A taste of London

London so far…

We are just about to embark on our European Adventure and it has dawned on us just how much we have fallen in love with London and how glad we are to be coming back as we most definitely haven’t done half as much as what we could have whilst here. I’m not sure if it is the fact that we arrived at such a hyped-up time with the 100-day mark of the Olympic countdown or witnessing the country go berserk over the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations but British people sure do love their country and know how to throw a good party.

Although we have spent just about a month in London it is quite hard to sum it up into such a short blog entry. I could forever go on about how different it is to Australia, discuss the touristy things for the possible 100^th time you’ve ever heard anyone tell you or list the countless places we have been but I’m going to try and avoid that. Instead you will be able to put together most of what we have done just by looking at our pictures below.

I can see exactly why people come here for the expected two-year stay and remain here for many years past. There is just so much to do in London that your ‘to-do’ lists are constantly being updated and we fear that it may never be completed. So many day-trips planned for when we get back and things to experience once we finally call London our home in about 4 months time. However, for now we have enjoyed relaxing, sleeping in and catching up with friends and family here. I have quite a bit of extended family here so we are forever attending family events and outings, especially when my Mum and older brother James arrived. This has been really fun for us because through my cousins we have met a lot of British people, something not many Australians do (its is quite funny just how much Aussies ‘stick together’ here and how noticeable it is). Many Australian’s come here and stay in West or South-west London. We have avoided that and stayed in North London, a little suburb called Stokenewington, which slightly reminds us of Surry Hills (for all those that need a comparison). We live in a set of flats with a blocked driveway where kids play in the afternoons. We have a fairly large park next to us where there is a beautiful pond, deer, goats, wildlife, swings, tennis courts, basketball courts and hundreds of dogs and their owners each day, making the daily runs beautiful. We are slowly getting used to the fact that even though the London transport system is excellent it is a huge place and can still take about an hour to get anywhere.

We have also enjoyed a few too many indulgences such as being able to go out every night, eating out and ‘trying’ all of the new sweets, chips and other junk food London provides us with so you can imagine how tight our clothes are and how ‘great’ we are feeling about our excess baggage which we weren’t expecting till about halfway through Europe. Yes I will admit it, we have already been injected by Heathrow and it is a horrible feeling therefore we swear to ourselves that we will not eat bread whilst in Europe and limit ourselves to the 2-3 square meals each day and abandon all the unnecessary snacking…but to be honest, lets see how long these intentions last (hopefully much longer than we expect!).

London is beautiful and although I’m excited to explore Europe and at times get home sick for Australia I very much am looking forward to coming back here, seeing family again, living out of home for the first time and spending Christmas with my family, even if it’s a cold Christmas.