Final day in London. Last minute charity shop runs and bag weight reshufflings. Then chill in North London with Chris Gutkind. North London is where London began for me over 7 years ago. By noon tomorrow we will be residents of Madrid. Airb&b for a while while hunting for flat to rent. Have to start all over. No plates, pans, bedsheets, yadda yadda. Gotta do the paper plates and find bargains at some kinda flea market. Should be much easier to survive in Madrid than London though. Some great friends and memories in London. London is the second longest place I have ever lived. Utah beats it by 1.5 years. So many places. But London is a tough tough tough tough city. Quality of life (e.g. renting a flat, quality of average food/veggies etc.) maybe one of the lowest in Europe for average folks. Poland has much higher standard of living for lower middle class folks. Think Spain too. London good if you have won the birth lottery or have good streams of money. Work full time for seven years, live very very simply with no debt, car, pension,cheapest rent we could find in a council estate in East London and meager savings and still hanging by a thin branch. I mean after seven years of full time work I have about 1000 pounds less than when I arrived from Poland. Ewa a few thousand pounds less. Now we leave with a few thousand pounds between us as our life savings. London is hard to survive and not sure (other than good friends) it is worth living here for what you get back. I am sure I am not alone with this. I will definetely miss my friends in London. But time to move on.We are lucky we are able to move on and do some teaching in Madrid. We are lucky. Depends where you look to do your measuring. Off to Madrid. See what comes.
Final meal in London. Homemade Pesto and venison sausage.
Labels: east london, Goodbye London, London for the wealthy, london life, Madrid life, marcus slease, Spanish life
