Englishman in New York20 Dec 2006 04:47 am
I made a few notes of my first impressions of England while I was traveling up to Leeds on Thursday:
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In London, the newspaper is king. I see many people reading books on the subway in New York, but on the Tube 90 percent of people read newspapers and 90 percent of the newspapers are Metro. I was very impressed with the breadth and depth of coverage in Metro. If the UK was ruled by One State, One State would control Metro.
- Ridiculous as this may seem, London is still very English and very white. Having said that, I have never heard so much Polish or Russian in London before.
- Maybe it’s the time of year but most Londoners looked miserable. Come on, people! You live in one of the greatest cities in the world. Be happy!
- The Tube is abysmal. Almost every tube train I took was delayed or changed its destination while I was on it. I spent most of my time at tube stations listening to information about delays on other lines. Perhaps this is the reason everyone in London is so depressed. If Transport for London stopped telling people about the delays and just let people wait, a la New York, maybe everyone would cheer up a bit.
- Everywhere I went people were coughing and sneezing yet, despite the damp and the cold wind, almost no one was wearing a hat or a warm coat. Why?
- The British countryside is gorgeous. Even the London-Leeds train journey, which I always used to consider so bland, beats the pants off almost every journey I have taken in the US; that includes New York-Boston, New York-Washington, Houston-Del Rio and New York-Hamptons. The UK does farmers’ fields, country homes and villages better than anyone else (except perhaps the French).
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Thank you. This is a timely reminder for a curious Londoner-in-exile to put off the decision to return for another few years.
I know, I know, those damn strip malls definitely get in the way of the American landscape! And since I have an obsession with Midsommer Murders (t.v. show), I’m definitely interested in visiting the English countryside.
I’d just like to point out that none of the US routes you’ve cited New York-Boston, New York-Washington, New York-Hamptons, technically involve countryside, although there are some very quaint villages in New England, carefully tucked away from the railroads. And Texas is mostly desert. Europe is a rail continent, America, by hook or crook, is a car continent. If you want to see its countryside you need to get behind a car (or bicycle) and stay off of the Interstates (efficient, yes, pretty no).
Point taken Kendra. I have had some very nice drives in the US, particularly around the Adirondacks in NY. Obviously, Big Bend in Texas was breathtaking.
But I still find there is something very special about the British countryside. I think the architecture of small British towns and villages and the small, neat farmers’ fields have a lot to do with it.
I concede
I’ve not seen the British countryside, but I have seen the French countryside and I understand what you mean. I think that you summed up the allure with your use of the words small and neat. The beauty comes from the idea of humanity and nature co-existing. There are some small patches of the US that have that, but I’d say that most of the natural beauty of America comes from sheer wilderness - our farmlands tend to be large, and stinky thanks to factory farming techniques.