Travel Tip: Southend Airport while technically in London, is actually really far away

The Blue Dot says it all.  Getting to the airport was longer than the flight to Italy!

London Highlights from our first week

Before school started we had a bit of time to explore London.  These are some of our initial observations.

The London Eye is in the background.  Note the nice blue sky.

The People

We have found Londoners to be generally friendly.  This friendliness is a bit surprising, as we assumed the British temperament was more pessimistic and closed.  Instead we’ve experienced countless examples of random kindness and warmness.  A few examples: the busy immigration agent who took time to ask us about our trip and education plans, the National Express bus driver who helped us with our luggage on the bus, the random shopkeeper who cracks jokes with us as we checkout, the helpful lady at the Dr's office with a nice sense of humor.  Maybe some of it is the abnormally nice weather or maybe they enjoy our accents or maybe they are just very nice.  We’ll keep our eye on this trend.

We’ve also noticed that everyone has an accent and most of the times it is not British.  The city is incredibly diverse.  Our real estate agent was a mid-twenties woman who came from Poland with her brother with less than $400 and no place to stay.  The local barber is from Algeria.  The landlord is from the Middle East.  London is extremely diverse which makes it a great place to explore new ideas, meet new people and try new customs. 

Carphone Warehouse: Antiquated Name – Great Service

One of our secondary goals for our first week was getting cell phone service.  There are a myriad of companies offering plans of all types (pre-paid, pay-as-you-go, bundled, etc.) from different carriers.  The most helpful vendor ended up being a store called Carphone Warehouse.  These stores are similar to a Radioshack in the US: founded decades ago, carrying all sorts of electronics, and trying to adapt to new technologies.  Fortunately the Carphone Warehouse also serviced mobile phones.  We were able to get a good deal on a SIM card along with helpful service. 

THE Cutting edge in UK shop names.

Sky is the Limit

In the US is it common to groan and complain about cable companies.  Comcast is notorious for horrendous customer service.  Well the British telecom companies don’t appear to be much better.  Since we’ve moved in, we’ve tried to setup internet access.  The plans are opaque, confusing, and structured against a customer’s best interests.  Worst of all installation takes 3-5 weeks.  So for the next couple weeks until Sky installs our internet, we will be getting our connectivity via phone or Wifi from school and coffee shops.  Thanks Sky!  We are also super pumped for that landline we will never use!

Plenty to do

There is a quote “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life.”  This seems to be spot on.  We’ve found there is plenty to explore.  On our To-Do lists are the plethora of free museums.  We already visited the Museum of London to learn about the history of our new home.  We also explored some of the weekend markets.  The Portobello Road markets were a mad house of locals and tourists searching for the perfect antique, outfit or tasty treat.  The Camden markets were a mixed bag of overpriced junk and exceptional international food.   Megan got Peruvian ceviche and Jeff got a combo of Jamaican food.  Both were excellent.  We took our food to go and enjoyed it at Primrose Hill with a great view of the London skyline.  

The view from our picnic at Primose Hill.

With so much to do I’ll finish and bid you adieu.

Moving to London

This summer has been busy for us with many new and novel experiences.  Quick recap:

• Mid June - we both quit work

• June 14th - we get married

Our wedding at St. Clement's Church in downtown Chicago.

• Late June – we had our honeymoon in Puerto Rico

We surfed, ziplined, kayaked, snorkled and ate our way across Puerto Rico

• End of June – we began nomadic life with a temporary move to the Osowski lakehouse

Enjoying a bonfire on our last night in the US

• July 4th – we celebrated the wedding of our friends Dave and Kristin in Green Bay Wisconsin (Lambeau field!)

• Early July – we relaxed at the lake cottage while sorting and packing

• Mid July – we vacationed at Cape May for the weeklong Franke family tradition

Hanging with Cece!  One of Megan's amazing nieces.

• July 19th – we celebrated the wedding of Megan's cousin Laura to Eric

At Laura and Eric's wedding with Lucy (the other amazing niece).

• Late July – we finished packing and boarded our flight to London

So that's where we were.  We had a bit of relaxing but also quite a bit of being on the move and off-schedule.  Paradoxically that lack of structure can be exhausting.  We'll look back on it as a special time when we could bond together and spend much of it with family and friends.

London Move Plan

We moved to London during the last week of July.  Our primary goal was to find a flat once we arrived in London.  Afterwards we would utilize the time before school starts to explore London, prepare for school, and travel Europe if time allowed. 

Flat Search

London flat searching is a consuming process that is quite different from US apartment hunting.  The property market in London moves very quickly; for example, flats are listed and rented in the span of days not weeks/months.  This makes online search tools useless as their information is quickly out of date and not representative of the market.  Many folks asked why we didn’t have our housing situation settled before we left, that is why.  There are some of our classmates who rented out places without every stepping foot in them; however, we were not willing to take that risk. 

Thus to avoid being homeless, we rented a temporary private room through Air BnB for eight nights.  The private room rental was underwhelming.  Firstly, we found that this wasn’t a normal apartment but rather an old unit chopped into 5-6 guestrooms that were rented.  So throughout our weekly stay, many other people would come-and-go and also utilize the common space.  Secondly, the common space was tiny.  There was a kitchen with seating for four, and there was a bathroom and a separate shower room.  That was all.  Thirdly, the temperature control was broken.  Our week stay happened to be abnormally hot for that time of year.   Outside it felt like 80 degrees Farenheit, but inside our rental it felt like 95.  Lastly, many of the appliances and household fixtures did not work.  For example, the toilet would break regularly.  The rental’s rough conditions encouraged us to deeply explore the neighborhood and quickly find a flat.  The temporary rental was useful as it was near LBS and our target area. 

Flat Search Process

We found the most effective way to search for flats, was to window shop the rental agencies.  In their windows they would show the units they had for rent with size, location, price and images.  If we liked what we saw, we would enter the agency and begin discussions on what properties they had.  Typically they would then take us on tours of the flats.

Our first day we decided to drop by the rental agency closest to LBS to learn how things worked.  Little did we know that this would end up being the primary agency we would use and the agency that would find us our eventual property.  That first day we saw four units.  Not bad for having landed from our red eye at 7am.  After each flat tour the realtors give you a hard sell by saying “Wow this is such a great deal.  You should make an offer today otherwise you might lose it.”  While this sounds like total salesmen bullshit, it is actually rooted in some fact.  We loved the second place we saw which made us both apprehensive of making an offer without seeing other properties yet nervous about waiting too long.

Eventually we saw eleven properties through four different agencies.  The thoroughness of our search helped us adjust our expectations to the reality of renting in London (small space for really expensive rates).  We ended up still really liking the second place we saw, so we decided to make an offer a few days later.

Making an offer on a flat in London is complicated.  Almost any aspect is negotiable such as: payment amount, deposit amount, payment frequency, furnishings, and utilities.  And once an offer is accepted, there is a period where both the landlord and potential tenants negotiate over a contract through the rental agency.  It took two to three days of waiting with interspersed negotiation.  Just as we were nearing the end of our planned time in London our offer was accepted.

We finally had our London home situation sorted. It took a little over a week with some highs and lows.  Next we were off to explore Europe before school commenced.

Proof we made it to London.