Last night, for the first time since I arrived, I actually had a dream about driving a car. I was a little surprised that I have not had one sooner since I have not driven in a bit and have no immediate plans for the future to do so (hearing Peter sigh with relief :)). For sure, London is not a driving city. It is a walking city and I have done more walking in the past 2 weeks then in the past 2 years. A good thing too, since most of my time is spent admiring the architecture and gaping at the sights, I would have surely crashed into something by now.
I walk every day to the markets of which we have several excellent ones very close by. Shopping for food daily has been a great experience. Everything is fresh - veggies, meat, bread - and to cook it that way has made me fall in love with cooking all over again. No issue with quality at all, except for the beef but the availability of French products has made that a good swap!
I had to stop converting pounds into dollars tho - it was making me a little nuts. A pound feels like a dollar even though the conversion rate tells us that a pound is worth 2 dollars. So - I keep it to pounds and try not to cringe toooo much.
I did find an awesome little veggie store in Belsize Square (right around the corner but off the high street) and their prices were much better than the high street markets.
The area that we live in is awesome. It is full of gorgeous architecture and little surprises all over, like the Keats House which is only a 5 min walk away. Hampstead Heath as well which is an amazing sprawl of green park is only a little over 5 min away as well. The area has been home to many artists and poets over several hundred years and it definitely still has that artsy and mellow vibe.
We have good access to central London as well - I can be in Trafalgar Square within 15 min by Tube and a bit longer by bus.
I am going to be loading lots of pics and giving their descriptions as well as keeping up the blog of my adventures in London. It is a bit late (I was waiting for Zach man to get home) so I will add some more tomorrow and keep up as I go along!
