Now, my housemate Katrin has described it as her worst nightmare, blazing sunshine herded around narrow streets and surrounded by hundreds of drunk people. That's kind of what I expectoo, but not what I experienced funnily enough, although we took a good stab at fitting in with the drunk image by grabbing our first can as we emerged from the station. Personally I was a little worried...were we REALLY allowed to just drink on the streets?? It took spying a few people with cans and watching Kayles and Tom walk past a few police with theirs blatantly on show before I chilled out and cracked my first one. Lammmmmmme.
I went with my mate Kayleigh and her boyfriend Tom, both of them really into their music. Tom DJ's and it heavy into the drum and bass scene. Going with them I discovered the other side of the Notting Hill carnival, a part that many people wouldn't necessarily see if they came solely to see the procession.
Over in the backstreets, away from the procession route, you have craploads of stalls setup in front gardens, food, drink etc etc, and you have the sound systems. Some of these you can just tell have been hammered together in someones garage somewhere, massive contructs of speakers, wood and metal. One systems we stood next to just vibrated your very soul, if someone with a heart problem had come by they'd have been in trouble!! Kayles and I wanted pee pee somewhere nice for a change and so paid £1.50 each to use a clean bathroom in someones house lol!! We probably got pickpocketed on the way in...but who cares eh?
It was lots of fun just wandering down the backstreets, following the sounds of music coming from one direction or another, dancing in front of massive speakers and generally having a laugh! We did catch the procession once or twice and saw some cool outfits too, so we didn't miss out on that.
Thanks Tom and Kayles for a wicked day! :D
Wow, what an interesting assortment of people! Hahaha!
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