Ask HN: Moving to London from California
I’m moving from a smaller beach town in California to London in a month as an American. Any tips?
30, no kids and a wife. Felt like life was short, so we found jobs and bought a plane ticket.
30, no kids and a wife. Felt like life was short, so we found jobs and bought a plane ticket.
Tips? Nothing concrete. Be open. Everything will change; let it. What you thought is true and indisputable will be called into question; let it. Find new truths. Bruce Lee said, "Be water." Be water. Allow it to change you and it will, permanently, in the best way possible.
When I was 26, I moved from California to Europe and never looked back. Easily one of the best decisions of my life. Have fun. You won't regret it.
Oh and when they ask you, "Who do you support?" (and they will!) it means which football (soccer) team do you back, and the answer is Liverpool.
P.S. If you have any concrete questions, my email is in my profile.
This is the way.
A friend from SoCal who moved to London for a few years couldn't really handle sky getting dark around 3-4 in the afternoon in the winter, and she would say it was almost impossible for her not to get depressed during those times. So just something to be prepared for.
On the bright side though, London, as with many German cities, has short cheap direct flights to many sun bleached cities and beach destinations in Europe so I would suggest making ample use of them if you can. Being in the US afterwards, one realizes there is no location in the mainland US that can compete with the Mediterranean with respect to actually being an inviting body of water to swim in (non mainland Hawaii is obviously an exception).
And May and June in London itself I often find especially beautiful as well.
With location, proximity to a station & what train line matters - you'll likely use the underground a bunch so consider your commute for this closely.
Take one of those bus tours. I did only after living there for years as 'that's for tourists' but its really worth it and gives a good city perspective.
Do lots of travel to Europe from London. So much is on your doorstep with cheap flights if flexible on where you go. Take advantage of this especially if kids are on the horizon.
If you dont already, learn to like beer and pubs. There's something better about British pubs and pub culture. Also it usually well priced reasonable quality meals.
Speaking of pubs, anything crowded in the city will have pickpockets so watch you phone/bag closely or it wont be there.
Its quite common to rent flats furnished, this is likely a good option for you to start. Also what I did as I had no rental history there is offer to pay 6-months up front (and requested a discount for that) to show there financial risk was reduced.
Its an awesome city - I personally enjoyed immensely. I noticed people tended to be there 6-month or 6-years - it was kind of love or hate though, with the majority loving.
Oh and go to Shakespeare's globe theatre for me will you. I walked past that place for 2 years thinking I'll line that one up sometime and never did!
If you like walking try and walk around the centre as much as possible (without using phone mapping ideally), you'll realise it's quite small really and get to know the place. Take some time to experience the history, art galleries, theatre etc I wish I'd done more of that now I live in the provinces.
Take time to see different parts of the UK, although I loved living in London for 2 years and visit a lot I way prefer other parts of the UK and now a lot of people live remotely it's practical to live in the midlands for example and go there for work once a week maybe.
Take regular trips to Europe by plane, train or car. It's cheap and doable for a weekend. There is a lot of variety between countries/cities which I think you'd really appreciate.
I've been here for ~10 years and feel like I'm familiar with a fairly narrow slice of it (mostly north/north east a little bit). A good mental model imo is to see it as a collection of smaller towns, each with distinct urban centres, that have grown into each other. This makes it endlessly interesting to me and I feel like I'm unlocking new parts of it all the time.
Make use of the huge amounts of green space that London has.
Make use of the nightlife in London.
Make use of the huge number of in-person events in London.
I am contactable via my profile if you'd like a more detailed discussion, and/or to meet for beer, coffee, etc.
Places to live if you have a comfortable budget : Clapham is popular with young professionals. Hackney is popular with hipsters. Hampstead if you want to live somewhere nice.
Jokes aside, but just curious what is bad about California that makes you want to go to London?