I've now been here in London for eight months, although it doesn't seem like it's been that long. During those months, my opinions of the city have continued to evolve. As you can tell from a few posts I've had, I'm not impressed with the unreliability of public transit or the ridiculously short days during winter. However, there are many more things that I've been noticing recently that make me like the city more and more.
In talking with a friend back in the US last week, I realized that this eight months is the longest I've actually fully lived in a single place since graduating. Yes, I paid rent on my Jersey City apartment for two years and also rented from Kai for over a year, but it'd be a stretch to say that I genuinely lived in either of those locations. I'd been working in other cities, generally spending at most weekends in New York and sometimes not even that. That was a phenomenal experience that I don't regret in the least, but I think it's going to be a challenge to go back to that type of travel and transient life... I've gone from 54 round-trip flights, mostly for work, in the year before moving to London to now having taken only two work-related flights in the past eight months.
I had no idea how much spending three or four days of the week in a hotel affected me... I'm actually able to go home every night now in London, plan events in the evenings with friends without having to wonder whether or not I'll be in town, and not spend half of the weekend unpacking and repacking for the week's travels. Granted, there were some perks that came along with the travel, but I'm not sure that long term they make up for the instability caused by it.
I'm not saying I necessarily want to stay here long-term, although that's certainly something that's gone from "why would I ever do that?" to "well, it certainly is tempting..." over the past few months. The biggest drawback to doing that would be the distance and time difference between me being here and friends and family being in the States. There are also career decisions related to this... what the different opportunities are in each country, if or how I would consider grad school in either country, and the like.
No, I don't need to make a decision for a while regarding what happens at the end of my currently 18-month commitment, but this does affect what I want to do during the remaining portion of the 18 months. I'm actually settling into living here and am developing a life with friends and colleagues in the area. If I'm going to be here longer term, I'd like to spend more weekends in London and with friends here. If I'm only here through next winter, though, I feel like I need to do as much travel as possible, as it's going to be my best opportunity to see parts of Europe I'd probably never get to while living in the States.
No answers here yet, but I did just book a trip with Chris, who's now living in Zurich, through Turkey. We're meeting each other the Saturday of the May bank holiday weekend in Istanbul and returning our separate ways from Izmir a week later. We have yet to plan much more than that at this point, but will do so over the next week or so, as this trip is quickly approaching!
Sunday 19 April 2009
Easter
A while back, John and I had considered going sailing over Easter weekend. He has a small-ish sailboat that we could have taken out in a regatta off the south of England each day... the plan was originally to do that and to camp somewhere nearby each night. Alas, the weather decided to complicate our plans.
On Wednesday, two days before we were planning to leave for the trip, the forecast called for heavy winds (too heavy for us to sail) and rain on Friday, Saturday and Monday of the four-day weekend. After a whole string of messages back and forth that night, we decided to cancel the trip and find something else to do.
I frantically looked for alternatives... could I book a last minute flight to somewhere in France or Switzerland, find a hostel with an open bed and ski for the weekend? Were there affordable flights to Ireland, where I've been considering for a while now that I want to spend at least a long weekend off in the countryside? Whenever I had a few minutes that Thursday morning at work, I was on travel websites trying to figure out possibilities. As you'd expect, everything was much more expensive than I wanted to consider paying, but I wasn't about to spend the weekend at home.
John and I ended up talking later on Thursday afternoon and decided to go to Wales instead. His girlfriend plays in the BBC orchestra in Cardiff and had just recently moved there... so we had a place to stay as a base for the weekend, and it was only a few-hour drive to get there.
We drove up there Friday afternoon (yes, it took just about the whole afternoon... it took more than 90 minutes to get from Lewisham just to Heathrow), cooked dinner, then explored town a bit at night, playing with night photography... a few of my photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/Cardiff
Saturday morning, walking through town, we found that there was a Cardiff v. Toulouise rugby match that afternoon, with tickets still available! Of course, we had to go! Great time, great tickets, and I'm actually starting to be interested in the game... maybe not yet a fully hooked fan, but definitely interested and much more readily able to follow it.
Sunday, we drove up into the Brecon Beacons, went on a short hike, drove through the hills, explored a bit and eventually made our way back into London that night. It was a great way to get out of London for a few days, relax and see Wales!
Now, for the fun part... it'd been raining when we left London on Friday. By the time we got to Cardiff, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The weekend was a perfect spring weekend... warm, sunny and great for being outside. We saw sailboats out on the harbor in Cardiff and had this nagging feeling that we may have missed a great weekend of sailing. As we crossed the M25 coming back into London on Sunday, though, it started raining again. Apparently the weather had been miserable down here all weekend. It may have been dumb luck, but no complains here!
On Wednesday, two days before we were planning to leave for the trip, the forecast called for heavy winds (too heavy for us to sail) and rain on Friday, Saturday and Monday of the four-day weekend. After a whole string of messages back and forth that night, we decided to cancel the trip and find something else to do.
I frantically looked for alternatives... could I book a last minute flight to somewhere in France or Switzerland, find a hostel with an open bed and ski for the weekend? Were there affordable flights to Ireland, where I've been considering for a while now that I want to spend at least a long weekend off in the countryside? Whenever I had a few minutes that Thursday morning at work, I was on travel websites trying to figure out possibilities. As you'd expect, everything was much more expensive than I wanted to consider paying, but I wasn't about to spend the weekend at home.
John and I ended up talking later on Thursday afternoon and decided to go to Wales instead. His girlfriend plays in the BBC orchestra in Cardiff and had just recently moved there... so we had a place to stay as a base for the weekend, and it was only a few-hour drive to get there.
We drove up there Friday afternoon (yes, it took just about the whole afternoon... it took more than 90 minutes to get from Lewisham just to Heathrow), cooked dinner, then explored town a bit at night, playing with night photography... a few of my photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/Cardiff
Saturday morning, walking through town, we found that there was a Cardiff v. Toulouise rugby match that afternoon, with tickets still available! Of course, we had to go! Great time, great tickets, and I'm actually starting to be interested in the game... maybe not yet a fully hooked fan, but definitely interested and much more readily able to follow it.
Sunday, we drove up into the Brecon Beacons, went on a short hike, drove through the hills, explored a bit and eventually made our way back into London that night. It was a great way to get out of London for a few days, relax and see Wales!
Now, for the fun part... it'd been raining when we left London on Friday. By the time we got to Cardiff, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The weekend was a perfect spring weekend... warm, sunny and great for being outside. We saw sailboats out on the harbor in Cardiff and had this nagging feeling that we may have missed a great weekend of sailing. As we crossed the M25 coming back into London on Sunday, though, it started raining again. Apparently the weather had been miserable down here all weekend. It may have been dumb luck, but no complains here!
Paris
When I'd been in the States last month, I'd had dinner in DC one night with Ros and Alison. We talked about them visiting London, meeting me in Ireland for a long weekend, or picking another city somewhere in Europe to meet. We didn't decide anything at the time, but they'd said they would go and look at what flight options existed.
The next day, Alison forwarded to me their itinerary: they were flying into Paris overnight on a Friday two weeks out, staying there until Tuesday. Needless to say, I booked a Eurostar ticket and met them there.
Now, I've been to Paris twice previously. Both times had been fun, but I can't say that I particularly loved the city. This time was completely different. I'm by no means ready to live there, but it's gone from "eh, I'll go back to visit friends if they're there" to "this really is a fun place!"
I think the difference is that the first two trips ended up being "how much can we see and do and visit in as short a time as possible" whereas this one was more "let's avoid the mobs and actually experience the city itself." We walked through the Luxemberg Gardens, got attacked by a hailstorm walking past the Louvre, found some absolutely phenomenal croissants and wines, and just generally had a more relaxed, sane weekend.
A few of my photos are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/ParisMarch2009 and Alison's are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nosila/Paris2009FirstPass
And yes, it's amazing to be able to wake up in London and be at a hotel in Paris by 10:30am Saturday, have a full weekend there, leave at 8:30 Sunday night and still be home well before midnight. I could get used to this proximity to Europe!
The next day, Alison forwarded to me their itinerary: they were flying into Paris overnight on a Friday two weeks out, staying there until Tuesday. Needless to say, I booked a Eurostar ticket and met them there.
Now, I've been to Paris twice previously. Both times had been fun, but I can't say that I particularly loved the city. This time was completely different. I'm by no means ready to live there, but it's gone from "eh, I'll go back to visit friends if they're there" to "this really is a fun place!"
I think the difference is that the first two trips ended up being "how much can we see and do and visit in as short a time as possible" whereas this one was more "let's avoid the mobs and actually experience the city itself." We walked through the Luxemberg Gardens, got attacked by a hailstorm walking past the Louvre, found some absolutely phenomenal croissants and wines, and just generally had a more relaxed, sane weekend.
A few of my photos are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/trenshaw/ParisMarch2009 and Alison's are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nosila/Paris2009FirstPass
And yes, it's amazing to be able to wake up in London and be at a hotel in Paris by 10:30am Saturday, have a full weekend there, leave at 8:30 Sunday night and still be home well before midnight. I could get used to this proximity to Europe!
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