Most of us can agree that you really do not fully appreciate some things until they are gone. London is no exception.

As I type this sitting on BART, I am watching people get on and off the train. Everybody looks so.. American.. so unfabulous! An obese woman with mom jeans and a tight plaid shirt.. yick! A pizza faced man in a dirty looking suit. unsightly! I can’t help but think of the hordes of gorgeous people in their fine wool coats, silk scarves and other stylish clothing sitting around me on the Tube back in Britannia (bad teeth were surprisingly absent). Not only that, hearing French, Russian, and Italian being spoken throughout the train gave you the sense that you were in a major cultural capital of the world.




I see random musicians playing on the San Francisco train platforms for money and recollect the buskers in London’s train stations. Buskers are musicians that must AUDITION to play in the London Tube and are then given a specific performance place and time.. it is very official. The professional jazz players, opera singers, cover band artists, and pop singers of the Tube put the unofficial buskers of San Francisco to shame.








If there’s one thing I won’t miss, however, it’s the British sandwich obsession..

The Brits have a newly found fetish with the fresh pre-made sandwich. These triangular boxes with two sandwich halves are found literally EVERYWHERE in the city. Starbucks, grocery stores, pharmacies, movie theaters.. there are even chain restaurants that have developed around selling these sandwiches. Of these chains, none reigns more supreme than Pret A Manger. You can walk down the street and literally see a Pret at the beginning of one block and at the end of the next...Starbucks is not even that bad. While these sandwiches are good, my inner-American hates not being able to customize my sandwich! What if I don’t want mayo? What if I want to sub regular mustard for spicy mustard? You can’t do these things at Pret and it drives me crazy!!!!!!!




While the cultural capital of London will forever hold a special luster for me, I am a San Francisco boy at heart.