brick lane and east london

Today Helena, my Russian housemate took me to Brick Lane market in East London. This famous area is well known for its roughness and the dodgyness as I witnessed what people were selling. It was like a bric-a-brac market with a focus on vintage clothing. There was a huge diverse range of food stalls which was pleasing, a lot of African, Morrocan, Spanish, Japanese, Malaysian, numerous Indian (one that we can barter with for a free bottle of wine) and poor Chinese food.
Lena took me to Brick Lane first and my impression of it were not surprising, most people packed whatever used items of clothing or house hold items and lined them up along the pavements and placed a price on it. Not many tourists around, it seemed more like local people here trying to find bargain vintage clothing. East London is certainly poorer and it showed in the buildings which were covered in grafitti. There were rubbish every where on the streets and lots of black Africans and Indians dressed in hommy clothes looking like gangsters hanging out in the dodgiest parts of London. It wouldn't be safe there at night. There were people selling all sorts of junk you could find. The orientals here were selling pirated dvds and they would go into a corner with a customer to discuss which film they wanted to watch. Me and Lena realised as we scooped past that there were actually selling porn and trying to be discreet. It was funny to watch.
After this she took me to Spitafield markets. It was more up market and classier to walk through and it was under cover. More cafes and places to eat. Lena found a goldish necklace with a gun and a rose on it. She thought it was very clever, so she bought it. Mind you she didn't stop going on about it for the rest of the day and worst to come when she put it on, she kept asking me if I liked her necklace. I bought a cute little stringed necklace with a square ceramic pendant. There was a cute loveheart handpainted onto it so it looked really simple and sweet.
Next up we found our way to the flower market. A very famous place apparently. The entire street lined up with florists selling flowers that I'd never even seen before. It was beautiful. Everyone was waiting for the end of the day to arrive so that when time comes, all the sellers will try to get rid of everything. You could easily buy 3 huge bunches of roses for a fiver! My favourite were sunflowers, they were gorgeous, bright and big.
It was a very good day indeed. I got to see the other side of London which I didn't have chance to the last time I was here. We were both very tired by the time we got to the tube station.