Hello fellow readers, as most of you may have understood from the title, for our very first article in English, I couldn’t have chosen any subject other than the emblem of Britishness itself, UK’s capital, London!

I don’t know for sure how many of you have been there, but if you haven’t, now’s the time to make up for it. London is a metropolitan city, always changing but never forgetting its roots. That’s why almost anyone can fit in, no Londoner would look twice at you if you do your own thing. 

In fact, if you look like you have your goals set out and you know what you’re doing, you’re pretty much set. If I wanted to describe to you this city’s history, I wouldn’t certainly be here, so let's get to the good stuff.

I have been to London recently and it has changed quite a bit since the last time since I was last there, last August. Mainly, a new tube line has been added in honor of late Queen Elizabeth II, the Elizabeth Line, marked by a purple line on the Tube map.

If you are interested in doing a little sightseeing, I would 100% recommend choosing only a few of the most popular attractions and work your route around those, because if you book too many visits one after the other you might miss the sense of discovery you have while exploring a new city.

Some of my favorite attractions in London are of course the Tower Bridge, the London Eye (even though I’ve only been on it once when I was very young), Hyde Park, the Victoria and Albert Museum (I’ll tell you more about it later on) and Camden Town. 

These attractions are situated in different areas of the city and they cover different sides of London’s character: the historic one (the museum and Tower Bridge), the touristic one (the London eye), the multicultural/culinary one in Camden and the connection with nature itself with the city’s several parks like Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and St James’ Park, to name just a few. 

Since I’ve been to this city several times, I can tell you that in my experience it’s better to go with the flow, noting down just a few main things you can’t leave without doing, but leaving the rest to fate. 

In my opinion, to really experience a city in the best way, you just need to act like a local, without overplanning guided tours and meals, just going by instinct and mood.

Personally, I love museums, especially when they’re free! And this is the case of most if not all of London’s museums. One of my favorites is the Victoria and Albert museum, because it has this grand entrance like you would expect in a royal palace, and it contains collections from each population and time period you can think about, but most of all it holds an exquisite jewelry collection of her majesty Queen Victoria and an impressive collection of nautical maps and instruments of his royal highness the Prince Consort, Prince Albert. There are several other museum’s I’d talk to you about but I would only bore you further.

Onto more fun stuff, London has one of the largest culinary options in the UK, due to its position as a multicultural and ever-changing city. My favorite places to eat are mainly local chains like Pret-a-Manger and Leons, but also small tea rooms and pubs can give you an example of what it’s like to live in the city. I also largely adore the area of the markets, like Borough Market, Covent Garden and Camden Town, because you get the chance to try different dishes at lower prices than in traditional restaurants. 

It’s like traveling to different places while remaining firmly in the known confines of your city, it’s amazing. Absolutely love it. Every time I go there, it’s always somewhat different and unique as is the heart of this modern yet historic city.

Considering most of you might not particularly enjoy theater, well there’s a new musical that speaks more to teenagers than I could have imagined. It’s called & Juliet, and it is a rewriting of Romeo & Juliet, if Juliet never took her life after Romeo died, taking her teenager self’s perspective in a new and very modern way, also introducing new characters that add a lot of color to this vibrant journey of self-discovery.

This show was so eye-opening for me, considering that the songs used were very well known and this gave me the chance to fully experience this fantastic show meant both for children and adults as a way to find ourselves and let Shakespeare’s well known tragedy become once again the center of modern thought and literature. I would 100% recommend this show, because the price is a bargain for the memories I have made that night. & Juliet runs at the Shaftesbury theater until the 25th of March, but it will also be touring throughout the country later on.

I hope you enjoyed our little rendez-vous around London and I’ll see you again soon!