Back from London. These weekend trips have become a way of life for us, but in our former lives, it would have been unheard of to set (and attain) a goal of “leaving the country once a month,” which is what I try to do here. The shorter distances and travel times are key, as are the predictable Swiss working hours.
A trip to London is an opportunity to speak English without a sense of expat guilt, and we read signs, billboards, posters, and ads greedily, hoping for reminders of home, before remembering that the English spoken in England is distinctly British, rather than American. We “mind the gap” when taking the “Tube,” and take the “lift” up to our friends’ “flats.” Not as foreign as Swiss German, but not as familiar as American English. If we feel like aliens living in Swiss German country, then American expats in London must feel like undercover aliens in British English territory.
Speaking of flats, I visited a friend who now lives in London, and found out that the rent for his gorgeous, huge apartment in central London is about $2,000, a bit less than my rent in New York or Zurich. Then I found out that the housing market in London has one important peculiarity. They quote rent by the week, and not by the month. My friend’s place is admittedly amazing, but his rent is four times what I paid in Manhattan for a one-bedroom in a doorman building near Central Park, or what I pay now for the top two floors (with roof terrace) of a building in the center of the old town! He then said something about buying real estate in England, and how very few properties can be bought outright, but can only be bought for 60 or 80 years. I'm puzzled as to how you can buy something for 60 years. Sounds like a long-term rental.
Speaking of ways to spend money, we went out for Lebanese food, and while we were eating, a few belly dancers wriggled their way from table to table. One particularly skilled dancer had £20 notes (each one worth about $40) tucked between her breasts by some apparently very appreciative diners. In the US, observers have the option to tip dancers as little as $1, assuming that they stick with bills, since shoving a handful of change down someone’s underwear is probably a faux pas. In England, the smallest bill is a £5 note, or about $10. While it means that whatever tips the dancers get will be pretty generous, I would think that their overall haul would be lower, since all of the “novelty tippers” who just want the fun of shoving a bill in someone else’s underwear would not leave a tip, since they can't shell out less than $10 at a time.
They say that time is money, and if that’s the case, then London is expensive in every way. Getting around the city requires advance planning. In Zurich, the city is small enough and the public transport is efficient enough that you can get anywhere in the main part of the city, door-to-door, in 30 minutes or less. Getting from A to B in central London can take over 45 minutes (and is sometimes faster on foot). Getting to the airport is also an uncertain venture. With four people, we opted for a cab, since it would be cheaper and easier (we thought) than taking the Tube and then the Heathrow Express. It took an hour and fifteen minutes of stop-and-go traffic to get to the airport, which felt like an eternity when we compared it to our five-minute tram and ten-minute train to the Zurich airport.
Zurich can be under-exciting and over-expensive, but it was good to leave the even more outrageous prices of London and take a quick train back into town. I envy the quantity and quality of the food and shopping there, but it's only a quick train and plane ride away.
A trip to London is an opportunity to speak English without a sense of expat guilt, and we read signs, billboards, posters, and ads greedily, hoping for reminders of home, before remembering that the English spoken in England is distinctly British, rather than American. We “mind the gap” when taking the “Tube,” and take the “lift” up to our friends’ “flats.” Not as foreign as Swiss German, but not as familiar as American English. If we feel like aliens living in Swiss German country, then American expats in London must feel like undercover aliens in British English territory.
Speaking of flats, I visited a friend who now lives in London, and found out that the rent for his gorgeous, huge apartment in central London is about $2,000, a bit less than my rent in New York or Zurich. Then I found out that the housing market in London has one important peculiarity. They quote rent by the week, and not by the month. My friend’s place is admittedly amazing, but his rent is four times what I paid in Manhattan for a one-bedroom in a doorman building near Central Park, or what I pay now for the top two floors (with roof terrace) of a building in the center of the old town! He then said something about buying real estate in England, and how very few properties can be bought outright, but can only be bought for 60 or 80 years. I'm puzzled as to how you can buy something for 60 years. Sounds like a long-term rental.
Speaking of ways to spend money, we went out for Lebanese food, and while we were eating, a few belly dancers wriggled their way from table to table. One particularly skilled dancer had £20 notes (each one worth about $40) tucked between her breasts by some apparently very appreciative diners. In the US, observers have the option to tip dancers as little as $1, assuming that they stick with bills, since shoving a handful of change down someone’s underwear is probably a faux pas. In England, the smallest bill is a £5 note, or about $10. While it means that whatever tips the dancers get will be pretty generous, I would think that their overall haul would be lower, since all of the “novelty tippers” who just want the fun of shoving a bill in someone else’s underwear would not leave a tip, since they can't shell out less than $10 at a time.
They say that time is money, and if that’s the case, then London is expensive in every way. Getting around the city requires advance planning. In Zurich, the city is small enough and the public transport is efficient enough that you can get anywhere in the main part of the city, door-to-door, in 30 minutes or less. Getting from A to B in central London can take over 45 minutes (and is sometimes faster on foot). Getting to the airport is also an uncertain venture. With four people, we opted for a cab, since it would be cheaper and easier (we thought) than taking the Tube and then the Heathrow Express. It took an hour and fifteen minutes of stop-and-go traffic to get to the airport, which felt like an eternity when we compared it to our five-minute tram and ten-minute train to the Zurich airport.
Zurich can be under-exciting and over-expensive, but it was good to leave the even more outrageous prices of London and take a quick train back into town. I envy the quantity and quality of the food and shopping there, but it's only a quick train and plane ride away.
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