Who would have thought that in the middle of June, my Winter gear would actually come in handy? I suppose all those rumours about London's weather being unpredictable and sometimes depressing were proven true.
As it turned out, I had packed my suitcase with the majority of the things I will not necessitate for the remainder of my stay in Europe. This included all my winter clothes and school material that I was done with, and my plan was to send all of this back home with my mom and sister when they were flying home from London. Seeing as they had packed only one large suitcase for the two of them, they had extra space for a second suitcase and thus to accommodate bringing my stuff back home.
Now, I don’t even want to get into how emotional it was just to be sending stuff back home, because this basically meant that I would soon be back home myself. However, this being said, it was a happy coincidence that all my winter gear just happened to be with us in London, seeing that as soon as we arrived we were welcomed by the sudden realization that we were clearly no longer in sunny Spain. London was cold, it was dark, and cloudy. In fact, when we arrived, dressed in shorts and all, we were freezing and dressed in my winter clothing for the remainder of the trip. Thus, I can say this year was unique in many ways, but it was also a year in which I wore summer clothes in January and February (in Tenerife and even in the Basque Country) and now I can say I wore winter clothes in June, in London.
The other con of London. Yes, the prices. As you may or may not know, the British pound greatly outweighs the Canadian dollar. In fact, around 100$ Canadian will get you around 50 pounds, essentially the pound outweighs the dollar 2:1. The prices, however, do not reflect this. Just to give all of you Canadians who have never been to London a sense of the prices, say you go to a restaurant in Montreal. A typical meal will cost around 10-15$, well in London, expect a typical meal to cost around 10-15£, if not more, and then double that amount to get the amount you are paying in CAD. A meal of three dishes of fish and chips and one pint of beer to share among the three of us cost us circa 40 pounds, so basically 80$… woah!
Fish and chips were good though!
To make matters even worse, when my mom went to exchange her money for pounds back in Montreal before heading over, they gave her a 50-pound note that has apparently been out of circulation since 2011, meaning that nobody, but nobody was accepting it. It kinda freaks me out how an official bank can still give people notes that are no longer in circulation, and my mom then had to go back to the bank and argue for a full refund upon return to Montreal.
Even the metro (or the TUBE, as they call it) costs no less than around 14$/day, even though it is extremely efficient, a metro coming every 1-3 minutes at all times.
OK, so London is expensive and cold (occasionally), but to be honest London is an amazing city and if it weren’t for the crazy prices I think I would actually enjoy living there very much if given the opportunity.
First off, to note, the British economy is clearly doing well, despite the upcoming Brexit referendum (which I really hope doesn’t pass because I travel Europe with my British passport and don’t want to need a VISA to live/study in European countries…). You can tell the economy is doing well just by taking a look at the city and noticing the large amount of construction projects throughout the city. Even the already expansive metro was being further extended, impressive!
The city, though, is beautiful, and quite different from every other European city I’ve seen other than Dublin. And from what I hear, there are so many areas of the city I haven’t even seen yet, so hey one day when I’m rich I gotta head back. A tranquil stroll around London will have you seeing those typical British houses and that typical British architecture that’s so famous in the movies, and I rather enjoyed that.
And the city features, as we all know, its fair share of tourist attractions, from King’s Cross and St. Pancras station, to Harrod’s, to the famous Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, Big Ben, the churches, everything in London is big, impressive, and patriotic, and it is indeed one of the nicest cities I have seen thus far. In fact, unlike in North America, London is riddled with history everywhere, big historic events happened everywhere you look, probably moreso in London than in other European cities, and it is quite a sight to behold.
If all the aforementioned was not enough to make London a prime touristic destination, add to the mix a heavy Harry Potter focus and it’s game over. Interesting fact, London is the second most touristic city in the world, behind….. Bangkok, Thailand.
Harry Potter is everywhere throughout the city, and it is first identified upon exiting King’s Cross station and seeing platform 9 ¾ and the big overpriced Harry Potter gift shop. There was a long lineup even to take a picture with platform 9 ¾, a lineup my sister obviously insisted we wait in, so we did, and I’m a Gryffindor, look at me!
To delve deeper into our Harry Potter journey, on our final day in London, my mom, sister and I visited the Harry Potter filming set, and this was by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had, and frankly any Harry Potter fan would find him/herself in heaven in this place. I dedicated an entire post to that experience alone, check it out HERE.
-Daniele
