Camden Market

Since coming to London, one of the biggest things I was looking forward to was going shopping. In my opinion, one of the best ways to remember a great vacation is by buying souvenirs for yourself and your friends and family. With getting caught up in schoolwork and exploring Central London and Richmond, I really had not had much of a chance to take the time to stop and shop around. After being here for almost a month, I still had not even bought a single postcard. This weekend, I made it a goal to do so. A few other Western New England University students and myself went to Camden market, which was a very long tube ride from Richmond, and despite taking the wrong train on the way back, we made it there and back in all one piece. The market was so great; it was such a different experience than something that I have ever done. There are so many vendors with so many different things to buy. There were mostly clothes within the market, but when we walked down the street, it had a lot of souvenir shops and tattoo and piercing places. Camden is very different from what we have seen of London so far. Since we live in Richmond, we see very fancy and upscale houses and stores every day. From the different people to the bizarre stores, and even the strange smell, it is safe to say that Camden is a very unique place. The best part was that everything was so inexpensive. My favorite part by far was bartering with the vendors. I was a little uncomfortable at first asking for a lower price, but after shopping and walking around for a few hours, we got better at it and more confident and comfortable. The vendors were overly friendly but also very pushy. They wanted us to buy their merchandise so they were often willing to give us very good prices. I even managed to pick up some postcards. Overall, I was very happy with my purchases and will definitely be going back there at least a few more times before our time in London comes to an end.