Getting around

Wow has the weather ever been AMAZING!!! I've heard stories of snow back in Toronto, but I just spent the weekend in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, walking along the Thames in my sandals.

So ... getting around in London. Well, the most obvious difference from Toronto is that everyone drives on the wrong side of the street. This is something you definitely need to be careful about, or else you risk getting flattened when you step into the intersection after looking the wrong way. The other big difference is that pedestrians do not seem to enjoy any right-of-way over cars. If you're at a four-way intersection and the north/south cars are going, the pedestrians have to wait, even if they're also going north/south. Cars that are turning east/west get priority over the pedestrians. Every intersection also has pedestrian crossing lights, which often will go on in all directions while car traffic is stopped. So, for example, you might have a cycle of n/s cars, e/w cars, n/s/e/w pedestrians. Of course, this all varies from intersection to intersection, so you really have to pay attention to your surroundings.

The transit system seems pretty decent, although people here complain non-stop about it (how expensive it is, how unreliable it is, etc etc etc). In that sense, it's just like being back in Toronto. The underground stations here are enormous, spread out over huge areas and countless floors. Some transfers between different tube lines in the same station may mean a 5+ minute hike with several escalator rides. Oh, and the escalators in the underground have a fairly strict policy about "stand right, walk left". If you're on the left half of the escalator and you're not walking, people behind you will NOT be happy (fortunately I discovered this by reading about it before I left ... not by making the mistake). And the escalators are LONG. Much longer than anything in Toronto, to the point where I find myself a bit disoriented if I'm walking up/down them (by the end of the walk, I feel like the escalator is level, and the normal ground is slanted).

Walking is a pretty good way to get from place to place here. There are pedestrian-only bridges crossing the Thames, river-side paths, and pedestrian-access-only street markets scattered about.

Alright, I know this note is a bit shorter than the others, but I'm afraid I need to get back to work. I'll try to write again soon.

The food

London has REALLY GOOD food ... but almost all of it is non-British. In general this seems to be a bit of an "issue". I'm doing my very best to try and live like a local, but I'm quickly coming to the realization that I'm actually behaving more like a tourist. The locals don't seem to eat a lot of British food, and they definitely don't seem to drink a lot of British beer. Most pubs serve Fosters and Stella and Becks and Guiness ... but if you ask them for "something local", they look at you blankly for a second and then apologize that they don't have anything like that. Now, it's not quite as extreme as I'm making it out to be, but I would definitely say that of the pubs I've been to, only 1 or 2 out of 5+ taps will be pouring local ale.

The smartest thing I did when I arrived, was to ask the hotel manager for some local places that serve local fare but that aren't toursity. So now I'm getting most of my evening beer at The Cleveland Arms, where they have a rapidly changing guest ale (I've been there three times and it's been different each time). In Toronto, people always comment on how much better beer is on-tap compared to in a bottle. I find that to be even more the case here. I don't know why, but the slightly less ice-cold, slightly less carbonated beer that they pump into glasses here is a LOT better than what I pour out of the bottle. And it's not much more expensive. In Toronto, a 500mL bottle may be $2.50 and a 500mL glass $6. Here, a 500mL bottle may be £2 and a 500mL glass £2.50.

In addition to the pub, the hotel manager also recommended a restaurant called Raffles, where I've been going to enjoy their "Big Ben Breakfast". For £3, you get two eggs, baked beans, peameal bacon, a full-size sausage, half a tomato, sauteed mushrooms, and two pieces of buttered toast. They have a newspaper review on the wall which talks about how wonderful the breakfast is there (which I'll agree with - certainly for the value), and how it's the perfect solution for one too many pints the night before.

Where I work, there's an enormous variety of cuisine. It's like Toronto compacted into a much smaller area. Before I started working, I dropped in one day to do some HR paperwork, and then went out with some of the R&D guys for Thai food (possibly the best Thai food I've ever had). This past Thursday I went out for lunch with the CTO and ended up at a place that makes great gourmet burgers.

And the grocery stores here ALL have LOTS of different types of prepared sandwiches and salads, etc. (and they're actually pretty good). I'd say that probably 50%+ of my food so far has been prepared sandwiches from Marks & Spencer (which is actually a department store, but has a big food section as well). They also have microwaveable British food as well, so I've been able to enjoy the TV-dinner version of beef stew, sticky toffee pudding, etc. It's definitely all better quality than the TV-dinner food Toronto has to offer. Also on the British food front, I went to one of the food markets today, so I have a freshly made pie (meat pie, not fruit pie) to enjoy for dinner tonight.

I was planning to also talk about the tube and the people here, but I think this note is long enough already. Plus it's a BEAUTIFUL Easter weekend here, so I'm going to head back out to enjoy it.

The next few days

Well, I can now definitely see why the tourists love London! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, and so I decided to start walking through Hyde park. This included a nice walk along The Serpentine over to the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (which, while pretty, is not what I would call a fountain ... more of a lazy river). Then I crossed over to the Wellington Arch (I must say the monuments in London are ENORMOUS ... I'm having to plan my pictures from a hundred metres - or more - away). As I was about to pass through it, a police car started coming through from the other side. After it was a procession of some of the horse guards. So I headed through after that and went down Constitution Hill through Green Park, towards Buckingham Palace, just in time for the changing of the guard. It was neat, and long, but not as "wow" as I'd expected. Buckingham Palace itself is pretty nice though, and the gates around it are beautiful. My impression of the ceremony probably wasn't helped by the enormous crowd which had all gathered to watch the procession. As soon as the changing was done, almost everyone left. From here I walked into St James Park, which is a BEAUTIFUL area (I expect it must be absolutely stunning in the summer). The flowers were in bloom, and there were pelicans walking around, and there were tourists everywhere. Heading further, I passed by the Horse Guards Parade and then up to Trafalgar Square. As I was looking at the column dedicated to Nelson, I noticed that the Canadian Consulate is right there as well, so now I know where to go to get my passport renewed. Then I headed back south, past various parliament buildings, and over to Westminster Abbey. Maybe it's age, or maybe it's a lack of upkeep, but I didn't find this to be all that spectacular. But, right across the street, I was very impressed with Westminster Hall and Big Ben. The gold sparkled in the sun, and the bells could be heard for quite a distance. Then I crossed Westminster Bridge, which took me past the London Eye (something I guess I'll have to do at some point) and the aquarium. Somehow I thought the Thames would be wider ... although it didn't look as dirty as I'd heard. Then I hiked north to Waterloo station, and took the tube back to my hotel.

Not too much to report on the housing front. I've now seen two really nice places, and wrote down the phone numbers for a bunch of other places I want to check out. The first place, while pretty, is in Wimbledon ... quite far from the city and would require a transfer at one of the tube stations. The second place (in Maida Vale) was on the perfect tube line, but the owner seemed a bit weird. While the Wimbledon owner was pressuring me to commit, this owner was avoiding any sort of commitment or offer I tried to make. So I'm not sure what's going on in his head. Surely one of the places on my list will work out. I'm fortunate in that I only need it for 2.5 months (until Feifei gets here), so it doesn't have to be anything super-special.

And I guess that's about it for this report. I've now had an enormous portion of fish & chips, and I'm going to go try a traditional London breakfast after I send this note. Oh, and I'm on a mission to try to only have European beers (preferably from London - although I've already "slipped" and had a German beer), and not have the same one twice.

Sorry I'm not including any pictures. I left my memory card reader back in Toronto and haven't found one here yet. But they will be forth-coming :)