I felt oddly at home while visiting London many years ago.
While London can feel like you are permanently swimming upriver, oddly enough it also feels like home to so many different people because of its diversity. That word has been thrown around unthinkingly a lot in recent years (along with "vibrant", real estate agent speak for "deprived", argh) but I don't think there are that many cities that are actually as truly diverse as London. Among other factors 40%+ of the people are foreign born so there is no one group dominating the city in any significant way and despite the crazy prices there are still council flats in Hampstead. And Londoners are by and large a nice bunch. I have different "homes" in my head as well, but feel this is it for now.
I felt oddly at home while visiting London many years ago.
While London can feel like you are permanently swimming upriver, oddly enough it also feels like home to so many different people because of its diversity. That word has been thrown around unthinkingly a lot in recent years (along with "vibrant", real estate agent speak for "deprived", argh) but I don't think there are that many cities that are actually as truly diverse as London. Among other factors 40%+ of the people are foreign born so there is no one group dominating the city in any significant way and despite the crazy prices there are still council flats in Hampstead. And Londoners are by and large a nice bunch. I have different "homes" in my head as well, but feel this is it for now.