My first official day in London saw me awake at 4am, yes, I was jetlagged. In fact, I had probably slept around 9 hours in 3 days up until this point. The sun was up, which is quite annoying sometimes, especially if you are from Australia. There is about a 6 hour period of darkness between sunset and sunrise here in London, not ideal if you like your sleep.
I got up, had my first shower in a few days under a freezing water temperature, simply because I did not know how to work the hot water. Elena and I got ourselves ready and we ventured down to Oxford St, Soho (60m walk) to eat some breakfast. My first meal in London would be McDonalds breakfast. I had a sausage and egg bagel and it was mouthwatering. The McDonalds menu has a greater variety here in London.
After breakfast we ventured off to the 'burbs to get a feel for locations which we thought would be ideal to live in. First stop, Clapham Common. By the way, the London Underground rail system is just brilliant. Clapham offered parklands, Old English architecture, and a main strip with all the necessities, including some funky bars and pubs.
We moved on to Balham, which is not much further out of London than Clapham. Balham seemed like a cheap version of Clapham. It was much flatter in design and probably had half the amneties of Clapham. It still had McDonalds though.
Kensington was our next stop. We found ourselves in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which meant strips of cafe's and restaurants, and an ultra-large Harrod's store just up the road. Property in Kensington is expensive. A good comparison would be Toorak in Melbourne. However, it is a wonderful suburb with plenty to do.
Our last stop before I had to play cricket was Fulham Broadway. Fulham presented a vibrant feel and a more attractive population. The properties are a bit more affordable than Kensington but still expensive. We had lunch at a nice little Burger place, I had a chicken satay burger.
That rounded up our first expedition of London. Now it was time to venture out to Richmond for my first game of cricket.
