Living Local in London

Enjoying a beer and an Instagramed view from our flat

From our past experiences, Sam and I have learned the unique differences between traveling abroad and living abroad, and know the richness the latter can bring.  So part of the appeal of this whole adventure in the first place was the opportunity to stay in London for an extended period of time. We both thought 'it will be so cool to all live in London for 6 weeks!'  But as the trip approached we realized with Morgan in school and a limited budget in an expensive city, it wasn't going to be possible. Regardless, our two weeks in London were pretty amazing, and it didn't take long for us to start to feel a bit like locals.

Farringdon Road by night

We were able to get an updated flat on Farringdon Road, in the same building where Sam's students and his professor colleague were staying.  The three-bedroom apartment was modern and had a lot of nice features, including an incredible view down Farringdon Road to St. Paul's Cathedral and the modern "Shard" building.  I never got tired of that view and looking over the old rooftops across the city!  However, there were a few things that got old pretty fast.  The beds in the flat were terribly uncomfortable, many of the appliances were broken, and we had to be careful not to leave food around because there were mice (and traps set)!  And Farringdon Road is a very busy thoroughfare with cars, buses, trucks, and motorcycles roaring up loudly it day and night.  BUT... I really shouldn't complain because we were getting to live in London after all!!!  They say sleep is overrated ('they' are wrong), and we never did see any mice, so despite an achey back, life was great!

The living room of our flat

Nat and Sasha being silly on a rainy day

Sunset over the rooftops

A late night visit by the fire brigade!

But we found out that living with college students can have its drawbacks...like fire drills.  When the fire alarm went off on our second night in London we figured it was some college kid trying to cook badly, but when we smelled something burning we decided we really needed to evacuate.  This would not have been that big of a deal, except both girls had miraculously fallen asleep at 6pm that night (thanks to jet lag) and the alarm went off at 9pm!  After waking the girls up and hanging out with everyone on the sidewalk while the fire brigade came and checked out the building (it turned out to be an electrical malfunction with the alarm - grrr), we all headed back to bed.  However, Miss Sasha didn't end up falling asleep until 4AM that night!!!  All part of the "adventure," right?

Fun times on the tube!

Walking back from the tube

We were staying in The City, the oldest part of London which first came about when the Romans established it a couple thousand years ago.  Clearly it's seen a LOT of history. Today, The City is the main financial and legal district and is full of busy people bustling to work each morning, popping out for a quick bite of lunch from a nearby take away place (Pret a Manger was one of our favorites), and then stopping by the corner pub at 5:00 sharp for a pint on the way home.  We didn't see may kids living in this part of town so we felt like oddballs at times with ours in tow as we joined the masses streaming to and from the tube station.  There really were no tourists in this part of town, which we liked and made us feel even more like temporary locals.  Yet for being the financial center of town, it wasn't as intense as you might think.  The uniform of most people seemed to be black, and more black.  Not only were people not too fancy and formal, but we found nearly everyone we interacted with to be so friendly and nice.  I wasn't expecting people in a huge city like London to be so friendly and laid back, so it was a nice surprise.  Strangers would come up and ask us if we needed directions, and everyone in general seemed pretty easy going - not all that different than Portland.

A park is full on a sunny lunch hour

The corner pub overflows with young Londoners after work

Another advantage of Sam being in London before us was that he discovered cheap places to eat, cool old pubs, and parks!  There was a sweet little park a five-minute walk from our flat, which made our stay in London so much nicer with the kids.  Spa Fields Park had a fun playground as well as a nice grassy park with paths and a rose garden.  We went there many times and always encountered friendly parents with their kids.  Plus the playground had climbing structures and a funky teeter-totter that were quite different than the kinds we see here in the States.

Super climber!

Morgan and another girl on the bouncy teeter-totter

My pigeon chaser!

Part of the fun of living somewhere new for a while is discovering all the little details of day to day life. The girls loved watching cartoons on the BBC kids channel - some of which were the same shows that we have here but with English accents!  They picked up new words from TV and hearing people around them, and started using them.  Some of their favorite words were: lift, tube, biscuits, ice lolly, and loo.  Morgan would practice her English accent and got pretty good at it, and I was pretty sure by the end of our time in London Sasha was calling me "Mummy" instead of her usual "Mommy."  Riding the tube, we encountered lots of fun names of places that we would say in our silly accents.  Cockfoster was one of my favorites, and it could even be used as a swear word on occasion!

Traditional cask beers in a modern pub

A summer night at our local pub: The Crown Tavern

Black Friar Pub stained glass

My refection with St. Paul's on a rainy orb 

I was even able to fit in a run during morning rush hour one morning.  I can't say it made me feel like a local, but it certainly gave me a feel of the number of people commuting to work in The City everyday. It felt as though I was in a race, but everyone was going a different direction and with a different finish line.  Running against the stream of walkers was intense, but getting to run along the Thames River past the London Eye and Big Ben on a beautiful morning was something I will never forget.  

Hello Big Ben!  Running in London is intense! 

And we were so lucky that Sam's awesome students practically begged us to let them babysit the girls a couple nights.  Well, sure!  One night the three of us grown-ups got to visit one very old pub and one new craft beer pub, as well as have an amazing dinner out.  On another night, Sam and I had a lovely date night (the first in many months!) at a little wine bar we discovered on Cowcross Road.  I guess it did start to feel like we were locals after all. 

Date night in The City!