Or at least see lots of tourists. So I am finally in the Big Smoke, my favourite place in the world. I don't think there is anywhere else I've been that has so much history and so much going on in such a small space.
The train journey up was uneventful in the end, quick even, although I'm not sure who thought the pale purple and institutional-blue colour scheme on the trains was a good idea. I am staying at a Travelodge on City Road in the City because it is very cheap, £40 a night for central London is very cheap, but it does have a touch of the prison cell about it. Right down to the lack of hot water during the day and the rationing of towels. Obviously you are only allowed one towel and it is ok to let the shower run for 20 minutes before it heats up here. It is also the first place I have ever stayed that doesn't have those little bottles of shampoo and shower gel in the bathroom. It's also the first time I've ever forgotten to bring shower gel with me! Thank god for 24 hour mini-Tesco supermarkets.
I am just down the road from the Barbican, one of my favourite places in London. Most people hate it's concrete brutalism but it's a place I have always wanted to live, and at the moment I actually could, the prices are actually in my range. Well not for one of the three bedroom flats in the Cromwell Tower, they are still £900,000, but the one bed places are relatively cheap. In fact the prices here seem pretty bearable all round. I don't think I've been to London and not blanched at the price of food and drink for a long time. It seems a total global financial disaster has at least made my trip a bit cheaper. I'm sure it will change back to normal after all the bankers get their bonuses. You know, for doing such a good job over the last 12 months. It's no coincidence that Merchant Banker is Cockney rhyming slang.
The only thing that has got a bit pricey is the admission fees for the special exhibitions at the galleries and museums. They all seem to be £11 which starts to add up if you want to see a few. However as the rest of the museums and galleries are all free it sort of evens itself out. I've tried to go to a few places that are less well known this time, mainly to avoid the crowds everywhere else. I can recommend the John Soanes Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which is full of the stuff collected by the eponymous architect. It's amazingly crammed with stuff and also is a rare chance to go into a completely un-touched Georgian town house. He must have been loaded, which just shows that there has always been money in architecture. The other place was a trip to the Royal Institute of British Architects (no, no theme, just a coincidence) which was actually a bit dull but was opposite the Chinese Embassy. Along with the traditional, yet eerily well behaved, Falun-gong demonstration outside I can report that Chinese diplomats drive 10 year old Renaults and have really terrible taste in net curtains.
Just off again now to visit the lovely GDC to see if I'll ever be able to work here again. Wish me luck.
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