brief interlude in London

Unfortunately, China are not that keen on the UK currently, so unlike those from mainland Europe, Brits need a visa to visit China – and it’s not a visa that can be obtained online, but requires a visit to a China Visa Application Centre in one’s home country.  I have a China tour coming up in October and so this first week of September was my opportunity to pass through London and get this done.  It required two visits to the Visa Centre, and I’d also got myself a ticket to see Samba Toure perform at the Jazz Café in Camden, so I needed to be based in London rather than with friends in Kent or on the Isle of Wight, and so I booked myself into a hostel near King’s Cross.  Not the best hostel in that it didn’t have a kitchen (they prefer that you spend money in their bar and restaurant), but the location was superb, enabling me to walk everywhere I wanted to go, and it was a pretty successful visit.  Enough time to add in visits to the British Museum and to the V&A East Storehouse (walking all the way back alongside the Regent’s Canal), as well as meeting a friend for a quick drink, and I also then spent a few days staying with some new friends (met on my Kashmir tour) up in north London, where we spent lots of time on long walks around the local parks.

As with every visit back to the UK, especially those involving time in London, I cannot stop myself from pondering what life would be like here if/when I move back ‘home’.  Well, it rained nearly every day, and all of those enticing little cafes and restaurants are ridiculously expensive, but my goodness, London is such a beautiful place.  Yes, I could live here again.


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