Portobello Road Market

OMG, I can't believe it's already November. And I only wrote one post in all of October. Very, very bad of me - I apologize.
Today was a cold, rainy day, but I'm a true Brit now (I use "rubbish" and everything) so I didn't let that derail the plans I made at 2:30 in the morning to go to Portobello Road Market. It's on the complete other side of London - I got on the Central Line at Mile End by campus, which is in Zone 2 on the eastern part of London, and rode for like 40 minutes to the Notting Hill Gate Station, which is on the edge of Zone 2 on the western side of London.
The Portobello Road Market is probably the most famous market in all of London - have you seen Notting Hill? It's the market you see in the movie. This market was also highly recommended by the drunk guy in a suit that struck up a conversation with me, Tiff, Sushi, Nady and Shea on the tube on the way to Leicester Square the Thursday night of the week Tiff visited, who got rather angry when we suggested that it wasn't the best market in all of London, which is really the highest recommendation one could ask for isn't it?
I wish that Mom and Dad could see the market for themselves, since there's so much that they especially would have liked - the original and best part of the market is antiques, with the antique stores that line Portobello Road setting up stalls on the pavement outside their shops. There was a used bookstore stall, with The History of the English Speaking Peoples, Volume 1 by Winston Churchill, which I thought would make a lovely Christmas present for Dad. It was 96 pounds though, so neeevvvveeeerrr mind. There were also several fairy tale collections that made me think of you Tiff! I won't torture you by telling you how much they were, though.
There were a lot of places selling vintage designer bags, one shop selling really awesome old leather bags for pretty reasonable prices (cue the movie sequence in my mind of me travelling around Europe with a chic, vintage leather carryon), beautiful old chinaware, and antique odds and ends that Mom would just love to clutter our house with I'm sure.
The market is rather sprawling now that it's so famous, and more people just keep showing up and setting up their stalls, so it goes on for quite awhile (it took me about two hours to walk all the way down it, and I think most of you can attest to my rather speedy browsing style) with more of the stalls that are at all London markets: fruit stalls, clothing stalls, candy stalls (ones that sell expensive, fancy candy and ones that sell your typical Snickers for suspiciously low prices).
I will definitely have to go back to Portobello Road Market at some point in the next six weeks, because I'm sure there are even more stalls usually that weren't there today because of the weather.