More Than Big Red Buses
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
by Sara O'Rourke
You're not so much welcomed into the capital city as you are sucked into it by everything.
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As a returning 'gapper' - a student out of education - with my two suitcases and new room in halls for the next three terms, and London just outside my door, I was trouble waiting to happen. There is a lot more here than big, red buses.
So, what is it like, actually living in London?
As a child, I recall coming to London on that unfairly infrequent if-you're-lucky yearly visit for a day packed with museums, the aquarium, and, when they built it, a ride around the eye. I even went on a boat trip one year, with my grandparents, over to Greenwich. That day was something I always looked forward to - I quickly learned that it was more of a likelihood if foreign relatives were visiting, and hence encouraged family gatherings as much as possible.
That just about sums up how I feel, every single day.
The truth of the matter is, and a large part of the reason why I love this city so much, I am never going to be physically able to see all of it. There is just too much, size-wise, too many alley-way pubs with great food and tucked away jazz bars that I'm never going to set foot into. Knowing that, I have a great time seeking them out and exploring to find those hidden gems.
London becomes more than the main streets - you learn to detest a trip to Oxford Street, where you will either get bullied on the way to a shop or in the midst of fighting for the last dress. It's not so much defined by what makes it famous, any longer, but is something I appreciate in its own right - I can call it my home.
Nevertheless, those tourist-hubs are still pretty impressive to me. I am guilty of going to the theatre, the museums, which are even more attractive to us students as they are free of charge, and spending a long day mulling around Hyde Park trying not to hit the trees or pedestrians on my rollerblades.
When I return to my countryside home, I find it hard to sleep. You become quite comfortably accustomed to the lull of late-night sirens and flashing lights discoeing outside your window every ten minutes. It's also bizarre to step outside of the front door and know you have a twenty-minute drive before you will see a supermarket, or sometimes, if it's raining, another human being.
I recommend this city to you without reservation. Hurry around on foot with and exercise your credit card, chill on a park bench with a coffee and people-watch, enjoy a great meal at a restaurant down Charlotte Street with some red wine and finish the night with a West-End show or, if you're lucky enough to see the city at Christmas (which starts, here, in November) then go ice-skating underneath the orange sky. You won't see the stars, but you'll be in their city!
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Hi SaraI'm glad you're enjoying London. I used to live there myself for a few years but rather than enjoy it, I found it impersonal, dirty and cramped. I couldn't wait to leave and I rarely revisit it. Though I do enjoy shopping trips to Camden and the odd museum.I think I may have enjoyed it more when I was younger. Hustle and bustle is welcome in youth but as you get older solitude and silence become pleasures and ambitions.
I think it is really more of an advantage if you visit london as a tourist rather than being a student so you would have more time to visit most of the beautiful places being offered by London.
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