London bound.
I really enjoy going to London. The city center is beautiful, cozy, and comfortable. It’s big, but feels small — the opposite of what you feel in most of Paris (except Montmartre). I used to play with a journalist friend every time we both went to the city, going there to interview movie stars (press junkets), but we just arrived home. This, of course, was related to the best parts of London, including the Hyde Park area, Mayfair, Soho, and Chelsea.
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home where my thought’s escapin’
Home where my music’s playin’
Home where my love lies waitin’
Silently for me
There’s something special about the city. I enjoy rainy London, when the streets are wet and fresh (if not too busy), it’s dark and night at 3 pm, and you can feel that people have been up since 6 am. I remember being in a Hyde Park hotel, getting to the breakfast area, seeing pouring rain outside over the window, and thinking the morning was ruined (I was aiming to go to Notting Hill), when I noticed people jogging outside through the rain, as if nothing was wrong with that rainy day. A great lesson right there and then, the impact the weather has on you is also a cultural and mental thing.
Continuing: I also enjoy sunny London, when the streets are joyful and seem to gain new life and vibration, and people fill the gardens and lose the extra clothes, even if it’s cold.
There’s no other city where I enjoy being outside so much on a rainy day (hopefully it’s what we call in Portugal “chuva miudinha” or little rain), only with a good overcoat, wandering around. That said, maybe New York is the only other one that comes close to that rainy experience. The Berlin experience, I prefer with snow.
Next, I want to talk about the experience of going to the amazing London museums. Also, a recent Van Gogh immersive experience I had (in London), and how Van Gogh became this wonderful art icon but was, in fact, a very troubled and not-easy-to-hang-around type of Dutch guy.
And more about wandering around London in the rain. Stay tuned.
