Tracy's guide to exploring london

London city exploring: Day one

I slept in until noon on day one and decided to explore the neighborhood of Ealing where I was residing. I seem to end up in odd places due to the fact that I usually stay with friends I have met while traveling in other parts of the world. I quite like this but like in Argentina where I wasn’t actually in Buenos Aires it was Luis Guillon, I was again in a suburb of a big city with the locals.

So I did what I do best; explore. There is this thing about me though, even though I have travelled far and wide, I have an absolute shit sense of direction. It never fails I will look at a map and think I have it figured out and I am supposed to go right but instead I should have gone left, every time I get it wrong it never fails. Even when I think, ok Tracy you think this is the right way which most likely it’s not because you are always wrong and I decided to go in the opposite direction then I still get it wrong.

Instead of exploring the shops and cafes on the Ealing high street that I remembered or barely remembered from the night before, I ended up in Acton also referred to as Crackton or Blackton. Although in my wandering I walked up to a sign that mapped out an estate in Acton, I was about to walk through it when I remembered Estates are not the same in Canada as they are in England. In Canada Estates are very posh neighborhoods with grand houses and long driveways. Estates in England are the exact opposite, there was a low income housing situation happening in there so I back away and returned to the high street where there was a market with Rasta guys selling clothes and patties. An adolescent walked in front of a van that prompted the driver to yell and curse at him and the kid did the same. I chuckled to myself watching the scene unfold in front of me. It was so very rough English. To an English person they wouldn’t enjoy watching the interactions of the rough, chavy, lower classes but all people in all cultures different from mine interest and amuse me. This area was slightly shady but it was cool, it was new and different and it was another side to London.