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!
Drew Meyers
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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