London-Chicago

Here's my long-overdue thoughts on London compared to Chicago:

i) London is unpleasantly cold compared to Chicago.
I admit this is a very biased statement because I was not warmly dressed for the cold at all and therefore hated being outdoors in London. The temperature dipped when I was there and I only had cardigans, my suit jacket and a scarf. Back in Chicago, I would be typically wearing a wool coat and probably my lighter long-johns in that weather. Oh but the walk from the tube station to mr. boyfriend's place has got to be the longest walk ever in the cold! I didn't take any pictures with the infamous red telephone booths or the underground tube station signs because it was simply too cold and all I wanted to do was to get to somewhere warm.

ii) London's transportation system is painful compared to Chicago's.
OMG so London's tube system must HATE me so MUCH because when I was there, we ran into every imaginable problem with the tube system that its mind-boggling to me as to why my friends think London's tube system is great. Yes, it's waaaay better than what we have in Chicago and it's very frequent BUT every freaking day, either some station or some line is closed down so we'll have to take an alternate route. For instance, we planned to take the Central line and change to the Victoria line to get to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guards on Saturday morning. We got to the station to find out that Victoria line was closed so we had to take a bus after getting off the Central line. The bus stop was so hard to find because there were 3-5 bus stops for different buses on the same freaking street...*sweat drop* and we definitely missed the Changing of the Guards. On Saturday night, after meeting Lynn for drinks (it was her birthday! happy birthday again!), we were going to take the Central line straight home. As we got to the station, we were informed that someone was stuck UNDER the train and they closed the line. The station master told us to take this alternate route so we went in anyways and waited for the train. After 30 minutes of waiting and no trains coming, the last train pulled into the station and it was not our train. Seriously wtf! The tube system closes by 12.45am and so we were left with no choice but to take the infamously expensive English taxis (which was not even easy to flag down). The ride home cost £45. See, in Chicago, yeah CTA is not frequent and not that great, but if the train/bus doesn't work, you hop onto a cab and it shouldn't cost more than USD25 for that same distance.

iii) London is more expensive than Chicago.
This is obviously a given. The best example would be the cab fare -- 45 pounds (=USD78) compared to 25 dollars? Dinner at Chinatown is about 30-40 pounds for 2 person compared to 30-40 dollars? Do you know it costs 15.50 pounds per person to get on the London Eye? Tube from the airport costs 4 pounds (it's USD2 for CTA!)?

iv) London is more "rowdy" compared to Chicago.
Walking in the streets of London is absolutely reminiscent of walking in the streets of New York, perhaps worse. People bump into you as they like and do not think anything about it so no apologies, no second glances. New York is similar, except that there's still some personal space before someone bumps you but in London, I'm constantly in contact with someone and I do not like that. Maybe the streets of London is smaller, maybe there's more people on the streets of London, I don't know what is it but I do not like rubbing shoulders with strangers. In Chicago, this almost never happens! There's always personal space, even during the busiest shopping times.

I've pretty much decided that I should never visit Europe even when it's remotely cold. It makes travel so miserable!