Day 7 – 1/7/2009 – London/Paris

Today I am riding the Eurostar rail from London to Paris. Despite my apprehension, based in recent travel woes, it was actually very easy and painless. We took the tube to St. Pancras International, collected our tickets, showed our passports, waited around, and boarded. Best of all, the terminal had free wifi! (This and the one at Leon, a neighborhood café in Bankside, were the only free hotspots I found in a week). The train itself is fast and at just a 3 hour or so trip it’s a very quick and easy way to get between the cities. Although not cheap, it is reasonable – around $150 r/t for off peak travel, but I think that’s about the fare one way on Amtrak from DC to NYC, so I’m happy.

In my previous entry I wrote that the financial crisis wasn’t hitting London; however, after a week there it would seem that my first impression was incorrect. What I was witnessing on Oxford Street (a.k.a. “high street,” what American’s would call “main street”) was shoppers getting in on post Christmas and Liquidation sales. It seemed that most Londoners held out on shopping until after the holiday – in fact sales for the last week of December were up over 17% from a year prior, but that hardly compensated for a terrible overall holiday season. The shopper’s instincts paid off, every store on high street was having a sale of some kind and the unfortunate companies – Zaavi, Woolsworth, and the President’s Club were having liquidation sales of 50%-75% off. At Zaavi, a CD/DVD chain the lines were out the door as people waited to buy £2.99 (~$4.50) In addition Pubs had large signs for cheap meals (soups/stews for £4.00 ($6.50) and cheap pints (one chain started offering a £1.00 ($1.50) pint, much to the chagrin of local alcohol watchdog groups). Unfortunately for me, a poor grad student, the sales still didn’t make things cheap enough – although, Thomas Pink almost got me to break out the credit card to but a round of shirts for only £40 ($60) a piece.

But the week in London was a good one. Kate and I probably averaged 8 or so miles a day of walking (one day we did 12 miles) and managed to get a few runs in along the Thames. We only went to two museums: The Tate Modern (egh, it was ok) and the British Museum (very cool) but we managed to cover most of the city by foot to get a very good feel for it. I’m still trying to find a pub that broadcasts Duke games (Gotta find somewhere to watch Duke v Georgetown) but so far the only place I found is a BBQ place (lovely) called Bodean’s that doesn’t serve beer and is about as brightly lit as a McDonald’s.

What has surprised me most about London, is the effect of being confronted with the numerous reminders of Britain’s imperial past. Walking to Buckingham Palace I past various pillars depicting the names of lands occupied by Britain: Afrika, Nepal. Etc… And upon taking in all of the opulence of the gates, fountains, and palaces it hit me: all of this was built on conquest and spoils. True the ornate granite and gold of the fountains were gorgeous, but they were only there because of the excess of the Victorian Pillaging. This sense of unease was compounded at the British Museum where London keeps all of the remnants of statues, tombs, and riches it collected from conquering the Egyptians, Asyrians, and Greeks. It was unsettling seeing the statues of the Egyptian kings, their tombs and sarcophaguses, and the statues of the gods buried with them all on display for people to see how curious the Egyptian people were 3000 years ago. I’m probably being a bit oversensitive, Britain’s imperial past is a source of great pride for the country and the relics are reminders of a past era - I just found it odd to be looking at statues taken from the Parthenon in London of all places. Oh well, I’m not going to make to Greece or Egypt on this trip so it saves me some time.

A couple more random London observations: 1.) They LOVE chains. Every block has: 2-3 Starbucks, a Café Nero, a CRUSSH juice bar, a Pret a Managere café/sandwich shop, a WagaMama Asian Confusion place, a Pizza Express, and a placed called “Eat.” (direct enough?). I guess the chains fill the void of “things to eat that aren’t pub food,” a solution that has yet to find it’s way to Ireland… 1.b) Starbucks are EVERYWHERE. This shocked me, I thought there would be some either a cool London chain or a bunch of local shops, but in reality it’s just Starbucks, Starbucks, Starbucks 2.) London can’t get the moving on the left/right thing right. Cars go on the left side of the street (fine) but there is no rhyme or reason to how people walk on the sidewalks. This could be because of all of the foreigners (I’ve been told real Londoners walk on the left) but the city doesn’t help by directing foot traffic to the Right in the tube tunnels and having no consistent order for the escalators. All in all, it’s maddening.

Next up: Paris. I just popped out of the Chunnel and was greeted with the snowy hills of France. Here’s hoping all my training dealing with Socialists in Vancouver paid off, let’s see how the economic slow down is effecting the Frogs.

Random business musings – I think warranties are going to make a comeback. In times like this I think people will feel comforted knowing their washing machines will be insured for life. Consumers won’t be comfortable viewing goods as disposable when everything is so expensive.

Day 1 – 1/1/2009 – London

The worldwide recession doesn’t seem to be affecting London much. We could barely even make it through Piccadilly and Oxford Street because of the throngs of people flowing in and out of the clothing, CD, and trinket shops. High end shops, low end shops they were all bustling we people carrying three to four shopping bags from various store. I did hear a number of different languages being spoken, so maybe it was just the tourists coming in to shop – but one would think even that would die down.

Walking around London shows me where much of the inspiration for DC. The buildings aren’t very tall and it looks very stately. I was surprised though at the trash – there were cigarette cartons, fast food wrappers, and plastic bottles everywhere, pretty shocking indeed.

Thoughts about going abroad before I leave …

I’m sitting in the international terminal at JFK trying to catch up on a few last emails, Facebook posts, and calls before I head off to London. Since leaving Durham after finals I have been to New York City, Vancouver, and Connecticut and am already feeling a bit travel worn, but I know that it’s just the beginning as I head across the Atlantic to travel through London and Paris for three weeks before going Hong Kong.

I believe this trip is going to be well suited to experience the full extent of the current financial crisis. I started in the Research Triangle where cheap mortgages led to heavy development over the past 5 years – many developments which now aren’t selling or are in foreclosure. Then, in the tri-state area I heard many a “sad” story about unemployed bankers and hedge fund managers who had dealt in the securities used to fuel those mortgages, and exacerbate the problem. While in Canada I noticed how much stronger the dollar was as compared to even 6 months ago when oil prices (Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the United States) were at record highs. Now I start the next part of my journey, heading to London to see how Europe’s major financial center is coping. I’m curious to compare their attitudes to those in the tri-state area and see what they think about the US’s role in their current financial troubles.

London will be a good precursor for my visit to Hong Kong, Asia’s financial center. How will they all compare? What will be the same? What will be different? Hong Kong will also serve as my gateway to mainland China. There I will be able to compare the manufacturing in Gouzhong to the textile plants and light manufacturing of North Carolina.

Obviously there is a lot to see and do, but first I need to get to London and find a pub to watch the fireworks from!