Life in London - Recommendations

Places

There are so many historical and fun places to visit here in London, especially in central London! For one day, you can go and see the London Bridge Tower and get off and walk to see the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare performed his plays, along with St. Paul’s Cathedral to hear the choir sing. If you’re feeling hungry go to Borough Market! While the chocolate strawberries are popular, the Ginger Pig’s sausage pastry and Black Pig’s parm sandwich are also incredible. If you’re around Hyde Park, go to Buckingham Palace and you might catch the changing of the guards, and you can walk from there for about 15-20 minutes to get to Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Cathedral. I recommend going after dinner since the sun doesn’t set till about 9:30pm in the summers and there’s less people! Hyde Park will even have concerts where you can go sit outside of the rails and hear and see everything on the screen while having a picnic with friends (that’s how I saw Olivia Rodgrio play)!

If you’re around the SoHo area, go shop on Oxford street for clothes and food, stop by the National Art Gallery to see some Monet or Van Gogh - they have cute postcards of famous paintings in the gift shop that make for a great souvenir! Notting Hill is a classic with the fun painted homes and Portabello Rd. Market to shop and walk down around. Bonus if you have seen the movie - the blue door is right on the street! Kensington is also a nice area where you can walk around the free admission museums like the Natural Science Museum or the Victoria and Albert - there are so many statues and cool artifacts in both. West End is a must of course, with some shows being priced as low as £30! If you’re a musical fan or wanting to see one I highly recommend this; the theatres and actors are magical. I went and saw Phantom of the Opera and it was amazing.

And if you’re wanting to look for a place to go out with your friends, I recommend a pub with live music any day over a club. Maybe it’s just me, but the cover for clubs can be expensive on top of drinks if you’re buying some while the pubs often don’t have one (and if they do, it’s cheap). My friends and I will usually frequent O’Neils for an easy night out and everyone always has fun. There are lots of great options in SoHo that aren’t that far of a tube ride away!

Food

There are so many dishes here to try in London that you have to eat. Indian dishes are popular in London, with a favorite being Dishoom (multiple locations across London). China Town also has great options as well as any place around SoHo, though they are often tourist-y. If anything, I would recommend eating out at a market where there is street food. The food is always great and they’re often priced pretty cheap and are filling. There is a market right by my internship and my coworkers and I are always eating out there - shout out Yum Bowl. And of course,  you just have to try fish and chips. Any good pub should have them!

Travel

Try and make sure that you don’t stick to just central London; there are plenty of cool places to check out outside of the city. Oxford and Cambridge are just a 1-2 hour train ride away for pretty cheap that makes for an easy day trip. Seven Sisters cliffs and Brighton are also possible field trip options offered by IES, but you can go see those on your own time as well. England also isn’t the only country on the island - there’s Scotland! You can take a quick weekend trip and travel by train to see Glasgow and Edinburgh with their Gothic cathedrals and buildings and nature. Seeing the Highland cows is an absolute priority. Just make sure you book those train tickets ahead of time before prices jack up too much, but it is definitely affordable and worth it. There is so much to do in the UK, don’t forget to explore while you’re in London!