The cheap and not so cheap in London

As you guys may know, London is a VERY expensive city to live in. And given I am on an intern’s salary, I find myself pretty much constantly evaluating the prices of things here vs. what they would be in Canada to ensure I am not overspending. Here are some observations:

Grocery stores

·         Buying non-junk food (i.e. tomato sauce, pasta, veggies, etc) costs about the same as it does in Canada after factoring in the exchange rate. i.e. 10GBP worth of groceries at a grocery store here works out to be about the same $16.40 worth of groceries at Loblaws

·         Produce (chicken, beef, eggs) is oddly way cheaper here. i.e. 500g of chicken costs like $10 in Canada and would be like $7.50 here.

·         Given the demographics here, obviously there is A TON more Indian food than Chinese, or tex-mex. But it’s cool; I’ve had the opportunity to make some awesome (and fast) dishes I never would have been able to make in Canada!

·         There are so many candy bars here that don’t exist in North America and look sooooooooo gooooooood and cost about the same as in Canada. I wish I could eat them all.

·         Given the size of the UK’s population, there are several main grocery store chains. But I live closest to 2 of them- Tesco and Sainsbury. The prices at both seem to be about the same. (although apparently Tesco is supposed to be cheaper)

Eating out

·         I checked out the Lonely Planet’s guide for food and what restaurants they recommended at the lowest price range possible. One of such restaurants was this Mexican place called Taqueria.  The dish I ordered (which was average priced on the menu) was 6.50GBP or about $10.50!! I don’t know about you guys but to me, a cheap meal is <=$5, not <=$10! These London pricing standards…

·         So restaurants are by definition then, really expensive. Having explored lots of London (the reasonably safe areas of London, anyways!) it seems the best option for really cheap eating out is random hole-in-the-wall restaurants serving Lebanese, thai, etc. You can get a good amount of food for about 3.50-4GBP (which is about $5.50 tops). That is about as cheap as it is going to get for eating out.

Beer

·         Prices for beer in the grocery store are what you’d expect by deregulated liquor standards. You can get 4 bottles of anything for like $5 tops.

·         In pubs, I’ve found beer actually is not that cheap. A pint in an average pub for an average beer comes to about $5.50 which is maybe only $0.50 cheaper than what it would be in Canada. The cost savings come into play in the fact that you don’t need to tip. So when you pay $5.50, it actually is $5.50 and not $6.50 after tipping ;-)

·         In night clubs, the price of alcohol is the exact same as what it is in Canada. You are getting ripped off per bottle to the max and end up paying about $7-8 per bottle. But again, no tips here, so that helps soften the blow, at least a little.

So yeah, when you are living in London, when someone says something is “cheap” be aware that the standard for cheapness is much different here than in North America or even mainland Europe!  

Cool things in London as of late

Last weekend I got a chance to do some more exploring. The sun finally decided to come out so I checked out some of the parks in town. I visited Regents Park and Hyde Park. I’d say Regents Park reminds me of Retiro in Madrid and Hyde, of Central Park in NYC.

I say this because in Regent’s Park, it really feels like an escape into a chilled out park with cool gardens, fountains, etc. to relax and get away. Whenever it gets warmer here (the thermometer has yet to rise above 17 degrees) I will definitely be reading and taking naps under the sun there!

Hyde Park is a ginormous park with ponds, soccer fields, gardens, etc however despite being in a park, I was very much aware I was still in the middle of the city. Not a bad place but different- and not as close to my flat- so I’ll be sticking to Regent’s Park most likely.

One of my friends is staying in this neighbourhood called Shoreditch. It used to be housing projects but it has gentrified and now it’s basically where the creative community is. As such, the neighbourhood is really funky and relaxed. My kind of scene!

In an effort to minimize expenditures, I’ve been eating at home as much as possible. However, I have found some pretty cheap and good eats around. One thing that really surprised me is English chain cafes, i.e. this chain called “Pret a Manger”. They have ready-made sandwiches and wraps that you can buy (much like what you see at convenience stores and such in North America) for about $5 CAD (cheap by London standards). Given the sandwiches were ready-made I was reluctant to buy one, thinking they had been on the shelf for 8 years or whatever, prior to me purchasing. Turns out, the sandwiches and wraps that are ready-made, were only made a few minutes prior…and are very good!! So don’t let the disgustingness of such sandwiches in North America skew your judgement. The stuff here is great.

I was also introduced to this bagel place called “Beigel Bake” in shoreditch (not sure why they spell “bagel” differently on this side of the Atlantic). There is a pretty big Jewish community here in London and a family opened up this bagel store using the same recipe for bagels you’d see in Montreal or NYC!! The bagels are AMAZING!! And CHEAP!! 50 cents CAD for a bagel…YES! And there is a person carving smoked meat in a window next to the front door of the place. So awesome. I will definitely be going there often.

Finally, after about 12am, the tube stops and is replaced by a night bus network, similar to what exists in Toronto or Vancouver. I always hated night buses in Toronto because they rarely show up and stop every 4 seconds. A trip involving 1 night bus was bad. But if you were so far away from where you needed to go that you needed to take 2 night buses, forget it. You’ll be in transit forever. So I was at first a bit reluctant to use the night bus system here the few times I have been out past 12am. However with taxis being so expensive, I figured “whatever, I’ll give night buses a shot.” There are a ton of night bus routes though and they are all numbered very confusingly. My roommate who has lived in London for 7 years, gave me this recommendation “Instead of trying to figure out the number system, just look for a bus going somewhere that sounds familiar and go there”. Surprisingly that is a VERY good system! Night buses in London come extremely frequently and only stop where the tube-equivalent stations are (instead of at every 2^nd intersection like what the TTC does). So you can actually get home pretty fast as long as you know approximately how to get home. Sweet! 

Greetings from London!

Hello guys!

I am now 1 week into my stay here in London and am settled in quite well.  Some random thoughts thus far

-My flight-

The flight here wasn’t the greatest. The plane was basically full, there were no tv screens on each seat and no chargers for electronic devices on each seat. And the movie everyone had to watch was Hugo which I already saw. So I was going to be very bored for 7 hours. Not a great start! Also, the seat spacing was very tiny. I passed out almost immediately upon takeoff but when I woke up about 1.5 hrs later, I got really, really claustrophobic. I needed some space IMMEDIATELY! Luckily, a few rows behind me was the emergency exit row where:

-There is a lot of space to accommodate the emergency exits

-The people sleeping in their seats in that row were not stretched out at all

As such, I made the floor there my temporary home. Having some room to stretch my legs and have a good lie-down helped a ton!

Also, the food was terrible on the flight. I miss KLM…

-Where I am staying-

 I got very, very lucky. Through the facebook group for Canadians in London, I got connected with someone. And not just anyone! So far, things have been awesome:

-My roommate is super chilled out like me

-She has a business background like me

-The flat is in central London

-The flat is super nice

 However because this is London (in a nice flat in central London no less), it is pretty pricey but 100% worth it in my opinion,

-Food-

As you guys know, I am a foodie. So of course, I had to check out the food scene here….SO AMAZING!!! I’ll write more about food in London on my food blog (bsgk.blogspot.com). One thing I am especially happy about is most of the food I eat in Canada is available here at reasonable (by London standards) prices. So I don’t need to sacrifice much. This was not the case when I lived in Amsterdam, where a lot of North American grocery food didn’t seem to make it there. 

-Work-

I am only a few days into my job but it is pretty cool. I will basically be doing marketing and strategy for my employer (rainmaker-gbd.com). I am also helping organize and run the Canada Day celebration here in London (http://www.canadadaylondon.com/). Given the insane demands put on us from Sep-Apr, I am pretty comfortable with the pretty demanding schedule I am sure to have this summer. Bring it on!

-The Tube-

My old boss spent many years living here so I used to tell him how I wish the Toronto subway was like London’s to which he remarked “No, the tube sucks.” I can see why he complained- every day random parts of the tube system are broken or shut down for maintenance. As such, planning alternate routes to work is super important. I am lucky that to get from my flat to work, there are several routes I can take on the tube so if one line is messed up, getting on another isn’t a bit deal.

Finally, some of my Rotman friends are here for the summer too. I already got to see one of my Rotman friends the other day which was pretty awesome. I am so excited to hang out more with them here on the other side of the atlantic! It should be a fun (but very busy) summer!