Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Columbia Street Flower Market

Sunday Jess, Ulfie, and I ventured to East London to hit up the Columbia Street Flower Market. I'd never heard of it but it sounded like a good idea, and there was a promise of flowers for cheap! Robbed of my Saturday due to class from 9-4, I decided I deserved to get out and buy myself some flowers.

Columbia Street is in East London near Brick Lane. We went to Brick Lane first, to pick up delicious Bagels from the aforementioned, infamous bagel shop "Brick Lane Beigel Bake." I treated myself to a salt beef bagel for £3.70. Such a delicious, filling, and affordable lunch! Nomnom.

After our tummies had been silenced, we went in search of the flower market. We knew the general direction, but the actual path was unknown. We followed the endless line of people caring armfuls of beautiful flowers. We found a friendly American who happened to be going the same direction who actually knew the way, and we followed him. We arrived at the market after 3. The market supposedly closes at 2 but apparently not. We were immediately bombarded with the shouts of flower salesmen under their tents shouting things like "Bunch'a sunflowers for a fiver!" and "Two for a fiver, any o'em here, two for a fiver!" God, I love the shorthand for British money.

Anyway, we did a quick pass through the market without purchasing anything, just to scope out the best deals, then doubled back to gather our spoils. We shared in the purchase of 5 sunflowers for a fiver, Jess bought 2 bushels of Lillys, and I bought 2 bunches of gerber daisies for a fiver. Sweet deal. Now my room is beautifully decorated. The down side to this - now the bees are trying to get into my room.

The sun is finally shining, I finished another term paper this afternoon, and I am starting to believe that summer might actually be here. It's supposed to be beautifully sunny for the rest of the week, including Saturday - the day of the much-anticipated Summer Ball. I even found the time to lay out in the sun today! Yippey!