This Ain't Your Grandparents' CARNIVAL!

Today we woke up early and joined the masses as we lined the streets of West London for the city's Annual Carnival Festival. We learned that Carnival is London's annual celebration of Jamaican and Caribbean influenced food and culture. It was absoutely unreal. I've never been to anything like it, and we were told that it was Europe's largest outdoor festival! The only thing I can compare it to was like Marti Gras. Conveniently, it was just blocks from our hotel so we walked to Westbourne Grove again and got there just in time! The steel drums, confetti, and colorful constumes danced their way down the streets with bumping Caribbean dance beats blaring throughout the city. We just let ourselves get wrapped up in the culture and loved every minute of it!! All the store and restaurant fronts on the parade route had boarded up their windows because they apparently riot all the time during the festival. We only saw one altercation that I'll come back to later in the post.

For lunch, I got curried goat with salad and rice. Later, we tried stalks of sugar cane! I wanted to try something authentic as opposed to American food. Turns out I love curried goat! It was so good! On one block, there was a reggaeton DJ who was dancing in the streets and telling everyone who walked through the street to “shake what ya momma gave ya!” haha. It was a lot of fun and we danced and drank and I got it all on video. A carnival I will never forget.






After we had become exhausted from the Carnival, we walked back to Grand Plaza and took a quick nap. I uploaded a bunch of photos and then fell asleep on the couch. After we woke up, we went out to the other side of town to the now littered streets that we hadn't already walked earlier this morning. We stopped in a Chinese restaurant for dinner and while we were eating, a really really drunk kid burst into the place and started screaming profanities. The staff tried to shoo him out, but they realized he was just trying to get away from an even drunker angry black woman. Through the window, we saw her pick up an empty liquor bottle from the street and hurl it at him. The whole restaurant (including us) fell silent and basically freaked out. We didn't know if someone was going to whip out a gun or anything so we didn't move. The police instantly showed up and quarantined both people and took them outside. We later learned that he had yelled a racial slur at her and both of them being drunk, she literally attacked him. It was actually pretty frightening...Mel almost dove under the table. After dinner, we walked back to Kensington Gardens and got some gelato before turning around because it was getting dark and people were getting more and more rowdy in the streets. We didn't really want to go back to the hotel yet so we went into Whiteley's, a small three story mall next to our hotel. On the top floor, there was a Mexican restaurant so we went to the bar. Of course, just my luck, the bartender spills an ENTIRE plate of mixed drinks on me, my new pants, and my shoes. So now my jeans smell like coconut milk and my shoes are sticking to the floor. Other than that, we had a great day, an experience that not many people get to have because it only happens once a year in one city!

Tomorrow, we have reservations at Harrod's for a traditional English high tea at 3pm in Knightsbridge. Should be fun, we have to get dressed up. Until then, g'night Londy.