London is more than a series of tourist attractions. The little streets and local parks are the places that are making me fall in love with London. Well, those things and the pubs. London is infamous for all the little neighborhood pubs. And all of these places have names like, “The New Globe” or “The Blind Beggar.” Each one is unique in its own way and has a certain atmosphere to it. The culture here in London revolves around the pub life. My friend Allison and I joke around and call it “pubbing” (yes we made up that verb) because that is the thing to do. London has some of the oldest pubs, for example, Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, located near St. Paul’s Cathedral in central London. Coming from America where I am not of a legal age, but I have seen so many movies depicting the “bar lifestyle” and what clubs are supposed to look like, it is astounding how different the atmosphere here is. Out of the friends I have made here in London, the few close British ones that like us Americans, have taken us to a few pubs. We did an old fashion pub-crawl in East London. Six pubs, all within a mile of Queen Mary, with somewhat affordable drinks gave us true insight to what we are missing back in the States. Starting right outside Queen Mary’s gates, through the park, through a few neighborhoods, and finally back out onto the main street, ‘The Golden Mile’ (the name graciously given to this pub-crawl by my British friend Ed) incorporates all the different types of pubs one can find in London. It varies from classy pubs (like The Victoria) to the typical college, run down cheap pubs (like The New Globe). Each is special in their own way, which is why we have done the pub-crawl three times and counting! At first the idea of the pub-crawl seemed strange to me, but it is a way to visit multiple unique places at once, mingle with the locals, and try a variety of drinks that are considered more “crafty” and local to the East End.
