Scandinavian Saturday

A million years ago (I think it was the second weekend I was back in London), I went on an outing with one of my friends, Jenni, who I know from way back when (2012) when I was at King's. Jenni is from Finland and (like me) loves all things Scandinavia. When I was in London in the fall, we went to a Finish Christmas Market. When I first arrived back in March, she took me to stock up on some necessities from two Scandinavian Stores. 

The first store was in downtown Clapham, and area of London I'd not yet visited. Although it was a grey day, the little "down town"/main area was fun to wander through. It felt very different to other parts of the city. 

Ta da! Clas Ohlson! 

I became giddy with excitement once we were inside. My enthusiasm was brought on for two reasons:
1. I have a strange love of all things organisational and homeware
2. I have a 100% justifiable love of all this Scandinavian

I expressed my enthusiasm in a traditional American way: by loudly declaring it with each new aisle we wandered down and by bouncing around with a grin on my face. Jenni expressed her enthusiasm in a traditional Finnish way: by being very, very quiet and peaceful.

At Claus Ohlson, we purchased sponges, coffee filters, a toothbrush, a cutting board, packs of tissues. COME ON JENNI! Why weren't you more thrilled by this!!!???

Then we went off in search of a few more items at a much more well known Scandinavian store (see if you can guess). When we looked at GoogleMaps, it appeared that the journey on public transport would take 18 minutes and the journey on foot would take 30 minutes. Despite her fears that we would be walking along highways, I convinced Jenni to take on the adventure of the walk. 

About 5 minutes in, we were pretty much lost. In fairness to us (/me), there are MAJOR road works going on all over London. The path that we needed to take to cross the highway (but not walk alongside it! I justified to Jenni) was blocked, so we had to get creative and, in the end, did spend a portion of time alongside very speedy cars. Oops.

Eventually we made it across and arrived at a much more scenic part of the journey...

We were actually walking alongside waste facilities, factories, and other dumping sights, so obviously it was breathtaking.

Ah the beauty of smoke stacks! 

FINALLY, after walking through some dodgy alleys, we MADE IT! Dun dun da na!

The Ikea of Croydon! 

YUM

For reasons I can't exactly recall, we had a hilarious time going through the store. Maybe it was the fabulous Swedish inspired names of the items or watching parents try to control their children. At Ikea our purchases included a closet organiser, coffee, a bed sheet, and travel supplies. Uh-may-zing!

And of course, we ended the outing with the ONLY way to end a day at Ikea: Swedish Meatball lunch!