26 things that will happen if you move to London

For a very long time, our dream was to live in London. Now, after a few years, we have lived in London for just under two years. Obviously, we can’t really call ourselves Londoners, but we still believe that we have become admires as well as haters of London. We are quite in a love-hate relationship with London. But I am sure that any moment down the line, we will say that we have loved it more than anything else in the world. If you would like to read more on our London adventures, look here!

There are 26 things that had happened to us and will inevitably happen to you if you ever decide to live in London.

1. At first, your neck will hurt from turning your head behind your left shoulder to look behind you before you cross the street. It took us a good few months to get used to it!
2. You will be confused why you are supposed to walk on the left side of the pavement, but stand on the right side of the escalator. It still doesn’t make any sense.
3. You will cross any street on a red light without feeling any danger. You know what you are doing, after all, you are a Londoner now, and that is what all people do.
4. Renting a room in London especially if you come from abroad and you are a student or a person looking for employment will be almost impossible without having the fortune to give to your landlord in advance.
5. You will see thousands of flats or rooms in terrible conditions, yet many of your friends, and even maybe you will end up living there. And all of you will be easily paying £700 a month for a horrible, cold and mouldy room.
6. Citymapper will become your most used app on your phone. Even going to the closest supermarket will involve launching it and considering your most affordable/quickest options.
7. You will do anything to avoid travelling on the tube in a rush hour. ANYTHING.
8. Paying for anything contactless will be a standard. You will stop carrying any cash whatsoever, encountering a weird situation any time you would like to leave a tip.
9. Going to Camden Town at the weekend, Covent Garden in the evening or any part between Big Ben and Tower Bridge at any time of the day will be the one thing you will never do.
10. You will end up going to shows, plays, musicals, concerts and sports exhibitions any time, unplanned and spontaneously. Seeing Djokovic play tennis? Getting almost free tickets to stalls of one of the longest-running shows? Anything is possible in London.
11. You will become so accustomed to the fact that nobody cares what they are wearing and how they are looking that you will eventually end up stop caring about what other people think of you, too.
12. You will have your favourite tube line very very soon, and you will hate all of the others.
13. Hailing the black cab to go anywhere in London like Sherlock Holmes apparently only happens to Sherlock. For all of us, mortal people will have to take public transport, unless you are prepared to sell your kidney.
14. Also, living in a multi-storey house with a rooftop at Portobello road on a bookshop owner salary like William Thacker in Notting Hill movie? Haha, who are you kidding?
15. People walking at any speed lower than I AM TRYING TO RACE EVERYONE ON THE STREET will get on your nerves.
16. Also, anyone who doesn’t know where they are going in tube corridors and randomly stop to inspect signs will drive you crazy.
17. Your money will run out more quickly than anything else. So warm clothes in winter rather than blasting up the heating it is.
18. You will learn when and where supermarkets discount their food to ridiculous prices like £0.07 for a piece of bread. This will be your lifesaver.
19. Paying for your drink out will hurt your wallet every time. You quickly realise that you could have a week’s worth of food for it. Especially if you go out anywhere than your local pub.
20. People speaking with an American accent will stand out in the crowd to you. And their accent will become soooo annoying.
21. Also, speaking of accents. Anyone who understood the Scottish accent on a first try should get a gold medal.
22. You will hear of stabbings, muggings and all different types of crimes so often you will stop caring. After all, there are another 10 millions of people in the same city as you.
23. Buses change their final stop faster than your flatmate changes socks and terminate at random stops. You will often be dropped off in the middle of nowhere.
24. Travelling to meet friends or to go to dinner will require leaving at least one hour before. You will be very surprised when you return back to your small city, where you need to leave the house a mere 15 minutes before your meeting time.
25. London will test every side of you. You will love it, you will hate it, you will pretend you love or hate it. It will definitely test you, your relationships and your mental, and sometimes even physical strength.
26. After a delicious breakfast in one of the oldest pubs, all-night drinks with a view of the whole of London, or just eating sushi on the bank overlooking the London Eye, you will realise that this city is just magnificent. Even if you might hate it now, once you leave, you will desperately miss it, and love it forever.