Day 10 in Europe (London)

So after the disaster yesterday of arriving in London on three hours of sleep (plus a couple during the train ride) and finding myself in the middle of London at a backpackers without clean sheets, my flatmate's sister and brother-in-law were very kind to put me up for my stay, so let me start off by saying thanks Stef and Shaun if you're reading this!

My day today was a bit slow, but I think after a couple of crazy nights and a full day of travelling I really wanted it to be like this anyway. Did a bit of laundry and it was midday before I went shopping in town. I keep thinking things are so much cheaper here (because I've now grown used to the Euro -> Aussie Dollar conversion) when they really aren't. Luckily my iPhone has a currency converter app which probably saved me from spending unnecessary cash.

If there is one thing London has over Paris is that the food available is so much more multicultural. In Paris I struggled to find good Chinese or Indian food, and here it is widely available. At night we had dinner at a wonderful Cantonese restaurant. Wouldn't call it spectacular but there were some highlights such as soft-shell crab fried with curry leaves and chilli, and drunken chicken with abalone and jellyfish.

On the down side London seems to have massive issues with public transport and general congestion. Unlike Paris which has its CBD located away from the centre of the city, London has everything squished together and the infrastructure simply isn't there to comfortably support its population. To put it in perspective, this is the first time ever that I had to queue to get inside a subway station, and then queue again to get on the escalator down, and even then only barely manage to get on the train (and I've now been on subways in Hong Kong, New York, Kyoto, Osaka, and Paris).

At the end of the day, for someone who likes his space every now and then, this really won't be my favourite city but at least I can make the best of it!