I’ll be honest — London was one of my least favorite cities I visited while backpacking all over Western Europe (13 countries in 2 months) in 2005. But I made it back here for a few days, and I certainly have a better impression of London this time around. In 2005, London was the first city I ever visited outside of the US, so it’s probably safe to say a bit of culture shock contributed to some of my disappointment. However, I now have a half dozen trips abroad under my belt — meaning I have a better idea of what to do when backpacking. In 2005, my buddy and I made the mistake of not getting a map and got lost in London for hours and hours, so this time I picked up a map and the city is actually surprisingly easy to navigate. This time around, I also got to mingle a bit with locals – I had lunch with Jamie from Zoopla the other day and met some fascinating local folks (@xperiencefran, @academyblog, @propertyowl, @jamesdearsley, @kyreniaj, @AhmCharles) from the real estate field at the Thursday Property Tweetup organized by Ben Edwards. Additionally, I got to meet Becky Berg (daughter of Kris Berg) for traditional English tea and go sightseeing yesterday with my friend Liz, who I met in Santorini this summer. It’s always better visiting a city when you can hang out with the locals instead of just a bunch of tourists…
Regardless, I’m a fan of London this time around and I think it’s a safe bet I’ll be back here at some point in the relatively near future — maybe for the 2012 Olympics!
