England

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24. 08. 2008 Greenwich (ENGLAND) London nine years later. The last time I walked these streets I had a big backpack on my shoulders, a tremendous thirst for knowledge and adventure, and a lot of inexperience and naivety! How many things have changed since then. A whole life has changed. If only I think about it... Today we spent the morning at Camden Town market. A mix of cultures, languages, styles and ways of living. An omelette of different existences. Every time I stopped at a stall or a kiosk there was always the same question: 'Where are you from?' At that point the globe began spinning wildly, stopping now in Pakistan, now in France, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar... Chatting with the sellers, comparing notes, exchanging ideas, opinions, tips, advice; complimenting those exhibiting and selling original designs... In the afternoon we're sucked into the Notting Hill 'Tropical Carnival'.

The parade was endless and every float carried huge musical boxes, real mobile discos, and behind them lines of black girls, masked, dancing bewitched by the music... Lots of people were waving the flags of their home countries; I didn't expect to find such a large Caribbean community... I noticed, though, that the various groups weren't divided by nation, as I expected, but by neighbourhood. Federica, a woman from Turin who works at an Italian kiosk here in Camden Town, told me that in the evening that place became very dangerous because the various neighbourhood gangs took advantage of the chaos to settle a few scores... Those people come from real earthly paradises where the sun always shines. It seemed that on this occasion they were trying to recreate their own 'natural habitat', in a rainy London that's always grey and doesn't know the sun... 25. 08.

2008 London (ENGLAND) Live from Camden Town market. This morning we made it! Up at seven, an excellent breakfast prepared by dear Emilia, a dash by tube and bus to arrive in time to take a spot in the little market as sellers! We wait, while the great commercial machine begins to open its eyes, to wake after the 'hard' weekend. It does so very slowly because today is the Bank Holiday and people don't work. But the traders are all here; for them holidays are a reason for more work. The stalls begin to take shape. Lots of iron skeletons become street jewellers, Israeli falafel stands, London art galleries. There's everything and more... It was the first time I witnessed the birth of a market... I've always hated them because they're too chaotic, too many people pushing you, crushing you... This morning I saw and lived this new experience looking at it with a different eye.

The waiting of the sellers, the impressions, the hopes; the allocation of the stall; the decorating of it, each using their own flair, their own creativity! Yesterday as a visitor, today as a seller in this market that I already feel a bit as 'mine'. Assistant to my brother, who tries to sell his T-shirts and with them his art. A few hours later we were already friends with all the nearby traders and the various characters were emerging: the slow and wise 80-year-old Croat with the scented soaps; the unhinged magician Sirus; the nice, nostalgic Neapolitan painter Valerio, who every now and then told us anecdotes of the Italian emigrant; the pair of Chinese at the costume jewellery stand, and I could go on for a long time... I like to imagine them now chatting again with the public, trying to sell, cheerfully, their own wares. 25. 08.

2008 London (ENGLAND) Charly has just set off back to Italy. It's sad to part during a trip... This morning, though, we managed to visit the Greenwich Observatory. It was founded to help navigators, since it often happened that they got lost or ended up dead of hunger and thirst in the middle of the ocean or, again, crashed into some rocks. The line of the globe's prime meridian... The reference point for all the clocks in the world! Alone. Sitting in Emy's room, I jot down my first impressions, every now and then glancing out of the window that looks directly onto the quiet Bellott Road and admiring the English life that placidly flows past me... 27. 08. 2008 London (ENGLAND) Sitting in a little park between Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Nine years ago I was right here...

Our backpacks bigger than us, our willingness to do things, our immense spirit of adventure... Today I played the tourist a bit: Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square... At Covent Garden I had lunch with Emy on a tasty onion 'jacket potato'... Covent Garden disappointed me a bit; I expected many more people. In the afternoon I went back again to Notting Hill. The park made famous by the film of the same name with Julia Roberts I didn't find; actually I didn't even look for it, I headed to Portobello Road, in a Notting Hill much quieter than the carnival one I'd known a few days earlier... Portobello Road reminded me of when I was a child and in particular of the cartoon Mary Poppins, in which there was a lovely song dedicated to the little market of the same name. I lingered strolling along the street admiring the many little antique shops and their bric-a-brac...

Shortly after, the tube leaves me right at the foot of Big Ben... Stop: Westminster. So many flash-backs appear in my mind, I remember all the times I've been here... starting from the first (1996)... I look at Westminster Abbey and the group photo we took right here with my classmates from the Oxford college is imprinted before my eyes! [ continues at: ]