We took a few days out to do some genealogy and give ourselves a break from walking and blogging but planned to get back to it today until we then made a rapid-fire decision about which transport to take where, and ended up on a bus that drove by a market. So tempted, we promptly jumped off and went wandering instead: without any plan at all, as is our way.
It was an old-fashioned street market that seems to line up regularly on wobbly stalls beneath the railway pillars at Shepherd's Bush, not far from our place. We often see it from the train on the way home. It has a distinct Middle Eastern flavour about it. The shoppers and the merchants are mainly mature, Middle Eastern or Indian folk. The products are comfortable, old-fashioned, cheap.
After a lunch of smokey chargrilled meats, grilled haloumi and salad with puffed hot bread we wandered the streets and found another indoor market. This was an indoor shopping centre. Like many shopping centres on the planet, no doubt, but it must recently have been given an injection of millions of dollars for a facelift as it is quite gob-smacking: all bling, glittering glass, dripping chandeliers and wild colours. Its clientele are mainly young folk. The products are edgy, of the moment and expensive.
These seemed like two different parts of the planet, yet they were just around the corner from each other: the contrast a wee bit disconcerting. We have no notion of how they even co-exist. The client groups can't possibly overlap, we believe.
This, then, is a photo log of our day: an unusual experience for us as we rarely spend time in shops, when travelling or at home.
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