The weather outside reminds me of London, and because nostalgia hit me pretty hard I decided to share some info and pictures from my trip in December when I attended JADE Winter Meeting. There are thousands of guides about London and you can read alot on Wikipedia about the town, but I will share my personal opinions about the city.
My general opinion about London is that it’s one damn crowded city, filled with lots of people from all over the world, pretty expensive and let’s face it pretty amazing.
When in London do as locals do. You should definitely try some fish and chips. I’m not a big fan of fried fish but it was an ok meal while admiring one of the local parks.
If you have the time and money go to the London Eye, but remember that you have to book the tickets because it’s usually pretty crowded. You’ll have the chance to see London from 135 m above, admire the South Bank of River Thames, the House of Parliament, the MI6 headquarter, Big Ben and many wonderful buildings.
One of the things that impressed me about London is that people like to queue and stay in lines. And they have a passion for following rules- which rarely happens in Romania.
The subway is huge, and in some parts looks bizzare, but you have to admire the fact that the galleries have personality- some funny posters on the walls, the enormous number of ads, the local artists and of course hearing the famous MIND THE GAP each time the doors of the subway open in front of you. The tube is always crowded so don’t think if you avoid the traffic hours everything will run smooth. A thing that bothered me was when they closed some metro stations because of 10 cm of snow, but you have to appreciate the fact that they do care about safety.
And women although they are beautiful and fashionable are insanly crazy. To give you an example: we were waiting in front of a club, at around 1-2 degrees Celsius and we notice in line a bunch of girls in short/club dresses and in sandals. Did I mention the fact that it was raining? At first I thought this was an isolated case, but when I started seing during the day women wearing sandals during winter with stokings and a t-shirt under a tiny jacket I felt the cold going through my head.
And if you want to go shopping during discount periods thing again. You may find some nice clothes at good prices but you have to be prepared for a fight. From what I could notice women are pretty mean when it comes to clothing. I saw two girls fighting for a pair of jeans, and they were verbally violent. For me it was a funny situation, but I left before I could see the dramatic end- they were really passionate about that single pair of pants.
Another thing that impressed me was the large number of people that were jogging in parks – like Hyde Park - dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt. Again it was winter, you could see that their skin was red from the cold, but they persevered in running during that shitty weather (pardon the language). We were looking at them and admired their passion, but we decided we should go and have a hot drink before having hyperthermia. We are too lazy to run at freezing temperatures.
And last but not least, when in London you shouldn’t miss the opportunity of taking a photo with a red phone booth, a hot english man/woman, take a double decker to enjoy the view but pick a sunny day if you plan to sit on the upper level, visit Buckingham Palace, go to Soho, drink some awsome tea, visit all the cool museums- including the Tower of London, go to London Bridge, to Covent Garden and get wasted in one of the lovely old pubs. And buy an umbrella for all the cool walks around the city to discover the true spirit of London.
) . I am sorry I couldn’t be physically there but I had my voice and my spirit with you guys and I shared the emotions and drilling with you. We will meet and party the next time!
