Day 38:

Last night was SO FUN! Me, Mallory, Mollie, Summer, and Annie went up to the Holland's flat and had a girl's night with Grace and Mitzi. The rest of the family was out for the night, except Dr. Holland who came in once to get a drink and Grace quickly shooed him out telling him it was for GIRLS ONLY! We watched "Hairspray", ate some treats, had multiple pillow-fights, and painted finger-nails (Grace did mine and it looks like modern art on my fingers). I have never had such a classic girl-party - these girls are hard-core pillow-fighters! I think it meant a lot to Mitzie and Gracie that we would come over and hang out with them, especially Mitzi since we considered it her birthday party, but to be honest, I think the college girls enjoyed it every single bit as much as the little girls.

Gracie Holland - What do you think Jackson? Cute girlfriend?

Pillow-fight!

Mallory, Annie, Mollie and Mitzie

(Carly, doesen't she look like a fun friend?)

Well, today was another girls day, but in a very different way: SHOPPING. Wow - I am shopped out! The good news is that we did exactly what we sent out to do. We hit up the three big markets in London that we know of: Portobello Market, Borough Market, and Camden Market.

Map of our adventure... we really went all over central London today!

Portobello is just around down the street and around the corner from us - about 5 minutes walk. It's only held on Saturdays. It's distinguishing feature is all the antiques up for sale. If you've seen the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" you'll remember the song about Portobello Road (place where the mysteries of ages are sold, its anything and everything a chap can unload, all standing there at the Portobello Road). I didn't really get interested in the antiques, but I did find a really pretty wallet (mine is shredded and threadbare) and a really pretty pearl necklace. It was really fun and if you are a collector of anitiques and such this is the place for you!

We timed things perfect so that we could hit Borough Market at lunch time. Borough is the food market, and really, that's all it is... FOOD. Yum. They have big slabs of cheese, lots of meat, home-made candies and desserts (Turkish Delight anyone?) and of course baguettes and breads. There were chocolates and jams and fresh produce and if this is making you hungry you can just imagine how glad we were it was lunch-time. Mallory and I got delicious burgers with some funky cheese on them, but it was great! We also got some nectarines to take back to the center to enjoy the rest of the week.


After filling our stomachs and mostly just taking in the fun atmosphere, we headed up the northern line to the Camden Market. We were told this was the marked shown in the movie "What a Girl Wants" but I'm not so sure. One thing is for sure - this is where the teens and crazies go to shop. There were a bunch of punk stores, in addition to clothes, bag, and sunglasses stands (much like Canal Street in NY). I wish we had gotten a picture of this man we saw who had the tallest spiked mohawk I have ever seen and ever WANT to see. Apparently the market got more mellow and had a better selection the further down you went, but we weren't super thrilled with most of what we saw and since we had two more stops on our list we decided to move on.

Harrods was next on the list. If you're not familiar with Harrods, it is the Bloomingdales of London - the big department store with name brands like Cartier, Louis Vutton, Tiffany's, Dior, and a zillion others that I don't know. You don't approach Harrods like a store, you approach it like a museum, a museum of expensive and superfluous things. We only walked around the ground floor a bit, but each room was like an art exhibit of perfume and jewels. I asked a lady at the jewelry counter how often they actually have people purchasing this kind of jewelry (we're talking 5,000 pound earrings and such), expecting her to smile and say very rarely, but she said all the time! They go through their selection quite quickly and are always bringing in new things. She showed me a couple of the necklaces people had bought that day... Who has that kind of money rolling around?! We also wandered around the men's watches and tried to decided which ones we liked best... The only conlusion I could come to is that I couldn't come to any conclusion. Well, once the sparkling jewels started making our eyes blur and our heads go dizzy, we decided to get to our last stop, a store at the other end of the price ladder: Primark.

Some man was creating this giant sand scene in a fenced off portion of the street right in front of Harrods. Our question: what happens when it rains (which is always).

Primark is the talk of the BYU Center (keep in mind - I live with 35 girls). The clothes are super cheap (usually even with the conversion rate) and super trendy. The store is really big, but it is SWARMING with people. There is usually a 30-40 minute line for the dressing room so we were told to wear a skirt and basic t-shirt so you can just try things on over and under. It was crazy! I made some good finds though! If anyone plans on taking a trip to London and wants to do some shopping - this is the place to go for the experience, the clothes, and the prices.

This is Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park. We passed it on our way to Primark. This is where President Hinckley preached on his mission in England.

Well, when I got home I decided never to go shopping again... well not for a while at least :) I worked on some homework for a while, but let's be honest, shopping is exhausting! So I went to bed. The end.