bought my lunch I went back to meet up with Gill and Ronnie, but the police had made it a one way entry point only, and I was on the wrong side!! So I sent Gill a text and told her where I was, and stood under a tree waiting for her to figure out where I was.

 After we had had enough of the carnival we went back to Gill's for a bit, and then had to figure out how to get back into central London. The tube station we got off was exit only, so Tom and I had to go walk for about 30 mins to get to an open station. Walking through the streets, the crowds were amazing - at one point we could hardly walk down the street it was that full. We literally had to push our way through all the people, which could have been slightly easier if the both of didn't have backpacks on! We finally got on the tube, I said goodbye to Tom, and headed back to Gran and Angus's, where I was spending my final night before     going back to work.

 
 

 

Also some very strange things :S

Cooking the jerk chicken

The food stalls are busy

Another small parade

The residents were selling stuff from their front porches

Other things they were selling included toilet usage at £1