MANY FACES OF LONDON

I have spent my last two weeks near London. In a town that lays basically on an outer side of M25, the highway that encircles London. However, London is big. Huge. So huge, that it takes approximately 1 hour to get to its centre. Well it would be probably even more with a car, due to the heavy traffic. I am not hitch-hiking this time. I can't because I have a companion. Jarka, my aunt. We travel by train and she's much better than any guidebook I have to tell you!

London's not just huge. It's got a variety of faces as well and visiting different parts of it sometimes feels like visiting completely different cities. These faces are so different that it's hard to believe that they belong together. Despite that London wouldn’t be the same without any of them.

The best known face of London is its iconic centre. The one you can find on postcards. Everything breaths with history there and you can feel the silent presence of past, medieval kings, queens and things long forgotten. That's the part where everyone is trying to take a picture of a Big Ben or London Eye, place usually crowded and full of people. It is exactly that part, which you have to visit to tick up London from your travel list. 

There are boring parts of course. And dirty sometimes. It's not a surprise. London's got 1572 km² and the centre mentioned above is a tiny part of it. What do you think is the rest? Big part is covered by the flats for example. 8,674 000000 people have to live somewhere. Except that there is always something being built in London. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. Would be glad if the builders were so motivated in my town.  It just means heavy constructions, holes and big machines all over the city and that's not exactly what do you want to have on a photo right? And it's also extremely easy to get lost in those parts.

Business London. Did you ever think about how much money flows daily through this city? Hands are being shaken, business arrangements made and important papers signed. Canary Wharf, Gherkin, NatWest Tower... it all happens in these buildings. Their tops are visible from every part of London, like a reminder of the control of rich and powerful, so you won’t forget who governs the world.

When we're already talking about governing, how can I not mention the Queen? Brits are proud nation. I kind of like that proudness. That is what makes whole world wear shirts with British flag on it. Proud Brits are the ones who have built the untouchable picture of Great Britain, who created the bright atmosphere around places like Birmingham palace or Hampton court. This part of London is like from a fairy-tale. The one with a princess, crowns, castles and kings. In fact, old lady Elizabeth doesn't have that much power. She's more like a symbol. What makes her powerful are the people proud of that symbol and their fairy-tale.

London, city of everyone. It is multicultural. Did you think that most of the people living in London are born Brits? It's a metropole. Small world on itself. World in which you can find all the nations. (Quite big communities of them.) They are living their own lives and if you find your one, you can be there whole day without even noticing that you are actually abroad. Don't believe me? I just found myself in a crowd of 250 Czechs and Slovaks, attending a concert of Michal David, who is an old Czech star, well known especially in 80'. I wouldn’t expect something like that here. It felt little bit like watching an old movie. You know, I was born a little bit later. But it definitely did not feel like London. And the biggest paradox is that that´s exactly what London’s like. Specific in its diversity.

Footnote1- I have a really great aunt and that aunt has a really great friends

Footnote2- our big Czechoslovak star evidently thinks that he is at the same league like Elton John or so and can come hour and half later.

Last but not least, comes my favourite face of London. Welcome in its fictional streets, made on pages of books or big screens. To be honest with you, I am not a movie expert and it is a long time since I had a time to be a bookworm but still. Who doesn’t know names like James Bond, Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes?! They have made London even more popular. Their authors created a new map for this city, the map on which you can still find a famous detective living on an address 221b Bakerstreet and Miss. Moneypenny sitting in an office in MI6 building. This London is the best of all. Because why to live in a real one, when magic world is just one wall away from Kings cross station?