London, a city of subleties

I feel like whenever a friend travels, the first question we ask her when she returns is “So, how was it?”
Well, London is…
Beautiful. It has style without being garish. It has a character and that character is a young man with slick hair and well shined but scuffed-up shoes. He says “I washed, I preened but I also worked and I have some pub to go so I’m hitting the pavement hard right now.”

A city of subtleties. There is something immediately quaint about the British because they are not as loud as we are in the United States so when they finally make noise – like the five ladies ranging from 20s to early 60s who were drunk and falling as they took pictures of another another in the street – I am shocked. I just watched, from pretty close up actually, but they were oblivious to the audience. They were busy exchanging friendly insults {skank} so I did not ask but it looked like there were three generations of women in that raunchy party. Imagine your grandma, your mother and your best friends at your bachelorette party. Imagine Grandma drunk. Grandma also had a beach blonde dye. It was weird and I loved it. Age is no deterrent to a good time.

A rush. The Underground or metro is a flush of people dazzling from train to street or vice versa. Londoners are fast walkers and comfortable with face-to-face contact. That’s what I’m guessing from the way they pack tight inside these trains. The quintessential American poet Robert Frost said “good fences make good neigbors.” And I’d say that in general we tend to stick to that in America. Most people like to have a good amount of personal space. The Brits stand closer in conversation and if you happen to be afraid of brushing skins with strangers, I wouldn’t use the Underground. I’ve taken in the morning around 930 am, which I expect to be right after rush hour as people would be at work by then; I’ve taken it before lunchtime at 2 pm and at various hours in the evening; it is always packed tight.

Best when you are in Soho. It is akin to The Village in New York, or Young Street in downtown Toronto or a cross of Dupont Circle and Georgetown in DC. Soho gives every form of entertainment: shopping, great restaurants, and the endless parade of well-groomed Londoners drinking pints in front of pubs.
Drinking is a cultural staple. The goal is maximum revelry but obviously inebriation is collateral. Around 5 pm in the afternoon, people begin gather with friends and stand around outside the restaurant in the siroco wind to gulp down heavy glasses. Drinking here, ironically, involves a culture of trust. The restaurants trust the patrons will return the glasses. These are not cheap plastic cups. There are heavy-bottomed tankards. It seems counter-intuitive to trust a drunk man but so far I have not seen any discarded glasses on the street.

Stylish. I am loving the style in this city – everyone seems say something with their style. I think style is accidental. It is from bold experimentation that one finds one’s style, just as one finds one’s purpose and one’s path in life. Londoners seem willing to wear just about anything that lets them say  ”this is who I am today.”  The result is a fabulous display of creativity on nearly every corner.

Expensive. This was what I thought when I exchanged my lowly dollars to pounds and got half the number I had handed to cashier. However, if you are carefully and seek out the deals, you’ll find the deals. You can eat for the same prices that you would in any big US city and some packages offer discounts to the popular sites. I will write a London on the Cheap Guide at the conclusion of this trip.

I love the fact that the hostel is cheap (in price, not quality) and in a great location, two blocks away from the perfect French patisseriel and two blocks away from Gloucester Station. The fact that I’m living for five days on the street adjacent to the former home of Alfred Hitchcock. I never tire of his movies. One of my favorite directors. The metro runs smoothly and I haven’t waited more than 5 minutes for a train so far. The locals are friendly giving directions. The multicultural pot: one third of English citizens were not born here which means one in about 3 people hails from another land. It’s amazing to see this multiethnic mosaic. I’ve seen girls in teeny-tiny shorts next to women in burkas. We are not in DC anymore.

And now… it’s one a.m. so I am off to dream of black beer. Our treat tomorrow. I am traveling for three more days with @onewayoranother and then we are meeting two more people, Fernando and Maite. I like to think of them as my parents away from home since I’ve visited many many times with them in Madrid. They are a youthful pair of 50 year-olds. Hilarity awaits. Very excited to see them soon!