London Over and Out

On first arriving in London, one of the very first things I noticed was the difference in the manners of the London population versus the Irish. They did not have the care free nature that the stereotypical Irish person would, they seemed to not be as polite or apologetic as they were constantly in a rush, no regard for anyone but their own personal lives, which I soon began to understand why. Living in London you must keep up with the pace or you genuinely can’t endure the hustle of the city, I found this out by becoming annoyed at tourists myself, and having no time for them, concentrating on myself and just focusing on arriving to work on time. This is where using forms of public transport like buses and the underground became very important in my life.

Having an apartment so close to oxford street was a blessing, the only con in my opinion was the fact it made you lazy. This was especially evident when it came to using transport like the buses and the underground, you did not really need it, however buses were so easy to use, and they were right outside my door. I was given an oyster card by my Dad as he said I would need it, and I have to say he was right. It was completely different in Ireland where all you need are coins, it was all just based off this card that you would top up by cash and then tap it on this machine in the bus to allow you to travel. Some of the pros were that they were always on time, they were always double decker meaning more room, cheap and they very frequent stops.

Winter Wonderland, in Hyde Park

On the topic of cheap, that was not the case with our apartment. I was lucky that I did not have to go apartment hunting. There were two girls from my class that had already been living in London and they were looking for an apartment at the time that I would have been moving over. Although this seemed perfect at first, there were quiet a lot of negatives, such as: the apartment was not furnished when we first moved over, constructions in the apartment block had just begun when we first moved in, which I mentioned in pervious blogs (hint, hint). We had no WIFI which was a problem because mobile data is very limited, and there were multiple conflicts with our landlord which did make us want to move out numerous times. The reason for our rent being so expensive was due to the area we were living in, which was close to Oxford street and plenty of local amenities.

Speaking of local amenities and what not, there was a college around the corner there were multiple shops, parks, schools and swimming pools. There was always plenty to do, when we had a day off, we were able to do things like see shows on the west end. I had the chance to see two shows: Dream girls and Mama Mia. Tickets can be very cheap as nearly everything is last minute. Winter Wonderland was in Hyde Park it was something that I really enjoyed and went back to several times. It consisted of carnival games, roller-coasters and the food was extremely diverse, it ranged from duck wraps to churros and of course I was loving life. What Winter Wonderland and this blog have in common, is that all good things must come to an end…

-Hope Cuddihy