London Calling…A Love Affair
Depending on your interests, London Calling can either reference the BBC identification during World War 2, or the song by the Clash, released in 1979. I like to think of it as the anticipatory buzz that I feel when I know I’ll be visiting this great city.
As boring old Gen Xers, we learned the term “Vibe” from our decidedly Gen Z children. As full time travellers, it has become part of our daily language, most often used to describe how we feel about the city we’re in. We had distinct vibes in Mexico, Porto, Ohlao, Hebden Bridge, and Falkirk. And boy do we love the London vibe.
I’ve loved it since my first trip here back in 2010. My first trip across the Atlantic was for work. I was by myself, meeting a group here in London. I was armed with a Blackberry and a digital camera. Can you imagine? No google maps? No Instagram? I was scared to death and couldn’t understand anyone. My first night I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights in my hotel room (hello hotel key in the slot by the door). Everything was new: a tea service in my hotel, a trouser press, different style bathrooms (why is the tub so high?).
My first day off work when I was able to go sightseeing, I was nearly in tears trying to figure out where to find a bathroom. (Pro tip: museums!). But, as scared as I was to get on that Hop On Hop Off Bus, I instantly fell in love with this city. It is ancient and it is modern. It is the most diverse city I’ve ever been in. It is posh and it is shabby. The food is incredible and it is terrible.
I knew I wanted to come back and show it to Eric.
I was back a few times for work, and in 2012 Eric was able to come along. We walked through the city with grins on our faces the entire time, enjoying all the Greatest Hits that London has to offer: The Eye, Buckingham Palace, The British Museum, Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, and of course the pubs.
In 2014 we were able to share our love of this city with the boys. Again, we visited all the Greatest Hits, but also found some new corners and sites that were fun to explore.
Fast forward to a new job, and new reasons to travel here for work. We managed to fit in a few more trips, including one with Amy and Chad right before Covid changed the world. And then the spring of 2022 rolled around when I was presented with an opportunity to move to London for work. The city of our dreams, and a chance to live here? It meant some hard decisions, saying goodbye to family, and being brave, but we knew we’d never get another opportunity like this.
Of course we had an incredible year. We took full advantage of everything this city has to offer. Every Monday I’d go into the office and my colleagues would ask what we did over the weekend. As I rattled off various palaces, museums, and neighborhoods, they’d often say that we had seen more of London than they had…and they’d lived here their whole lives. Perhaps the best part of the year was that we could share it with those we loved most. And that made us feel a little less far away.
But it was time to move on from my job and back to the US. When we said goodbye on that August day, we thought we’d never be back.
Fast forward two years, and life looks very different! As we planned our first year of full time travel, we knew London was a spot we wanted to spend time in. It is a budget stretcher for sure, but as we balance out lower cost stays like Portugal with higher cost stays like London, it all works out.
So how does it feel to be back in our “happy place”? It feels like we never left. We’ve walked past all the Greatest Hits and smiled as we remember our first experiences there. We’ve explored new neighborhoods, been to random off the beaten path museums, eaten at our very favorite Indian restaurant, and soaked in the vibe.
I’m a little older, a little greyer, and a lot wiser than I was 15 years ago. But I still get that same flutter in my chest when I think about this city.
London Calling? Absolutely.