london… kinda dirty

i recently made my first trip to london, ever. before you go on a big trip you get advice from everyone… i mean everyone – your friends, family, co-workers, mailman, the barista at starbucks that overhears your conversation on the phone – everyone. but no matter how prepared or unprepared you think you are when you first get off that plane and step into the streets – you can’t help the first things you notice.

a few things i had a problem with in London: litter, smoking, dog poop.

LITTER: it appeared to me that people don’t think that littering is a big deal. it might not be totally their fault because i didn’t see a lot of trash cans available, but it seemed that they did it like it wasn’t a bad thing to do. i’d walk down the street and see people throw newspapers, paper cups, whatever just on the ground without a second thought.

SMOKING: ok, for some reason culturally smoking is more popular or common in europe – i don’t need to understand that. but there doesn’t seem to be any control – at restaurants, if you’re a non-smoker you have basically no choice to breathe it because everyone around you is smoking and blowing it in your direction. what if it makes you sick or if you’re allergic? it’s just very respectful in my mind. and yea, i used to be a social smoker – but no matter how drunk i was, i think i was respectful to the people around me when i was being gross.

DOG POO: they don’t pick it up. be careful – it’s hard to walk around a new city and try to take in all of the sights when you have to keep looking down so you don’t step in it. and on a side note, dogs in europe seem to have longer bodies… or possibly shorter legs.

i took in the borough market for a few hours when i was there and took this picture of the biggest pile of brownie i have ever seen. it wasn’t until after i came back and took a look at it did i realize that i would not want to buy a brownie that spent the entire day out in the air or smoke, trash and dog poop. so now i’ve ruined this picture for me. but still – that’s a lot of brownie!