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.