London

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” — Samuel Johnson

From Dublin I hopped on a cruiseliner-sized ferry packed full of Manchester United fans; honestly, I was part of the maybe 10% of passengers not wearing Man U gear. I guess there was a match, and Irish folks were taking a day trip. Of course, they were drinking in the onboard pub at 10am. Having a total lack of professional soccer allegiances and only about 5 hours of sleep at the time, I abstained.

Departing from Holyhead...

We landed in Holyhead, Wales where I hopped on a Virgin train (yep, they even do trains in the UK) crossing the Welsh and English countryside to London. The Welsh and English countryside don’t look very different from the Irish countryside when whizzing you’re past them on a train. Key differences: higher sheep:cow ratio. Fewer stacked-stone fences. Also, with regards to language, Welsh is even more incomprehensible than Irish.

The coolest part of the Holyhead-to-London train ride though: it goes through a real freakin’ castle, which kind of boggles my mind. Did there happen to be train-sized gates in the castle walls when it was built, or were those added later? Was it really hard to build tracks around it instead of through, or do Welsh rail planners just have a sense of whimsy? In any case, I don’t think we have anything like that in the States.

Getting off the train in London and walking to my hostel was kind of an exhilarating experience. I thought Dublin was pretty cool, but as soon as I stepped off the train I got a completely different feeling. Wow. Wow! Things are happening here! There are people on the streets, and little green parks and squares everywhere, and weird shaped cabs, and of course the emblamatic red buses. Oh look, it’s London Fashion Week! And the London Design Festival is going on! There are concerts! And rallies! (more on that later). I guess I knew that London was 20 times bigger than Dublin and probably the biggest city I’ve ever been to, but it didn’t hit me until I was in the thick of it.

Large Benjamin And The London Wheel of Ferris

I won’t go into the gory details of everything I did and everywhere I went, but the energy I felt about London when I first arrived stuck with me as I wandered museums, state buildings, parks, and neighborhoods. I have to say, I loved it, and could see myself living there at some point.

Had to do it.

Here are some of my personal highlights that you couldn’t get by just looking at the London Wikipedia page:

Planes, trains, cabs, buses, bikes, boats, etc..

If @gabegaster were a Londoner, he’d be a “Cycle Hire evangelist”

I did most of my exploring of London just walking around, though I did also manage to take a double decker bus, the Underground (and its lesser known cousin the Overground), a commuter train, a “cycle hire” (aka bikeshare) bike, a classic London Cab, and a “river bus” over the course of 4 days. There are a lot of ways to navigate that city, which makes sense; population wise it’s on a comparable order of magnitude as Chicago (though it is bigger), but the majority of residents live in the urban core, which extends out much further than Chicago’s does. Add this to the fact that many of the roads are narrow and there’s no straightforward grid system with major arteries/highways like Chitown and cars just don’t scale.

Side note: if the app Citymapper is available for your local burg, get it! Extremely useful, and it’s about time someone made a navigation app designed for those of us who are carless. Side side note: just discovered they also have a web version! These guys are killin’ it.

Accidentally interfering in United Kingdom politics

One evening after walking down through Covent Garden, I walked over to Trafalgar Square and found it packed with people. It seemed like more than one would expect from tourists alone, and there was extra security present, so I stuck around. Soon I figured out that it was a gathering of sorts for Let’s Stay Together, the UK arm of the anti-Scottish Independence crowd (aka the No vote on the referendum).

Trafalgar Square, packed with polite pro-unionists

Feeling that I might be in the midst of a historical moment, I stuck around and talked to a couple of the attending Londoners. It was interesting to get their perspective; they said a lot of English folks felt kind of stuck because they overwhelmingly wanted Scotland to stay, but weren’t really sure if they were allowed to have an opinion, as it wasn’t their country and they couldn’t vote on it either. The rally was meant to give those people an outlet to show the Scottish people that they wanted them to stay. Not sure if it had any effect, but it was cool to be in the midst of.

From my perspective as an outsider, it seemed like for such a monumental decision there was a lack of strong facts (or accurate polls) in support of either side. Also, it’s kinda weird that such a decision can be made by simple majority popular vote; they might wanna look into that. The whole thing felt kind of last minute, and I’m glad they didn’t pass it impulsively.

Shoreditch: Dickensian London tenements are now a street art playground

Nathan Bowen at work with a homemade paint pen

I took an afternoon to get out of the more touristy parts of the city and went to Shoreditch, London’s recently gentrified area where many high-profile modern street artists like Banksy cut their teeth. It’s past the affordable-enough-for-artists-to-live-there phase, but they still come back to do work there, since the neighborhood itself is a kind of gallery for street art now. I went on a guided tour led by a photographer/critic who really knew his stuff. We even ran into Nathan Bowen doing some work on a shutter, and I got his business card. Bonus points to those who can find me in a picture in that linked blog post.

Some other favorites from the tour:

Guy in the frame was our tour guide.

7 Other Assorted Thoughts About My Time In London You Won’t Believe

• Did get some English beer while there, both craft and traditional. Gotta say I think the Irish are on top as far as my personal tastes go, though I doubt they’ll remain there when I hit Germany and Belgium.
• Hostel was much smaller than the one I stayed at in Dublin and it was fantastic. Got to know some of the staff and many of my fellow travelers and had some great nights out with them after trekking around in solitude during the day.

Just perfect.

• Hidden gem: the Canada Memorial in Green Park. A placid sheet of flowing water, placed under a maple tree such that the leaves fall on the surface and rest there. There are also bronze leaves on the surface so that some are always there, although you can only tell they’re not real upon close examination. One of the most thoughtful, subtle, and effective memorials I’ve ever seen.
• Damn, there are a lot of clothing stores in London. I was able to escape without buying anything but a Uniqlo t-shirt but every freaking designer and brand you’ve heard of and dozens you haven’t have brick and mortar stores there. Could be dangerous if you have poor impulse control.
• Honestly, if you read this far, you’re great. Thanks for taking the time.
• Current jams: FKA Twigs’ LP1. The first line in “Hours” hit me while crossing the Thames on a cool, cloudy day and I melted. Put on some nice headphones and check it out. It’s R&B/pop from the future.
• Thanks so much to my friend and London-evangelist Gwyn Kelly who I met for dinner and pints while I was there. Her advice on what to see and do was better than any guidebook could be.

Seeing through the Eye from London’s South Bank

Onward to Norway…