So I’ve been away from this wretched hell hole for a while now. I arrived back as many of us always do, through Heathrow, which may be the most terrible airport in the world (more on that at a later date). After walking the five miles from airplane to immigration, I decided I would treat myself to the worlds most expensive train ride. After coughing up the £15 required for the journey I sat back and relaxed hoping for a quick end to the advertised ‘15 minute journey into Central London.’
It took me 3 hours. 3 miserable hours to get from Heathrow to Paddington. Honestly what the FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? You would think, after ruining your day and charging you for it, that the people who run the train would offer some sort of compensation to those people affected. But NO, if you read the fine print, they are not responsible if someone decides to kill themselves in front of the train by jumping off a bridge in Ealing (another MISERABLE SHITHOLE).
So yeah, we had not one but two people jump in front of the train, one was successful and the other was British.
PREACH BROTHER!
Completely agree with you on every point. I’ve been London for 4 1/2 years and my patience and sanity are evaporating faster than I can type rip-off. So much potential, but what a shame. Keep up the good honest work you’re doing.
Completely agree with you on every point. I’ve been in London for 4 1/2 years and my patience and sanity are evaporating faster than I can type rip-off. So much potential, but what a shame. Keep up the good honest work you’re doing.
I am totally with you so far. I dispise the tube, the buses, the weather and the attitude of people. No-one actually gives half a care about anything and to that end nothing gets done. Its driving me insane.
Absolutely aboslutely absolutely. Completely and totally agreed. I am escaping this shit hole city in two days and never coming back. Moving back home to Canada.
Just found this blog as I was going to start one with the same title. LOVE IT! I’ve been in this crap hole for over a year and I feel like I fell into a time machine set on 1973. Living here is so differnt from vacationing here. My currrent pet peeve: When I went back to the US last month, I was given lists and lists of stuff to buy for my British friends – as well as my own things you can’t get here. How come no one from the US ever asks me to bring stuff over to them? Moreover, why is everything made here such inferior quality crap?
I’m so glad I’ve found like-minded people. Your blogs are amazingly true – I hope you keep on writing. I’ve only been here a few weeks and I already hate it. I’m studying abroad here – I’m actually American. It’s so strange. I’ve wanted to go to London ever since I was 11 – from everything I had seen and heard, I thought it was the best English-speaking place I could possibly be.
Oh my god, what a fucking disappointment. Everyone is miserable. Most of the people are so rude and angry. I find myself crying every other day. I just hate it here.
The reason everything made here is crap is becuase it isn’t actually made here. We ceased to have a manufacturing industry after Thatcher destroyed what was left in about 1980, it’s made in China.
I just got back from work which is in Knightsbridge, full of arabs, fu..king tourists, shopers, running overpriced stores buying the worst crap on Planet Earth. WTF is wrong with this city?, I hate it so much I can’t stand a single day here without getting paranoid. The only reason for which Im here is my school, but the whole rest is so fucked up, I still can not believe this. I feel like I live in some kinda shithole, where no one pay attention to anything, everything is about eating and shiting here that is all, this city is not cool not at all, transport – shit, people – mostly shit, weather – shit, nightlife – really shit, shit – loads of it. Anyway, because I still can’t find anything interesting to do after work in this city, I will go to Tesco to buy some overpriced crap, I really do not need. Im just “happy” there is more people here hatin this fuckin place. Everyone else is trying to be so posh and cool and sophisticated – - – to all of this people —– GO TO NEW YORK AND LEARN!!!!
Love your hate for the Public Transport in London, had to transfer airports from Luton to Heathrow, and as there is no direct method other than a 50-75 (almost 150 american dollars to transfer what the f!) quid cab ride I had to take the train to Kings Cross and transfer via the underground to Heathrow. The first problem I had was the undetermined price for the train between Luton and Kings Cross, how can you have seemingly random prices for a determined trip! Anyways after finding the cheapest trip out of 7 or 8 random prices to the same location, I was off for the next hour in a cramped train to Kings Cross. After arriving at Kings Cross (a very beautiful station i might add) I went to transfer to the subway and thought I had bought a ticket that included travel to Heathrow as it had basically every single district for the London Metro Area, come to find out upon arrival at the airport there is one “special” district for Heathrow, district 6, how in the hell can they do this to people! So before I could enter the airport I had to travel the two stations back to the area my ticket covered, and buy another individual ticket from that location for travel to Heathrow. Needless to say I was glad upon arrival to Heathrow to cut my loses of about 50 american dollars to get out off the shitty underground and back to america where there are fixed costs for riding the rail, and a subway ticket means you can travel to a given location on the subway…..
i love you.
WOW I couldn’t agree more with everything thats said on this site.
Just to put my misery out there, and perhaps ease your pains a little, I’m just a student here which makes everything much much worse.
I never ever imagined my student live being so shittious – people are incredibly rude, pretensious, drunk, edgy, russian, gold diggers urghhhh. Everything is just so overpriced! so gray, i cant get anywhere without paying shittious amounts and that doesn’t even involve cabs.
honestly, where else in the world is it a LUXURY to take cabs??
and the tragedy is that i don’t live in a bad part of london or anything. i go to a renowned college, live in a good place yet i’m just so unhappy….and it sucks because as an int. student i pay triple of what other kids pay and its just killing me how it just doesn’t feel worth it .
its my second year and i’m trying so hard to not hate it here but its hard.
and is it just me or does the food suck too? why am i always disappointed when i try something new. anything as simple as a sandwich or something and i always think ‘ great another 5 pounds wasted’.
blah.
I am so glad I read this. I have been thinking for the past year that I must be the one with a problem with this total excuse of a dump of a city. I am English and came back for a year to be with my partner after 2 years in Sydney. OMG what was I thinking. It is a detestable place of the highest order. People are totally miserable & angry. My second day at work I got physically threatened by a angry youth when walking through a door out of the DLR at Canary Wharf. I should of realised what to expect. People are so far up their backsides they think this is the place to be yet these are the pricks that dont know whats up North and havent lived anywhere half decent long enough to know what total pile of shi* this place is. Its totally disgusting. If it isnt someone getting knifed every five minutes, working excessive hours as part of the British long hours diseased culture, dealing with a by gone era of class, being ripped off with prices, seeing hardly any summer just shit weather, over priced housing, a shit transport system, corrupt and incompetent politicians well fck me. Thank God I will be in Sydney in a week. NEVER EVER coming back. Lesson learned. Leave these miserble bastards and retarded selfish people to it. To be perfectly frank I wouldnt want their miserable bad attitudes in Sydney. GOOD BYE!
Lived in London my whole life and it is my goal in life to emigrate to Oz or the States, i simply cannot stand living in this smelly, crime ridden, overpopulated SHIT HOLE and on top of it all, it’s one of the most expensive cities on earth! The fucking cheek!!
I hate this place. The other day I was waiting for the bus when these two guys came up to me aggressively and asked me what I have in my pocket. So I said “How is that any of your business?” and then they pinned me against the wall and threatened to stab me in the throat unless i gave them everything that was in my pocket. So I handed them my wallet and phone and they punched my stomach and ran away. Okay so I just got mugged, not really a big deal, shit happens. That’s not what got me really cross. It was the fact that there were at least three other people waiting for the bus who were just pretending as if nothing was happening and deliberately looking away or reading a newspaper. I even noticed that one of them walked away to avoid any trouble. What cowards!!! seriously, this just sums up London in a nutshell. No one can give a toss about anyone in this horrible city. They don’t want hassle! I mean I could have actually got stabbed right there and they would have probably been just as indifferent. What the hell is going on? Do Londoners have a conscience or do they deliberately shut themselves off for the sake of it. What a horrible place.
Fuck off back home then.
I’ve been traveling quiet a bit in the world and also in very poor countries. However London is really busting my balls. I’m here since almost one year non-stop working. I can just say it didn’t pay off I really regret the time I was here and I hope I’m able to leave after another 6 months or so.
There is better housing in Bulgaria, there is even better houses in Cambodia.
Making friends is almost impossible because everyone how is saine just works like a dog to get the fuck out off here and the rest is fucked.
Ah the bussystem… when I arrived here first I thought its funny – Now its pissing me off course I need to use it. Could anyone explain to me why english people need a busstop every 40 meters ? and maybe one trafficlight in between.
The weather— ok to be fair that can’t be changed.
How the fuck could we loose the war against these people?
… by the way I’m glad we lost – but still.
Oh good lord, I totally agree! Like other respondants I had great expectations, but what a freaking nightmare the city has turned out to be!
I agree w/the inefficiency of the public transport system – my favourite part has to be the bus schedules, or lack thereof. “Every 5-10 minutes” – what does that mean!? How are you supposed to plan a commute or ensure that you get anywhere on time? Other cities, in less wealthy countries, manage to run efficient transport systems that operate according to actual schedules so that one can minimize the time spent standing on the curb in the pouring rain praying that a bus will materialize in the immediate future.
I am also completely put off by the English job market. I’m an American w/a master’s degree and work experience, but I’ve been unable to find any stimulating or interesting work in my field or out of it. At the same time, I repeatedly encounter sub-standard service and work practices everywhere from clothing stores, to pubs, to government agencies. I’m beginning to wonder if incompentence is a prerequisite for getting a job in London.
Okay, will stop now, but could go on and on…thank you for providing a place to vent. Back to planning my escape route now…
London is an amazing city, unless you’re interested in the evolution of humanity! I can’t stand this place. I’m glad I’m not alone. I moved here 5 years ago (my father is English) and I feel like I’ve been swallowed up by an overcrowded, overpriced, overstressed, outdated, and uninspiring black hole!! I’ve lived in Washington DC, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Kyoto and Hiroshima and visited even more, but London is frankly the most disappointing place to live. I’ve stepped back in time. The streets are dirty, the culture is arrogant, tolerance is low, public transport is a NIGHTMARE, the politics are juvenile and highly aristocratic, basic services like phone/gas/tv/banks/post office are never straight forward to set up and will always leave you feeling victimized. The bar and club scene is sooo disappointing. Difficult to make friends unless you want to look/talk/act like everyone else. And very difficult to find places that don’t play top 40 music crap. I’m leaving to settle back in Toronto this year. I can’t wait! Thank you for letting me rant. Peace to all.