Tip of the day

Instead of meeting up with your friends in a busy place such as Oxford Circus,
where everybody meets,
arrange to meet in a less busy area.

My favourite place is the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington.
I choose a room (e.g. musical instruments) or I wait outside.
When my friends arrive, we walk around the museum while we talk our things.

This way, you don't have to suffer overcrowded areas and you get some culture.

Pick a different museum, church, park or green, etc., each time and soon you'll know all the city.

Gay night out

If you are gay and you are in London there are several places you can go to.

My first discovery in this new chapter of my life in London has been the Retro Bar in Charing Cross. It was Tuesday and we could enjoy some fun with a pub quiz. And on top, it was Music quiz. And, to add up, it was music with the letter R. We really had fun and the hostess was great and funny. The place is a very traditional English style pub with photos of Gay Icons all around and great music. No discrimination there, all sorts of gay people (mostly men, though). The flayer reads "the only gay alternative" and I trust it. On Saturdays LUSH is the DJ and on Thursdays (except the 2nd of the month) you can be the one if you bring up to 5 of your fave tracks.
Next Wednesday I am repeating with the Halloween party. The ticket costs £3 only and it is for charity. So far, Candy Bar was my favourite gay pub, but now I'll have to reconsider it (I haven't been there for so long, anyway). My rate is high but I don't have much to compare; I give a 9/10 in gay pubs. I felt confortable there, which is not common for me, the music was fantastic, the staff was kind, the DJ great and the hostess a star.

Next we went to Ghetto, very close to Tottenham Court Road. Although it is quite a normal club, I found the music very good. It varied withing the techno and electronica, but I can say I didn't know much of it, which is a plus, because elewhere they just play the same over and over. Perhaps I am wrong and the music is common but just it isn't common to me just yet. One that I could sing was a techno version of Alanis' Uninvited. Which surprised me as never heard it before. Alanis, actually, is a Gay Icon, so not weird. At Retro you'll find flyers that will get you free entrance. Though, it is only £3 (on Tuesdays at least). The wine was bad which got me sick the day after. Next time I'll drink water. For this reason my rate is only 6/10.

Unlucky night out in Westminster

London is a city where you can find something to do any night of the week. You'll find in Harrods pictures of Trafalgar Square without people. That's a really hard thing to see in real life: even at 4am there is people wandering around.

There are many places you could go out and I don't intend to write a list of them. But, slowly, I will be describing the places I go to.

I will start with the so-known Cheers London in Regent Street. The pub is named after the US sitcom, which in turn is inspired in the now same-named pub in Boston. When you go in, you expect to find the characters of the series or some quiet place where to hung around, but what you find, instead, is a quite normal pub, very similar to those newly open British ones. Sports is the main thing. If you don't like them, I wouldn't recommend going there. Followers will just walk in and start shouting chants. The weird thing, you can't have lager (I think that was what it was) in the first bar, so, if your friends are having wine there, you'll have to go order in the other room. The slogan, like in the series and in the pubs in the US, is: "Where everybody knows your name". I guess some time in the day it can be quiet and, if there is a waiter that has been there for long, perhaps will know someone's name. But, certainly, nothing similar to the sitcom. Plus, they don't have a big variety of beers.
My rate: very very low, almost a 1. There are many charming pubs, search for one of them and leave Cheers for the average tourist.

Gaucho is an Argentinian restaurant chain. I am normally against chains but, like the one above, I didn't get to choose. The one I went was the one in Piccadilly. I've eaten Argentinian food before, many times, so I know, as an outsider, more or less what is all about. Meat is major so you can't go there and not have a big piece. Argentinian meet has something different, I am not sure, something about the way it is cut, but, anyhow, it tastes delicious. Though this place is not what you would expect of an Argentinian restaurant. In our mind we all have this old place with old wooden furniture and a big fat grannie who would come to you and tell you what you can eat. No, this place is all but that. It is posh and fashionable. Black and White are the colours, and everything smells a bit of a cow (the leather all around, it must be). The waiters and waitresses are from all around. Australian must be the major thing, though you can find Poles and we had the chance to have an Spanish one in the bar. Talking about the bar, it is too dark to read the menu. The bar is nice, but could be any other country's for what that matters. The restaurant is in the basement and everything looks so fashion that you are a bit scared of touching things. Too loud, but this is normal in this city. God thing is that it is an open kitchen but no smoke goes into the restaurant. Do not look for chimichurri in the menu in the section of sauces for the meat, even though it is the traditional sauce for the asado. Though, they'll bring some with the bread: ask the waiter what it is, he'll pronounce something that doe not sound like it, tease him a bit pronouncing it with your well learned Spanish accent.
The food is good but try not to tell your Argentinian friends about it: they'll bring you to the country side and you'll have a whole meal with as much meat as you want and litters of sauce for the price of one glass of wine in Gaucho.
My rate is low, but not like above: 5/10. Good food but extremely overpriced - but this is no surprise here. Great place but wrong motto.

To finish up the night, you can go to the Roadhouse in Covent Garden. No much to say there: it is a big club with live music. You can be lucky and have a good band, but I was not and I had to listen to covers of 90's Rock, though they thought they were singing the best and they just sung the most known. When all the audience knows the lyrics, you can imagine that it will be a live version of MTV. When the band left, the music turn into plane pop we-all-know-it songs. The best: one of the waitresses, who would server 7 people at once and not even blink. The wine was reasonably good. They prepare cocktails on demand. Though, my rate is still just 5/10. It is definitely just an easy night out.

Spell my country

Yesterday I went to see I for India at the ICA (film link).

It is an inspiring and moving docu/film about the life of the director's family since they moved from India in the 60's. It is a mixure of Super-8, voice recordings, and other footage that explain all the difficulties this immigrant family lived along 40 years.

As an immigrant myself, I felt reflected in most of it. Certainly, when you come from a similar culture, everything is much easier, but still, nothing is as it seems.
We come here looking for what we all want: some peace, and what we find is rejection. Rejection and solitude.

Suri talks about how they can't pronounce your name and, if you misspronounce theirs, they'll surely correct you in a split second.

Immigration. Unfairness.

Some BBC footage shows the demonstrations against immigration. We all have seen them, and not that long ago. Not only in England. From inside the EU, it is a subject we all talk about. I have gone to demonstrations. Most of them when some education law was changed in Spain and affected us so much. And I wonder what makes us demonstrate. Do we think twice what we are shouting? Do we wait a minute to think how does it affect to others, to them? I don't think so.

It is a very good movie and is such a perfect element in this multicultural city.

It is still shown until Wednesday 18th. Two showings a day. Go see it.
Go with some time before or stay later to have a look at the library.

Remember that the BFI 51st London Film Festival is starting tomorrow and the UK Jewish Film Festival on the 3rd of October.

Why this?

Why did I start this blog (especially since I already have two and collaborate in another one)? The answer is easy. As Grenouille would say, I needed to.

The real reason? Because I don't like most of the travel guides.

I am Spanish. I have been living in London for two weeks now, but I lived here for three years before. I am not the person who most knows this city, but I will try do my best and gather some information here on what can you do or shouldn't if you are here or you are planning a trip.

Along those first years in London, I never did any "tourism" for me. I always waited for someone to come visit me and then, with them, I went to all those so-visited spots. Then, there are the Oh-look-what-I-have-accidentally-found places, which are my favourites.

I know this city, yes (althought I always get lost -but this happens to me everywhere, even in my own town-). But I don't KNOW this city. I will try to discover everything and I invite you to come along.