Thoughts about visiting, and staying, in London
As I write this, I'm in a hotel waiting out the bizarre fiasco that has befallen Europe with the Icelandic Volcano spewing ash. One hilarious comment I read on a BBC news feed on Day One: an American woman was surprised the airlines didn't have a backup plan for this ash-clogging-jet-engines issue. She said "exit strategy." So... the airlines were supposed to be ready with, what, submarines and transport ships on the off chance a volcano erupts and releases plumes of volcanic ash that prevents planes from arriving or departing to the whole of Europe or Scandinavia? Really? They were supposed to be ready for this? Yeah, what's with them? I totally would be spending millions to come up with that plan if I ran a barely-making-it-in-good-times airline.
Anyway. London is great. I'm a little homesick but that's that. I figure there is a reason I'm still here so I'll roll with it. I'll someday return stateside and I will always, always remember this trip. I could be in a worse place. Some people are losing gobs of money and maybe missing weddings, funerals, etc. Some are stuck in airports or some town they didn't intend to be in. I'm in LONDON. Next to being at home, this is probably the 2nd best place to be. The airlines and Fedex are probably thinking God hates them. Things are okay for me, but it's a little tiring thinking about it all.
Here's a shot of Heathrow the day after the volcano started causing all the disruptions:
I'm one of the few people who have ever seen Heathrow this empty on a Friday morning.
Some thoughts about London:
They call them "toilets" not restrooms or bathrooms. They also don't say "For Rent" they say "To Let" so when you have to go badly and are walking around looking for the elusive public restroom, you get excited quite often when your brain sees "to let" and it takes you a moment to realize it's For Rent but not a Bathroom. Oh, and the toilets use about 3 gallons of water to flush. It's wild. Maybe it rains so much here they are trying to get rid of the water or something. Some of the public restrooms cost 30 pence or 50 pence, so it's good to have a little change on you. They have change machines usually, though. I don't mind because they usually have an attendant and are clean and safe. I've heard they have unisex restrooms, too, where you'll be standing at a urinal and a woman will walk by, or will be washing her hands nearby. That would be very strange to this sheltered American so I'm glad I haven't had to deal with that.
There are few trash cans ("bins" the locals call them). I finally understood why when I saw a sign in King's Cross station saying this is because of terrorism. Terrorists use the bins to hide bombs so they removed them. Totally understandable, but they need to find a solution... a guarded trash can or something. At least more signs to explain it to dunces like me.
That's not to say London is a messy town. They do a fantastic job keeping it tidy, with all sorts of street sweepers and sidewalk sweepers (you can even detect motion in the workers, who don't just stand around all day), etc, but if you are opposed to littering or even balancing a cup or paper sack on top of a pile of trash on the curb, then you will be carrying some trash around with you.
On the Tube, the female announcer voice's accent can throw you off if you aren't inspecting the names of the stops so you know what to expect. St. Paul, a stop in the Central Line, comes out "Sim-poll Station" by the female voice. Marble Arch is "Mobble Otch". Just a little humorous. Oh, and even though it's spelled Southwark, you say "Sutherk". Crazy Brits! I'm sure no one has problems in American cities. No way. :)
At one restaurant, in Heathrow, a French-accented waitress asked me if I'd like ketchup with my "chips" (fries...) then brought me out mayo. Hmm?!? And the only thing on the menu that seemed along my Americanized appetite was a steak best served rare. I'm a medium person. I got it anyway.
That's a Bloody steak!
There are so many accents here. I stayed at first in Cricklewood, in an area where they say 120 different languages are spoken. So, there are a lot of English-as-a-Second-Language (EASL) people who learn English with a British accent. It took some getting used to and even my Brit coworkers do a lot of gesturing to be understood. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a much different world to someone sheltered like me.
Can these EASL people tell I have an American accent? I took a year of Spanish and a year of Russian but I don't know any other languages. I'm wondering if you speak a second language, can you tell accents or do you basically just understand the words? I don't know these things because I've never been outside North America before. Do intracacies like inflection bypass EASLers?
Phone and data usage are pricey here if you don't have a local phone. So, I looked things up on my computer at the hotel, then took pictures. I google-mapped in this way. Helps a lot. I'd take a series of them if necessary. It was easy to do.
Primitive solution to data plan usage overseas: take pictures of your computer while at the hotel
After you visit a place, it's hard to remember how you envisioned it would be. When I learned I was going to London, I began to think about what it would be like. But, I don't remember now what I thought it would be like. My mind is polluted by the reality I now see. Very strange.
Why can't coins go from bigger to smaller based on the denomination? The 2-pence (pence=penny basically) are huge, while the 5-pence is smaller than the US dime. They have half-pounds and 20-pence pieces. I basically gave up and just hand over notes (bills), then try to straighten out what I have in change when I return to the hotel so I don't hold up a line for a year. I have a lot of change now. It's no better in America but it should be.
And, they don't have one-pound notes, just one-pound coins. So you buy something for 5.50 and give them a 10, they give you a bunch of change. It's strange. Not bad, though. I honestly can't decide if pound-coins are a good idea. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. At least blind people here have it easier. Each note and each coin is a different size. Good luck if you are blind in America where all bills are the same size (though maybe they have a different feel? I'm not sure).
Oh, and the VAT tax is much better implemented here. In America something that is $10 might be about $11 after the sales tax is added. Here, the tax is all wrapped up in the price. If it says 3 pounds, then you give them 3 pounds and you're done. It must be frustrating for foreigners in American, especially if you arrive not knowing this. Some probably think they are being ripped off.
Those tiny Smart Cars that look preposterously small in America (especially next to a four-door long-bed diesel Ford F-350) look right at home here. They are still tiny (and not even the smallest) but there are few big vehicles. Just Geo-Metro-sized cars (even Mercedes, Audi, BMW, etc have mini-cars in play here). I've seen a mini-van that looked like the Mystery Machine but smaller. You could put it in the bed of a big pickup.
You'd be crazy to drive here, though. Just too different. Not just because of the left-side-of-the-road thing. It's all the different signs, the tiny streets, knowing the differing rules of the road. Just get an Oyster card and take the Tube and Bus. I'm not kidding. Even many people who live here rarely drive.
It's also weird that I haven't driven anywhere myself in a long time. I hope I remember how!
Being a pedestrian isn't that easy, either. They have letters at every intersection that says "Look Left" or "Look Right" depending on which direction the traffic is coming from. I still screw up and look the wrong way. It's hard to undo 30+ years of looking one way first or expecting traffic from a certain direction. And, the double-decker buses are HUGE and WILL KILL YOU. Plus, you have to watch for bikes and psychos on scooters, too. You can easily miss them.
Many tourists give up and just cross when others cross. The problem is, sometimes the "others" are seasoned locals who time it right. If you casually walk out after them you might get run over. I've seen many near misses, and have had several myself. Now I must look paranoid. My head is on a swivel and I look each way several times just to make sure. Of course, I could wait for the light, but that would mark me for a tourist, easy. :)
There are no garages that I've seen, either. I've been in some residential areas with rows and rows of homes but people park right up by their front door, on what would be a lawn if they didn't do that. And this is the nicer areas. Given that a 1000 square foot flat goes for $300,000 and a similar-sized house probably twice that, you can see why garages might be a little superfluous.
There are tons of tiny grocery shops. They all sell about the same thing, and while on one of the trains I saw a big supermarket in West Hampstead, but mostly there are just a lot of small shops. I saw a couple of furniture stores selling fridges and stoves just a little bigger than a dorm fridge and a hot-plate. I think here, people's fridges are those stores. You only buy what you need for a day or two. If you need a beer or bottle of wine, you go and get it and drink it. No trips to Costco or Sam's Club or else you couldn't walk in your flat.
Be careful getting cash from cash machines. Rip-off-artists jam card readers into the slot and can scan your card. Cover your hand when you punch in your PIN. It makes it harder for them to rip you off. It pays to pay attention.
Mostly, try to blend in. Don't talk loudly in your American accent and brandish bulging wallets and flashy bling. Keep your belongings in a bag in front of you on the bus & train and just be nice and that will help you from being an easy-to-spot tourist and therefore target. There are tons of tourists here, so if you blend, hopefully they'll go for easier-pickings or even better, be thwarted altogether and go get an honest job. It's like an alarm system in your house. It's not going to prevent a robbery, but if you have it and the neighbors don't, you are less likely to be a target.
I look forward to re-reading some novels and re-watching some movies. Now that I've been to this amazing city, I'll see things I recognize. It must be strange to live in a place like London, Paris or New York, where so many TV shows and movies are set. You can see places and think "I was just there yesterday!" We went out for dinner one night at a pub on West End street and my wife was all "Pet Shop Boys!"
