Reverse Culture Shock

I miss London.  Those photos of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament capped with snow made them look more lovely than they ever did while I was there.

And I wish I had been there for the big snowball fights and group snowman building that happened in parks across London last Monday, according to my friends there. Because no one could get into work (trains, buses, most of the tube shut down), everyone took a snow day.  

That I miss less — the creaky infrastructure.  But really, that’s part of the charm.  I miss emerging from an epic tube ride from Notting Hill Gate to St Paul’s, and seeing a nearly 400 year old Cathedral looming over a square full of pigeons.  

Which were gross.  But the winding cobblestone streets and pubs with thatched roofs made you feel like you had landed in Victorian London, with Jack the Ripper waiting to pop out to slash you.

And then, you turn a corner and see one of three Starbucks that you pass when you walk five blocks in any direction from St. Paul’s.  

Now that’s an experience we can replicate here in Atlanta.  It may not have the history, but it has the coffee chains.