I’ve heard it said that London is the ultimate Christmas city.
It definitely puts on quite a show come Christmas time! But the drawback is that, during the “festive period” (as it is called), the streets are MOBBED. The holidays in London are both magical and chaotic; enchanting and stressful. This year, I was lucky enough to have my loved ones come to London to visit me during the holidays, so I got to spend the “festive period” being a tourist in my new city. Despite the obvious stress that comes with trying to guide your clan through crowds of people, it was a lovely time, and I’m glad to be able to give it some coverage on this site. Because ✨Christmas London is a destination unto itself.
In the previous installment on street art in London (volume 1), I said the following:
“When I moved here, it quickly became apparent that London’s many famous murals were not all conveniently located in the same few alleyways as had been the case in some other cities. London was going to make me do some WALKING in order to find its murals. This was a true scavenger hunt.”
Well… I stand corrected! When I wrote that article, I hadn’t yet visited the Leake Street Arches.
I’ve said it before on this website and I’ll say it again: London is EASILY the most diverse place I have ever lived. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine any place on earth being more diverse than London. That is not hyperbole! I truly don’t think anywhere else can touch it in terms of diversity. So it should come as no surprise that London’s street art is as interesting and colorful as its inhabitants.
For the unindoctrinated, Everton is a Liverpool-based team coming to play on West Ham’s home turf. This is an interesting season for Everton because they were docked 10-points in what the football world has unanimously agreed is an injustice of the highest order. After that, death (i.e. relegation) seemed inevitable, but they have harnessed their collective spite to mount a revenge-fueled run of wins that has put them comfortably in the center of the table, safe from the relegation zone. If it wasn’t for those 10 points, they would be a strong contender for European qualification right now. Unfortunately for West Ham, this would ultimately mean a home-defeat for them. So there were lots of angry fans in East London on this day, but that’s part of the magic of the game. ✨
Today we’re going to Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea v. Brighton in the EFL Cup a.k.a. the Carabao Cup!
This is not technically my first English Premier League (EPL) game because it’s a cup game (i.e. it’s not part of the regular season, it’s a separate competition) but it’s still a good time. So let’s get into what this experience was like… because, it was an experience.
I don’t know if people coming to visit as tourists really get a sense of the scale of this place because most major tourist attractions are clustered relatively close to one another. But to me, whose first time in London was the day I moved to London, its size was a bit terrifying. I couldn’t afford to stay in the city center, so I found an Airbnb further afield. Fighting the traffic and crowds to haul my ass back and forth across this city to do apartment viewings was exhausting, and I only covered a small portion of the city in those trips.
In July of 2012, a few friends and I were leaving Spain and embarking on what would be my first ever Euro-trip. In deciding where we wanted to go, I'd be lying if I told you that Amsterdam's famously progressive drug laws did not play a role in our decision to come to here. So our motives may not have been entirely academic, but once we arrived, I was enraptured. Amsterdam turned out to be one of the most beautiful cities that I had ever had the privilege of exploring. I’ve traveled a lot more today than I had back then, and Amsterdam is STILL one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever seen. We spent 5 days here, and in that time, I took more photographs than I had of any place I had visited prior.
