While in London, I noticed some things that were interesting. Each one of these interesting things is a real conversation starter/topic and a sure-fire way for you to liven up any party or social gathering if you randomly bring them up, so feel free to memorize this list for your future benefit! Here they are in no particular order...
foxes - The city of London has stray foxes roaming the streets. No lie, we saw about 4 of them in total, one from just across the street that even stared us down for a bit! Mica said that one time she came home and there was a fox just lazing on her front stoop! Being somewhat afraid of them, she had to wait for it to leave before she would go in. Some Londoners actually feed them! Like we might feed squirrels here. We found them to sorta smell skunky.
no screens on windows - Pretty self-explanatory. None of the windows in the houses we stayed at had screens on the windows. Not gonna lie, it was a little odd for us, as we're thinking what every logical Canadian travelling abroad would be thinking: "No screens! What about the bugs?!" ...But as it turned out, in London there weren't many flying bugs to worry about, thankfully. (I think we saw about 3 mosquitoes on the whole trip.)
accents - of course, the accents... At first we thought, "this ain't so bad, eh? These Londoners ain't so hard to understand eh?" You see, we started out in Bromley, a southern borough of London where they pronounce their words very proper. It really wasn't that bad... then we went north - not even that far north, in fact we were still south of downtown London - and the accent changed altogether! I used to think there was one definitive British accent but now I know that there are many. And try to understand the locals when they get going - it's darn near impossible! Like they're speaking a whole different language! ("Slow down! Can you repeat that? ...Slower?") But when you think of it, we too have many accents in Canada: from the Westerners to the farmers to the Ontarioians (?) to the Quebecois to the maritimers to, of course, the newfies. I can even personally attest that there are many different accents solely on PEI, the smallest province in Canada!
bulldogs - most of the dogs we saw walking with they're owners were bulldogs. Don't see too many bulldogs struttin' their stuff in Canada but Londoners need fierce fighting dogs to use for protection in the case of a mugging etc. So, it's British bulldogs!
*Just got informed by my British correspondent (thanks Mica!) that the dogs we saw were most likely Staffordshire Bull Terriors or "staffs" as they are commonly known as in London. (To me they look a lot like bulldogs.)
cheese - The cheese in GB was so good! first off, they have more types of cheeses readily available at every grocery store, and second, just their regular cheese (cheddar, etc) were so much better than ours! Not sure why, but English cheese is superior.
everybody's shoes are so clean - Londoners are generally more stylish than Canadians, at least prairie Canadians that is, (I'm referring primarily to the men) and they're shoes are so clean! After thinking about why this must be, I came to this conclusion: they're shoes are so clean because they can be. Here in Regina, shoes get dirty. There's a far greater chance of stepping in mud, it's windy and dusty, our vehicles are older, we have gravel roads, and you just never know when you're going to end up hanging out on a farm - whether it's your family's farm or a friend's acreage, or some place in the middle of nowhere (did someone say bush party?)... The point is, here in Regina your shoes will get dirty. It's inevitable. We laugh at people who try to keep them clean because we know it's only a matter of time before our white shoes turn brown. In London on the other hand, it's easy to keep your shoes clean. It's a concrete jungle. Most people you see on the trains are commuting from their home to work to a pub and then back home again. No chance for shoes to get dirty. They don't even have to try to keep 'em clean. Yup, a whole nother way of life...
fences are very private - Also, "fences" are brick walls in a lot of cases. But in any case, they are too high to see over. And if they are wood, they are constructed by overlapping boards (always) so there are no sight lines or holes to peek through into anyone's backyard. The Brits like their privacy!
no fender benders - We were in London for two whole weeks and witnessed not one automobile accident. Go for a 5km walk in any given prairie city on any given day and you're bound to see at least one fender bender. With London's traffic as crazy as it is, why no fender- benders? Are they that much better drivers than us?
nice vehicles in all areas - No matter the area in London, all the vehicles are nice and new. Houses that don't look like they should have Audi's or Mercedes parked out front... do! Seems Londoners put a lot more weight on the vehicles they drive than on the houses they live in. At least more than we do. At least more than I do...
And there you have it. I know it was supposed to be all fun and games at the Olympics (and believe you me, it was), but being in a foreign place, I couldn't help noticing these random interesting things about London. I hope you found them at least kinda interesting and feel free to add anything else in the comments! (I think there's room for comments...)
Danny
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