Looking for The Primary Colors (A Trip to London, Part III)

Hey there, stranger.

My last two days in London a year ago were all about walking around and visiting fantastic places. After partying hard at the Cave Club the night before, Saturday was all about comfort food and visiting Camden Town. After 10 years without visiting there, you can imagine that the shock was quite big.

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When I was in Camden ten years ago the first of the big fires that destroyed part of the hood had happened, and I remember it as a sad day. Also, you could see how the place was changing little by little, from the alternative and underground hood to a tourist trap where the punks, hippies and goths didn't have a spot anymore.

I really felt very sad that day, since the Camden I knew and loved was not there anymore. Now there is only a place full of people who ignore how alive this hood was, how transgressive and life-changing when I visited it for the first time in 2002. My Camden is no longer there, but it still well alive in my memory.
The good thing about that day is that Helena took me to my favourite spot in town: Lost Boys Pizza. A place where you not only can eat a delicious black charcoal pizza and enjoy cocktails but also you can appreciate the nice music and fantastic decoration.

I was leaving back to The Netherlands on Sunday evening, but in the morning (and following the advice of my beloved Jairo) we went to visit the Barbican Centre, one of those places I've always wanted to visit from London but never had the opportunity to go. And oh my, what a place it was!

The Barbican was a project of staggering scale and complexity. It took almost three decades to design and build; involved the design of over 2,000 flats, two schools and an arts centre. It was designed by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, three of the most important modernist and brutalist architects nowadays. When you visit The Barbican, you can understand why: the technique used to create this concrete piece of art is not only unique, but also full of laborious work. After the concrete had dried for at least 21 days, workers used handheld pick-hammers or wider bush-hammers to tool the surface and expose the coarse granite aggregate, all by hand.

One of the most iconic features of the Barbican are their gardens, which is home to exotic fish, terrapins and over 1,500 species of sub-tropical plants and trees. I was fascinated by its beauty and never expected to find a place full of sub-tropical plants in the middle of London!

The time was running out, so after walking around a little bit more, we took the bus back to Helena's neighbourhood and had some delicious Japanese food before I took the train back to the airport. After ten years, I must say that London still surprises me and I cannot wait to go back to visit all my friends and live new adventures there since there are still lots of places I need to discover or re-discover again!

Thank you, Helena, Carla and Viveka for all the good memories!