I just got back from London a few days ago.  While a lot of the following is going to sound overly negative/critical, my time there was very enjoyable.

Attitudes towards Americans

It seems like they hate Americans in London.  We were taking a train to the outskirts of London to see Hampton Court and my friend had his feet propped up on the chair across from him.  The train had maybe 8 people on it.  One young Brit struck up a conversation with my friend asking him about his Kindle and where he got it and what he thought of it.  Almost instantly after the conversation ended, and it was apparent we were Americans, a 50+ yr old lady sitting close to us told my friend he wasn’t allowed to put his feet on the chair.  Now, despite the fact that my friend was in the wrong here, this is just something no one would ever say.  The only reason she told him that was because he was an American.

Another time we were taking a cab somewhere and from our conversation and accents it was obvious to the cab driver that we were American.  As we exited the cab and made our way to the sidewalk, the cab driver motioned for my friend to come up to him.  “When you’re in London mate, you don’t slam the door to a taxicab.”  Again, not a big deal but it’s just obvious that every American is perceived as an arrogant asshole.

While we’re on the topic of taxicabs, there is this bizarre phenomenon in London whereby < 50% of cabs with their unoccupied light on actually stop for you if you try to hail them!  This was just baffling.  We thought for a while that it might be the particular spot we were trying to hail them but a cab driver we talked to dispelled that notion.  I’m not sure if they don’t keep their fares but that’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense.  Conversely, in NYC, cabs fight each other for fares.

Exercising/Fitness

Exercising and fitness seem to be nonexistent in London.  In all of our time walking around London, and we probably walked on average 10 to 12 miles a day, we were only able to find one gym!  This is evidenced in the physical appearance of Londoners.  While statistically Americans are more likely to be obese, if you factor out african americans and hispanics, they are actually slightly less obese than Brits.

At almost every tube (subway) stop, there was no option to take stairs.  You were pretty much stuck taking the escalator up.  The one subway stop we did find stairs at actually had a sign that said “for your safety, we request that you only use the stairs in an emergency”.  One silver lining is that they have this cool stand to the right policy whereby on any escalator, if you are merely going to stand, you are requested to stand to the right side so anyone who wants to walk up can pass you on the left.  This needs to be adopted in America.

Chelsea/Liverpool

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a Chelsea/Liverpool match.  I don’t really want to get into a debate of soccer vs. american football vs. baseball vs. basketball, etc.  I pretty much find most sports enjoyable to play and watch.  Soccer is no exception.  We hung out at a pub close to the stadium for a while and the atmosphere was insane.  There was heavy drinking, broken glasses all over the floor (they only served you in plastic ones), celery being thrown, crazy chanting, etc.  They would only let you in if you were a Chelsea supporter.  This seemed kind of silly but after going inside, it was pretty apparent that this rule was in place for your safety.  If you were a Liverpool fan, you were not making it out alive.  At the door, if you were wearing a jacket, they made you take it off to make sure you weren’t wearing red (Liverpool color).

Overall, I found the trip to be a lot of fun.  It turned into a vacation as we ended up skipping the EPT.  I just thought that London had very little to offer that you can’t find in any other big city.