I’m ashamed to say that after 4 years of living in London, this was the first year I went to the Notting Hill Carnival, even though some Continental Europeans specially make the trip down for this event (case in point: my colleague from our Madrid office made a weekend trip for the Carnival).

Beautifully, the weather was sunny. On the streets — girls in light summer dresses, flowing skirts and spaghetti strap tops; men of various shapes and sizes unabashedly topless.

Food stalls serving undifferentiated Carribean fare. Loud music. Almost as many policemen as spectators, it almost seemed. Stacks of garbage. Plastic cups with leftover beer. People strolling aimlessly in different directions.

There was a very relaxed atmosphere, and a sense of live-and-let-live harmony.

It was a pleasant experience to be sure. But I felt that the San Francisco Carnival I attended last summer was more festive - it was more crowded (not necessarily a good thing admittedly), and the floats were more vibrant. My main gripe was that the parade in this year’s Notting Hill Carnival was very erratic. Instead of a constant stream of floats, it was more of a stop-start trickle, with long waits in between for the next procession.

Some pictures attached (more to come in future days when the server stops acting up)

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4. Trellick Tower is Ugly.
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