London, I love it! It's an amazing city.
The food is great in London because there is so much variety - people may say English food isn't great, but London isn't exactly the most English of cities. It's very cosmopolitan, full of foreigners who live there. I have been to London lots of times and there is always more to see and I never get bored!
If you're not looking for anything fancy, you can get a very basic room with shared bathroom in a B& B type hotel in the Bayswater area. It's not far from the centre and there are tube stations everywhere so you can get to places easily.
I'm not sure if this is allowed but I always book hotels through booking.com because they usually have great prices. I saw a few on there that would get you a price of about $100 a night in a relatively central area. No frills though. One I thought looked alright was The Cromwell Crown Hotel near Earl's Court and Kensington (very central).
When you get to London, definitely buy Time Out Magazine because it pretty much has everything that's going on in London at the moment and can be very useful.
Being an art buff, I always like to visit the museums and art galleries, and there are so many you can't see them all in one visit. Tate Modern is usually my favourite. Also make a stop at Hyde Park because it's beautiful. Shopping on the high street is also a must, there is so much to see, and amidst the shops there are quirky little places to visit. There are also loads of cool markets to go to all through the week. Then you can also visit more historical places, there are plenty of palaces. The thing with London is, you can just walk out your hotel door and immediately there are things to see, and you can walk around all day and find something to keep you amused on every corner. You should definitely take a stroll around Soho and eat some chinese food in one of the little shops where they hang ducks in the window! Ah and then there's theatre - you should go to watch at least one show, they are amazing.
There is something I didn't get to do in London when I was last there, and I leave you this suggestion: Go out one night to the Absolut Ice Bar, a bar where everything (seats, tables, bar, etc.) is made of ice. I thought it sounded cool and wish I'd gone!
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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