Camden trip! 11/04/2022

We got to the station at 9 o'clock, I went first because I knew what ticket we needed, it was an off-peak all-day travel card. It was also my first time using Apple Pay, which worked pretty well! I got my ticket, and then my friends just repeated after me. We caught the 09:31 train to Peterborough then the 10:10 train from Peterborough directly to London Kings Cross. It was around a 50 minute journey to London, it was very swift! We arrived in London at 11:00! We then beelined to the underground and jumped onto the Northern Line train to Camden. It was a very noisy and squeaky journey, the pressure also got in our ears, which I don't think Soraya had experienced before, or rarely at least. Pretty much for the rest of the day, I just felt like I was bobbing up and down, but never mind.

We emerged from the underground, no issues with our travel cards (which was a huge relief), and went to the nearest toilet, it was quite dark and smelt kinda weird, the sinks were also just like a hole in the wall that squirted water and soap onto your hands then blow dried them, which I was a bit iffy about. Anyway, we then went to Traid, a charity shop that Emily Boo (an alternative Youtuber that I like) went to, and Robin and I got something from there, I got a green tutu (to wear as like a petticoat) and Robin got a flannel, there was a skirt in there that had handcuffs attached to it, and the displays in the window were extremely elaborate! There was TONS of band tees, stuff like Joy Division, Guns 'n Roses, Judas Priest, Nirvana, nothing that I listened to which was a disappointment, but never mind! 

We then started to go up to where all the alternative shops were, we went to a little stall and it had these super nice dresses and I bought two for a £100! The first dress I got was a white dress with a black skull paisley style print over it with black lace and a corset-looking lacing at the front (which was £45) and the second dress was this military gothic multifunctional dress, it could be worn as like a shirt, a dress, a jacket and suitable for all seasons :O and I was curious about experimenting with military goth for a while so... The guy selling the stuff said that even what I was wearing suited the dress as a jacket. That dress was £65 and the guy selling the stuff said he could give me both for a deal of £100 rather than £110 so I did :D 

We looked in one of the shops, I think it was called Sponder, very grungy style clothes. They had a shirt with a cat on it wearing steampunk, all of us loved that! They also had a lot of regular looking prints but had skulls in them somewhere, like a Hawaiian shirt but with skulls as well, Robin said he wanted everything in this shop XD There were two shirts that reminded me of my dad because they were to do with bikes lol. The shop also randomly had this life-size statue of a pirate at the back, it looked kind out of place but at the same time it was a vibe. 

After coming out of Sponder, I said to my friends "I don't see the Zombiepunk guy" :( but then literally just as I said that we saw him, holding his sign that read "Help a punk get drunk £1 a photo" and I just made unintelligible noises of happiness XD I'd been trying to get a photo with him for years, the first time I ever went to Camden I was about 14-15 years old, and I saw him and asked my parents if we could take a photo with him, and they said no! Every time I've been since, he wasn't there, UNTIL TODAY! :D here I am, 18 years old, finally getting a picture with him XD That moment was the peak moment of my existence XD I was very happy, Robin and Soraya held my stuff and took the photo of us, I'll probably post the photo and tag him in it when I'm not so tired lol

We went up some steps and looked round some little stalls, all of us got badges/ patches at one stall, they had some beautiful t-shirts and tote bags, they had human anatomy, eyes, skulls, mushrooms, planets and moon prints (both on tote bags and on t-shirts), all of us really loved that stall. Soraya got two badges (a floppy disk that had "Save yourself" written on it and a tortoise that had "Introvert" underneath it), Robin got three patches (one said "I want to leave" on it, one was a Bill Cipher patch that read "Trust no one" under it, and one patch was a mushroom with legs XD) and I got three patches (a black heart that had "Nope" written on it, a bigger black heart with "All black everything" written on it and a parental advisory patch). As one of my friends was paying, Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics came on, and all of us stopped and started singing along and jigging along to it XD what a classic! Opposite that stall was a stall selling various polaroid cameras, my mum used to collect original polaroid cameras, but she sold all of them for some reason (possibly due to money or space), whether they worked or not, I don't know. I used to have a notebook with polaroid cameras printed on the covers, I still have the covers, they're in my scrap book now, I think old fashioned cameras are pretty! 

We then carried on into the mini shopping mall type building, we went in one of the shops and we hadn't realised but there were paramedics at the back of the shop and I think someone must've collapse, so as soon as we saw that we left because we didn't know what to do :< I hope whoever it was it okay. We went in a lot of incense shops, Soraya found the smells overpowering, but I think that's fair because incense is pretty strong, some of the stuff my mum burns is pretty strong and doesn't smell good :/ She asked me to buy some white musk but I didn't find any, majority of it was something like dragon's blood or something of the sort. Many of the shops would've catered to Grace, so anything we saw that we knew Grace would wear/ like was dubbed Gracecore XD There was also a stall selling jewellery and I complimented their stall, it had gems and carved gems, the metal was real silver or copper and whatnot, so it was expensive. 

After browsing around, we decided it was time to get some lunch, so we headed towards the market, on our way there we passed the New Rock shop, and I asked Robin if he wanted to go in and have a look and he said "No! I will want to buy everything in there" XD We eventually saw a place selling pizza, and pizza is a safe bet, so we got all got a slice of pizza, and these slices were huge! And very hot as they had just come out the pizza oven, loads of people were queuing up for pizza, and next doors was a stall selling churros that had no one outside it, so Robin got a churro for us to share, as none of us had ever had a churro before. Robin and I sat down on the floor and Soraya leaned up against a wall, all of us enjoyed our pizza. The churro was good, it was filled with chocolate, I had one bite and my friends had the rest (I didn't want to eat too much). Several people that walked past us gave us odd looks, like bro its not our fault we wanna sit down to eat and there's no seats. 

After that we then headed to the stables and went into Cyberdog, we all collectively agreed that it was incredibly loud, Robin said the sounds and flashing lights was a little bit overwhelming but he also never wanted to leave lmao, to which Soraya agreed. Whilst we were walking around, I found some garters that I liked, they had spikes on them, one was just spikes and the other had spikes and frills, but I decided to get the spikes only ones because I wasn't sure how often I would be able to wear the frilled ones because I don't have many frilly things. We also saw an elderly guy, who must've been like 60, who was dancing in front of these light bars, that went up and down with the music, and his wife was filming him! That was very wholesome!! We then came across a long-sleeved t-shirt that Soraya really liked, it was kinda like a raglan, it was white in the middle with rainbow Japanese on the front, one sleeve was a pastel pink and the other sleeve was pastel blue with clouds on it, and Soraya actually got it! 

We carried on through the store until we reached the 18+ section, Robin asked if we wanted to go down there simply because we could now, Soraya said no and I said I thought I could see sex toys down the stairs, and as soon as I said that Robin was like "Okay, lets go, Kat" XD and we walked down the stairs and I saw this red top thing with straps on it so we walked over to that first, but what we didn't realise was that we stood directly under a heat lamp. We was down there for like 5 seconds then we walked back up XD we had seen enough lmfao. When we got back up Soraya was laughing because we had spent such as short time down there XD it was quite amusing because none of us are into that kind of stuff (not that I know of at least lmao). After that, we headed up and Soraya and I paid for our stuff, the cashier looked like they were ready to rave, like a cybergoth but with less black! Even if none of us bought anything, you have to go into Cyberdog, because its such an experience, its the closest any of us have gotten to a rave lol. 

After that we then just wandered round the stables, I got this really awesome cross made of skulls necklace, the shop was the same one I went into on my first or second Camden trip, where I got a cross (with a pentagram in the middle) necklace before, I still have it, I used to wear it to secondary school, I swapped it out for my Evenstar necklace, and for some reason I always used to get told off for wearing the Evenstar but when I started wearing a cross with a pentagram in the middle, I never got told off?? Okay then lmao. Anyway, the shop had loads of Tripp trousers and loads of band tees and merch, including Slipknot, BFMV and Metallica. 

We carried on wandering round the stables, Robin bought a wallet along the way, we saw leather bound and wooden books, various little steampunk items which Soraya loved. Eventually we sat down somewhere near the Amy Winehouse statue, and we met this rather fruity kid with their grandma, they told us about the stables, cause my friends didn't know why this alcohol place was called something to do with horseshoes. We rested for a bit, then I went into this shop and got a black tutu and Robin got three pairs of socks (one Starry Night by Van Gogh print, a geometric print and a skeletons and bats print) in the place next doors.

We then went to SaiSai and all of us drooled over the steampunk and vampiric stuff in the men's section XD we also looked at the sale rack downstairs and it was like looking through my wardrobe, everything was black and you couldn't see what any of it was XD We also had a look at the corsets and skirts, honestly I think there's something for everyone in Camden. A song came on on the radio and all of us stopped to listen to it because we all liked it and Robin asked what it was, so I whipped my phone out and brought up Shazam and let it listen to the song. The song was Drag Me To Hell by Lord Of The Lost, all of us liked that song! We saw a hat, and it was a wide brimmed fedora with metal bats of the hatband, it was by Killstar and the ladies in the shop let me try it on, and all my friends told me to get it XD so I got one and put it on as soon as we got outside of Saisai XD And I wore it for the rest of the day. 

We then had dinner at Nando's, Robin and I shared a plain chicken butterfly, Soraya had spicy chicken wings with chips and rice, Robin had coleslaw and chips and I had chips and garlic bread. It was Robin's second time eating at Nando's and somehow he managed to have four drinks XD we all ordered bottomless drinks, this time Robin didn't put too much ice in his glass XD The waiter nearly gave us the wrong order, but luckily that was fixed, I'd forgotten how much I liked Nando's, I love the chicken, and the garlic bread is amazing, its shaped like lemons which is super cute! All of us enjoyed Nando's. 

After that, we went to Morrisons and got some snacks and drinks for the train journey home, we almost got lost because Robin wanted to go to a book shop that none of us knew where it was, so we played it safe and decided that we would visit another time, so we went back to King's Cross and went to another book shop. It was pretty cool, it had tons of anarchy, feminist and all that type of stuff which all of us enjoyed, Robin got a book and I got two postcards (they were 65p each so why not). Then we went back into King's Cross and got the next train to Peterborough, The only issue we had was that the thing you put the ticket into that made the doors open so the staff had to let us through. The other issue was that there was no seats so we had to sit on the floor for maybe 15 minutes? Not helpful when you're tired! We arrived in Peterborough at around 19:40 and got back to March at around 20:10.

As soon as we got off the train in March, Soraya said "I already miss Camden" So I think today was a success! This was Robin's second time going to Camden, Soraya's first and my fifth/ sixth! All of us had a blast, and I don't think I'll be going to Mr Smith's revision session tomorrow XD