Thursday 16 July 2015

London soon

There is a bit of variety coming in the monotony of everyday life: we will soon spend a day in London, with friends of ours and their family. I have ambivalent feelings about London. As a child and a tourist, going there for the first time in 1988, it was the first foreign city I visited and I fell in love with it. For me, it was the epitome of English civilization. As an adult living in England, I visited it more often, especially when I was unemployed in 2008 (going for job interviews or to register with job agencies) and I grew seriously tired of it and saw London as a dirty, stinky, smoky, busy megalopolis, peopled with drones and rotten to the chore. I blogged about it fairly often. I love some places in London, but not the whole city. And every time I go there I try to make peace with it. I will try again. If everything, it will be excuse for a longish train journey and I love traveling by train. Even though coming to London by Paddington Station is not a pretty sight. And our friends have young children, some of whom have never seen London before. It will fun to rediscover London with them. In any case, it will be a nice change of pace.

5 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

interesting post. i too am not smitten with london. i've spent s lot of time there and there are some little nooks i like but overall, it underwhelms me.

Cynthia said...

Je ne suis jamais allée à Londres ... j'aimerais bien découvrir la ville que beaucoup de parisiens adorent :)

Craig said...

I enjoy it more by visiting very rarely - perhaps once every two or three years. Fun to visit so rarely but I can't imagine living there. It would depress me to death!

Rachel Lucas said...

Oh gosh...I don't agree at ALL Guillaume and Jaz!! I have been there 3 times in the past week alone, and never get enough of our amazing capital city. So much history all around, and so many contrasts of old and new. Plus amazing restaurants (very important to me!) museums, galleries...how could you ever get bored?! Still, everyone is different and that's what makes life interesting. Hope you have a good time!

Guillaume said...

Thank you all for commenting.
@Rachel-The problem is that I spent too much time in London for purposes that had nothing to do with leisure. And don't get me wrong: I love many places in London. It is the whole city I grew sick of. And I know I need to make peace with it.