Saturday 27/5: London/International airspace

Our final day in London was (unsurprisingly) wet and gloomy. To make matters worse, the cold that had been threatening all week had finally overwhelmed Cindy and left her unfit for active tourist duty. We pressed ahead with our original plan to explore the Portobello Road Markets and trudged off through the drizzle to find them. Along with about 10,000 other people. The markets take up almost the entire length of Portobello Road, from Notting Hill to North Kensington and it seemed that every square metre of them contained five people.



Lugging the laptop on my back and my coat under my arm, it was all a bit of a struggle. The markets would probably have been fun (there appeared to be some vaguely interesting shops in between the more tourist-centric fare), but once the rain started to get heavy we both decided we’d be better served inside somewhere. Somewhere was a conveniently located Internet café where we spent a good couple of hours sorting through emails and battling to get this blog up to date. Seeing that the rain had eased, we eventually headed back out for a final scout of the markets but again the weather had fooled us and within minutes the rain had come back stronger than ever. Our refuge this time was an overcrowded café we had some wedges and juice before deciding that it was all too hard and it was time to quit this tourist lark. Luckily when we arrived back at the hostel (intending to pack our things and leave for a 10pm flight at 4pm) we found the staff starting to watch The Virgin Suicides on DVD in the communal lounge room. We joined them – finally finding an activity suitable for our energy levels and the weather – and then headed off for the long trip southwards.