.: Welcome to East London...it's the shiz

Dude, duuuuude. East London ROCKS. I have been wanting to check out Shoreditch for a while and decided to take advantage of some sunshine today. Took the overground (way better...) to Dalston. Dalston and Shoreditch are known round these parts as the ''hip'' and ''up & coming'' young hang out so to speak. Full of artists and new, innovative cafes and restaurants that could tickle anyones fancy. Actually, there's a few gentleman's clubs I passed so you could quite literally get your ''fancy tickeld'' if ya feel me.

First thing I see when I get outta the station is a Street/Farmers Market. Okay so anyone that knows me knows that I have an extremely healthy obsession with markets of any kind (who doesn't?). It is worth the 20 minute train ride to buy your produce, meats and stuff galore. First and most importantly....it's CHEAP. Even kinda cheap compared to home. I mean frick...I got a bag FULL of raspberries, 8 tangerines and grapefruits for 2pounds (roughly 3.25$-ish). Not bad my friends. Oh and I got 2 things of nail polish....good stuff that you don't have to apply 4 coats for it to actually show up (ladies...ya'll feel me) for 1 pound each. Yeah...I know.

If you want some culture...get on over to Dalston. A plethora of East and West African stalls with food, produce, clothing, fabrics and incense (which I also purchased some lovely scents and a holder for 1.50pound).

-Funny story...the guy I bought the incense from was telling me about the scents and then said...''you take this and go make love to your boyfriend...(wink)'' -in his totally awesome West African accent and totally not creepy. I laughed and said...''will do sir, will do.'' (yeah right......I am sans bf).

So I found THE place. If you like gardens/cafes/art/volunteering....then Dalston Eastern Curve Garden is IT. I am obsessed with this place now. This is what I want to do. Small scale organic farming (granted I haven't even really had my own garden yet)...aka Bio-intensive Gardening. I did a project on this for a class. It was based on BI Gardening in rural Kenya. I got GREAT feedback. There's sooooooo much that I could say about this idea and what can be done with it but I won't divulge my entire project/thesis idea here (you're welcome). Anyway, this place has a cafe inside the garden where you can order East London proper brews ;), mulled wine, ciders, tea, coffee and cakes. You can sit on a number of indoor/outdoor couches with blankets to snuggle up with a cuppa joe. There's mood setting lights all around you, outdoor fire pits, clay ovens, a heated greenhouse to sit in; and then you can volunteer in their garden. I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story...

Afterwards, took a short bus ride to Shoreditch, which is known for it's street art/graffiti. Amaze. So much more to see. Thrift shops, vintage shops, innovative new restaurants with crazy flavor infusions and the boxcar pop up shops (which were fantastically hip). I'm now going to enjoy my tangerines and paint my nails with my cheap steals.

Proper brew today = Detox tea from Venice, Ca. It's probably just a bunch of tree bark. But it makes me feel good.

x0 Rintintin