If someone asked me 10 years ago "If you had a chance to live anywhere abroad, where would you pick?", London probably wouldn't be answer at that time. BUT, life had different plans for me... :)
For me 'London' was just a city with a bad weather and full of posh accent Brits. I'd been definitely planning to visit the UK capital at some point; but quite frankly, it wasn't even at the top 10 of my destination list.
In 2015, when I was working in Istanbul, my best friend (who recently moved to UK at the time) convinced me to visit her and explore the country together. My very first trip to UK turned into a grand tour of the country for two weeks: Wandering around Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Liverpool, Brighton and of course London.
Spending almost one full week in London, it hit me.... I was falling in love with the city. Constantly found myself thinking while walking around the streets: "Wish I can live here at some day in my life. But how?"
Here I was: December 2016, holding a small luggage and one-way flight ticket to London. Still can't find words to explain my excitement when I was up in the air, heading to this greatest city on earth - with a new beginning and a simple blank page to be filled with memories.
Of course, this process did not happen as "...then a miracle occurs": There has been lots of research, effort, sweat and tears (!) - anyway, without sounding too dramatic, I've been trying to say that it was NOT easy! But, totally worth it...
In this post, I will tell you about England and especially London, where I have lived for two years and which is now my second home.
IF YOU'RE TIRED OF LONDON, THEN YOU'RE TIRED OF LIFE
This word belongs to the famous English writer Samuel Johnson from 18th century. I definitely think it's still valid though, even in stronger terms.
First things first: London is not equal to England. In fact, think of London as an autonomous region where all the nations of the world came together and established a variety of communities in the area. London is a cosmopolitan and a "true" city of the world - where thousands of people from many different nationalities, cultures, religions, languages and stories live in respect. This is a city where no one judges anyone when you go out on the street, where you can hear at least ten languages other than English during the day, which never makes you feel like a foreigner even if you're a migrant living abroad. It captures you in its unique & irreplaceable energy and empowers you to create your own way of living. I don't know how it achieves that, but it does. I "heart" LONDON!
GREEN GREEN GRASS & PARKS: SQUIRRELS and FOXES
The best part of London is that there are so many green areas and beautiful widespread parks that you can spend time to walk around and refresh - maybe with a cup of coffee even. This is such a game changer in my life, as being used to live in Istanbul and Izmir full of multi-storey apartments and lack of green spaces.
Being able to walk around in Hyde Park after work, spending time in Regent's Park and walking around the canal over the weekend, watching the peacocks in Holland Park and the reindeers in Richmond Park are my favorite city activities. When the weather is nice outside, it's "picnic" time for Londoners, to sunbathe and go for a jog in the park. The intertwining of city life and nature makes London extra livable.
There are many squirrels in the parks. It is impossible to see stray cats and dogs around. Instead, you can see lots of ducks, swans, pelicans and LOTS of pigeons. Don't be surprised if you see pigeons even at the train stations: They chase for food around. Funny enough, they almost hit my head once while flying around inside, such weirdos!
Also... There are foxes - everywhere! They usually come out at night and dig up the garbage of the houses. When I hear a bin rolling at night or the garbage bag torn apart when I leave the flat in the morning, I immediately think of them... (No, YOU are freaking out, not me!)
WEATHER: NOT CHRONICALLY CLOUDY BUT A BIT UNSTABLE
That famous "cloudy grey weather with a rare sunshine" is not really frequent.. We spent the summer of 2018 in parks under the sun, I even got sunburnt! They said that there has never been a summer like this before, so fingers crossed for future summers. The worst part when it's hot is that most places do not have air-conditioning, as the country is not used to the heatwave - so be prepared for a literal "meltdown".
But it is for sure the weather changes throughout the day sometimes - you might wake up to full sunshine in the morning and dress accordingly and leave the house, then it might possibly rain half an hour later, it can then be bright skies again as if it never happened. That's why I made a habit of not leaving the house without an umbrella, even if there is not a single cloud in the air.
TRANSPORTATION: TO THE LEFT, TO THE LEFT!
Left-hand traffic. Yes, it seems strange at first, but somehow you get used to it. Not only in the traffic, but people walk on the left side as well, so it becomes a normal street routine (I struggle walking on the right when I travel abroad now...) In some ultra-touristy places, like Piccadilly, there are signs around like "Walk on the right" though, assuming to avoid confusion and people crashing in each other!
UK has an AMAZING and fully connected train network system! Trains are clean, fast, safe and the best transportation alternative where you can go anywhere you want comfortably. London Underground "Tube" is simply the best transportation system in the world! (not biased, clearly...)
Contactless payments are extremely common, some places don't even accept cash anymore. You can tap your card in all transportation (tube, bus, train), restaurants, or you can switch to Apple/Google/Android Pay and make your payments with your phone. Then, like me, you may even end up losing your card many times because you stopped carrying cards and even forgot their existence.
FOOD: BRITISH CUISINE? WHAT IS THAT?!
You can find all kinds of cuisine you can ever think of in London, I think this is the best and yummy feature that comes with cultural diversity! For example, it is very common to say "I am craving Thai food today, should we have tapas tomorrow or order Indian food, no, I want kebab". Well, British cuisine... There is not much to eat there! (check my post about "Weird British Foods")
People here LOVE Turkish food! Whenever I meet someone, as soon as they find out that I am Turkish, they say "Yummy food" and ask "Please tell us where to eat Turkish food". I usually don't brag about my own country (or should I?), and if I were a foreigner, I would feel the same as them, as it is one of a kind cuisine. Luckily, London has many Turkish that serve quality and delicious food - YAY!
London might be expensive but there are various cheap food options like "meal deals" in the markets. These packages, which include sandwich-chips-drinks and you can choose from different options, usually range from £3.50 to £5.00. Like Pret a Manger and Itsu, it is among the food chains that we love and frequently eat, with the motto of get your affordable sandwich/sushi and get out. Most employees eat their lunch from these places anyway, myself included.
Water is free because tap water is drinkable in this country. If you say tap water when you go to a restaurant, they immediately bring you a bottle and they don't charge for it. Or alternatively, you can order still or sparkling water.
Some sinks here have separate faucets for hot and cold water, still something I don't fully understand. Apparently, it's an old tradition that prevents any contamination between the two water flows. Thankfully I have a mixed faucet in my flat!
BRITISH PEOPLE & THE REAL "ENGLAND" (outside London)
You HAVE to take a trip and get outside from London to be able to see and experience the "real" England. In fact, once you jump on one of the suburban trains, you can watch the transition from urban city streets to urban green areas in about 20 minutes. England is a VERY green country, I am not exaggerating, as green as your eyes can see. There are also many parks in London, but this natural beauty outside the city really gives people a breath of fresh air.
The classic English town consists of detached houses/cottages, wet roads (rain and humidity), at least one church or small cathedral and few local pubs. Prices are halved compared to London. Even the accent and dialect differs; in some cases, some of them are unfortunately incomprehensible for me! Well, they sometimes don't understand my accent either, anyway. I met many British people who looked blankly at my Turkish and American education-based mix of accent - but body language usually works!
Contrary to the general assumption, British are not that cold people (well, let's say usually) Yes, they are a bit distant but when you start talking, they're actually nice and warm (and very sarcastic!) Politeness is in their DNA, the words like 'Sorry', 'Excuse Me', 'Thank you' are just flying around in usual daily conversations - which is an attitude that I appreciate the most about them.
In other big cities, like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool; there are different location-based cultural varieties. Still you don't feel London's multinational character and diversity in those cities, but more of an "England" experience I would say.
I'll be sharing more about London and the cities I visit/planning to visit in UK.
Cheers for now!
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