What I like about London or experience with real estate agencies

London is a very big city and like any other city of the same size in Europe or North America can offer you anything you might possibly need. Any exotic food, any piece of luxirious Pret-a-Porte, any imaginable beauty product and, of course, any housing option one may consider depending on one's personal budget and desires.

I spent my entire last week in search of that one and only perfect apartment that I could call my home for the next few years or at least months of the wet and gloomy winter. I wanted to do my homework prior to coming to the U.K. and like any other person totally addicted to the Internet, I spent hours and hours surfing the net in Kyiv looking for locations, prices, agencies, offers, etc.

London is clearly divided in several zones by city underground. It is a very convenient way to decide what location you want to choose for your future home. Central London is zone 1 with all its Royal Palaces, historic monuments, overwhelming number of shopping and dining amenities, night clubs, fantastic parks and other endless possibilities. West End is historically one of the most afluentual areas in the city and thus one of the most expensive ones. If you are taking East bound Underground train leaving central London you are slowly finding yourself in less pretentious parts of the city, but I will save my intake on city districts for some other later posts.

Taking all that into account I most certainly reduced my search to zone 1. Hours of Internet research gave me an idea of the price I should expect and I was confident I was prepared for my hunt.

Before departure from Ukraine my deer friends gave me few names of the major real estate players and I decided to try my luck with them as well as some other smaller agencies once I land in the U.K. I very soon discovered that this city is just filled with real estate agencies offering their assistance. I decided to walk around and stop by several of them. That's when my real apartment search experience started...

When I mentioned that I knew rental prices prior to coming to London I did not know that I had to take what was available online, multiply it by two and add an extra hundred pounds or so on top... As much as I hate stereotypes, when they say London is a very expensive city I have to agree with this one. When I recovered from the first shock I experienced when I learned the price of the apartments offered by that particular agency I was actually able to produce some sounds that distantly resembled English language and explain in details what I really wanted. OK, maybe not what I really wanted but what I can settle for at the beginning.

After that first interaction with the agent I became much better. At least in my own eyes :). I was actually able to answer questions like: what attracted me the most in Bloomsbury neighbourhood or what I was really looking for in Soho (like I had any ulterior motive other than finding home :)). Why does it have to be that demanding? I felt I was participating in some sort of an essay competition called what I know and like most about London. Who cares what I thought about Bloomsbury or Russel Square.?!.. Why do I have to exercise my language vocabulary just to rent an apartment? Not to mention that I knew absolutely nothing about Bloomsbury or any other neighbourhood before coming to London...:)

So you can imagine that after five days of answering questions, completing the forms and talking to endless number of people I was very much relieved and happy when I did come across that one and only home.

The most interesting part is that after all these experiences and just one week in London I was no longer a stranger and felt that I belonged here. I am instinctively keeping to the left while walking and no longer surprised why some British apartments have two water taps in a bathroom sink instead of one. But that is an entirely different story I am very anxious to tell you in my next post.

I am almost ready to hit the town and check out some local pubs around Soho. Have a fantastic Saturday night and stop by my blog-discovery of the amazing city of London and such a homely place as United Kingdom.

Look Right... Look Left

First day in London turned out to be sunny and pleasant. I woke up to a blue sky and modest November sun was cheerfully poking through my hotel window. Whatever they say about weather in London, don't believe it. It can be sunny and it does not always rain here. The only thing is the weather can change between warm and pleasant to rainy and gloomy and back in a mere hour or so, but I can live with that, can't I?

As soon as I was done with my British breakfast that consisted of scrambled eggs, refried beans and bacon I did not want to waste any minute and ran outside to experience my new hometown.

The experience started on the first street light. Huge double-decker buses zoomed by me with a threatening speed and cabs seemed like they were trying to run over every pedestrian who dared to cross the road. All that was nothing for someone experienced with a chaotic driving in Ukraine. I merely laughed to myself and looked for a pedestrian light...Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was none... I was standing on the crossing road marked for pedestrians, with lights for drivers and no lights for those walking. I am not talking about a tiny road with four stop signs somewhere in Fresno, California, I mean major intersection of central London with a non stop flow of vehicles and pedestrians...

I was lost for the first time in my life. I thought that after growing up in a big city and all the experiences in different countries, after surviving Kyiv drivers and New York cabs I was prepared for everything...Apparently I wasn't. The funniest part was that everybody else crossing that road seemed to have no problem at all. They all proceeded carelessly and I decided to do the same, as they say when in Rome... What happened after is a bit blurred for me now. As a matter of fact, my post yesterday could have been the last one if it was not for my friend who literally pulled me back to the sidewalk before another double-decker almost smashed your dedicated writer...I was standing there trying to comprehend what actually happened or almost happened to me when I realized that I looked left before crossing that road instead of looking right, like you are supposed to do in the U.K. But of course, they drive on the left side of the road! I have learned this lesson the hard way. I think I was not the only one and for many other it might not have ended the same way as almost every intersection in London tells you whether you should look left or right before crossing.

I am pretty sure I will get all these rules sooner than later and will be laughing at my current post, but so far I have not found an answer why to go through so much trouble as to write on the road where pedestrians are supposed to look and not to install a simple light... Of course not all intersections are like that, some of them are no different from what you can see anywhere, say in New York City but those that are different are still beyond my understanding, at least for now. I promise to learn and of course to report to you the outcome!

Earlier in this post I mentioned four stop intersections so common in the United States. When you arrive at such intersection you are supposed to stop, look around and whoever got there first has a priority over others to proceed. I find it truly amazing. One of those things that are possible only in America. I remember how surprised I was to find out that such intersections actually work and people do not end up in constant accidents arguing who had a right to go. Respect you show to others in a daily life is very well demonstrated by your driving habits. Similar respect but in a very different way you also have here in London. I guess it is all beyond the point of this post. The fact is we can still be surprised with such a small thing as road intersection and driving rules...

So, hurray to surprises, only pleasant, of course, and welcome to the United Kingdom!

:)

Way from Heathrow or when to sms London Underground Authority

Everyone kept telling me that Heathrow is a nightmare and everything will only get better once I am done with it. I was excited as it could certainly give me enough material to write to you, but, somehow, Heathrow experience went really smoothly and uneventful. Maybe, it was just one of those easy days or so I thought...

British Midland Airlines (BMI) took me directly to good ol' terminal one. Easy airport signage lead me to London Underground and within an hour I was riding Piccadilly line all the way to central London. According to my perfect plan I was supposed to transfer to Circle line somewhere around South Kensington. That was when real fun started. On one of the transfer stations I got off the train, as planned, and followed very clear directions to Circle line. I had to go up and down the stairs, take long passages and even took an elevator... and finally I happily dragged my overstaffed suitcase and anxious myself to the Circle line stop only to discover a tiny postage above the metro map telling me that Circle line was not running on that particular day... I could not believe my eyes. Can anyone tell me the purpose of such sings at the end and not at the beginning of the transfer point? And when I was considering smashing ironic sing with my suitcase I heard a happy voice announcing that same message about the interruption of the Circle line service and offering me to contact station manager, read more information about London metro on the Internet or send SMS if I required any assistance. Damn I did. Was I tempted to send that SMS! I am just afraid that content of that message could not be disclosed on this blog...:) So I was left with no choice but to drag moody myself and my overstaffed suitcase up and down the stairs, along the never ending corridors back to Piccadilly line for a different transfer to get to Paddington- my destination...

My next day I spent apartment hunting and trying to stay alive crossing the roads or bumping into some remarkable animal monuments, but that is an entirely different story...

With this I'd like to salute to perfect signage and invite you to stay tuned to more discoveries.

World of Masks or Walking in Zig Zags

No matter what I will not, repeat will not write about A/H1N1 influenza. Seriously, how much news of that kind can one human being take? I do not want to be a guinea pig and discover it on my own. Thank you...but no... thank you!

Schools are closed, lines in pharmacies are getting longer and everyone is waiting for some sort of apocalypses. As far as I remember it is not 2012 when Maya predicted the end of times... We still have few years, guys! So, cheer up!

I have been through that sort of total hysteria only once before. It was back in Washington in 2003 when sniper terrorized local population. If you lived in DC at that time, you would remember. We started every single day reading Washington Post with headlines like:"sniper strikes again" or "going to a gas station makes you a next target", etc. Goes well with your peanut butter and jelly toast, doesn't it? My personal favourite was when one of the articles advised you to go outside only if you absolutely had to, and, if you did, you had to walk in zig-zags from tree to another tree in order not to become a target. Fancy that?

Now imagine all 600 000 of DC residents doing that... add Washington metropolitan area and you have over five million people running up and down the streets in zig-zags...You get the picture. ;)I am afraid if we had actually done that, they would have had much more work to do at National psychiatric institutions...

I also remember how we were afraid of white vans. Because sniper allegedly drove white van when he was in search of his next victim. Oh boy... that was really fun. I bet every white vehicle in DC area was reported to police as a potential suspect. Don't get me wrong, I was one of those people pointing to a white car and yelling to my friends: "here... here it goes, is it him?" It was usually followed by a discussion of where exactly he could strike next and whether NW Washington was a safe area at all... :).

I guess no matter where we are, we all react in the same way. We try to control our emotions, but deep inside we need a bit of drama to carry us through these short and chilly November days. And that is fine with me. Otherwise, I will not have anything to write to you on this unremarkable second day of November.

Stay warm, safe and happy regardless of anything they tell you.

*photo zazzle.com