London Local Culture

My last co-op was in Manhattan, which is a massive and diverse city. I fell in love with New York during that Co-Op, so when I went to London, I felt quite at home.

London is the most global city that I have been too. New York does not even come close. Pret a Manger is the Starbucks on every corner of London.

There is a common joke about British food being bland, but London is chock full of every world cuisine.

The tube is very different from what a new yorker is used too. Not only is everything clean, most of the panneling is pure white.

Navigating is a bit different though, signs lead you to winding circular one-way passages that you are designed for maximum crowd flow management.

After a Youtube video or two, I leader that I am living above mass transit history; our flat is located on top of the Metropolitan Line, which is the first subway line.

Pub culture is quite different from what I have seen in the US and especially on college campuses. Typically there are small with lots of places to sit and not a ton of room. The names are not always the most inviting, like; Hag’s Head, Queens Head, Slaughtered lamb, Blackbird, Nag’s Head, or Hung Drawn & Quartered.

One interesting fact we learned was that we lived across the street from the first gastropub. A gastropub is a pub with a greater emphasis on quality food. The photo of The Eagle gastropub on Wikipedia was taken from just in front of where we lived.