It constantly amazes me that people can completely dismiss its beauty as a city and dismiss it as an unfriendly place.
Granted its not as immediately “in your face” beautiful as places like Oxford and Cambridge, but then thats only because it’s a victim of its size. Actually if you spend some time wandering around the place rather than sticking to the usual haunts or going everywhere by tube then quite frankly it’ll blow your mind.
Too many people dismiss London as an unfriendly, unattractive city but thats often because they go in with those preconceptions, or because they spend the briefest of times there and expect it to open itself up to them straight away. That doesn’t happen.
London is a big place, its a working city and it has a huge transient population. That obviously affects how people interact with each other and that often throws people who are new to the city - particularly if they’ve come from much smaller communities or areas like the north where there is (i’ll admit) a generally more open approach to strangers.
London has one basic rule though, and once you’ve clocked it you’ll find its actually a pretty friendly place and that’s this:
You’ll get out exactly what you put in.
In my experience the people who moan about it being cold and unfriendly are the people make no effort to integrate themselves into the culture and community of the place.
Talking about the law of the Tube , there were an article in the Evening Standard a few year’s back about getting you own back on tourists who get in the way. It consisted of misleading advice to give to these visitors. One tip that comes to mind was “when entering a tube carriage it is customary to shake hands with all you fellow passengers” . Talk about inviting a black eye !
Yep. Tube rules is walk everywhere at a fast pace with a determined scowl on your face. Show people no mercy, for they will show you none.
Aside from that, have a good wander round - Theres something to see everywhere more or less. And peg up when you get here - theres always a large crew of idiots willing to go for a drink, and we know the best places.
If nobodys mentioned it, the day travelcards have gone up as of Jan 2, £5.20 (!) for a day travelcard zones 1-4, a 1-2 one is about £5 I think. You’ll need one of these if your doing extensive travelling round London, if not a weekly card.
garius --I don’t think anyone is dismissing the beauty of London. But there is so much more to UK than London–the OP will be there 2 years; let’s hope he sees London and the countryside as well.
London is massiver and can be intimidating–the sheer size of it also makes it fascinating. I was never treated rudely in London, but a certain amount of city smarts is needed–as in any metropolis. IMO, the people in London are like the people most anywhere–some friendly, some rude etc.
And the Tube Law is indeed in full effect–as it is here in Chicago or NY or wherever. I don’t count that as rude–it’s just large crowd with neccessary destinations behavior.
My only tourist advice is this: I read somewhere that one way Europeans can ID Americans is by their shoes. We tend to wear white athletic shoes while sightseeing(that and a fanny pack–and that is called something else there! can’t remember what)–but Euorpeans wear black or brown shoes.
I have no clue what Canadiens wear, but if you want to avoid being overcharged in some places, don’t wear brand new white trainers!
garius --I don’t think anyone is dismissing the beauty of London. But there is so much more to UK than London–the OP will be there 2 years; let’s hope he sees London and the countryside as well.
London is massive and can be intimidating–the sheer size of it also makes it fascinating. I was never treated rudely in London, but a certain amount of city smarts is needed–as in any metropolis. IMO, the people in London are like the people most anywhere–some friendly, some rude etc.
And the Tube Law is indeed in full effect–as it is here in Chicago or NY or wherever. I don’t count that as rude–it’s just large crowd with neccessary destinations behavior.
My only tourist advice is this: I read somewhere that one way Europeans can ID Americans is by their shoes. We tend to wear white athletic shoes while sightseeing(that and a fanny pack–and that is called something else there! can’t remember what)–but Euorpeans wear black or brown shoes.
I have no clue what Canadiens wear, but if you want to avoid being overcharged in some places, don’t wear brand new white trainers!
2 years… plenty of time to see Scotland and Ireland too. Weekend trips won’t break the bank. Weekend trips to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Prague and Seville are reasonably priced too. You should take full advantage of being several thousand miles closer to most of these places than you normally are.
Ryanair and Easyjet often work out cheaper than buses, trains and ferries when travelling around the UK and the rest of europe. wwww.easyjet.com and wwww.ryanair.com are your friends.
On panhandlers: In any large city, you’ll eventually be approached by people asking you for money; my personal rule, which I’m sure makes me a bit of a callous person (but I’m not ready for a repeat performance of the alternative* now or any time soon) is to be ready to say “fuck off” - the major exception being homeless people selling a magazine called The Big Issue.
The Big Issue is a magazine produced by a charity that tries to get genuinelly homeless people back into a situation where they can earn an income, get a place to stay and generally experience a bit of stability; the sellers buy it sale-or-return and sell at a fixed cover price, they have to be registered with the charity and will have a badge/ID card to prove it. My experience has been that they are generally courteous and grateful for any help you can give. The magazine itself is often quite a good read too. With anyone else approaching you, there’s a greater chance they might just be trying to scam you or worse (a curt ‘fuck off’ and keep walking should work for them).
*I got scammed by an Algerian fast-change artist, pretending to be down on his luck once, at least it started out as a fast-change scam and ended up a bit more like being mugged.
Bear in mind, though, that many scammers and other panhandlers will also have a tattered copy of The Big Issue to lend credence to their act. However they will not have a badge, the magazine will often be two or three weeks old, and they won’t let you buy it off them for face value.
Excellent - that’s the way us Brits do it nowadays, too. Europe is for weekends, we go further afield for real holidays
In fact, I’m struggling to think of a capital city in western or central Europe that doesn’t have a direct (cheap) flight from Stansted. (And there’s endless such flights from everywhere in the country, too.)
Absolutely and couldn’t agree more - i just get a bit fed up with everyone always chipping into threads like these and rolling out the same old negative stuff about London.
Figured it was about time someone stepped up to the plate and made a case for the ol’ city
I’m not really interested in backpacking across europe so mini excursions as i can afford them are the idea.
