Today Jed and I took our first ride on the Tube - Jubilee line to Northern, and then got off at Angel in Islington. We walked around that area for a while, heading south to Barbican and west through Spitalfields Market, then up Brick Lane, and finally got back on the train at Whitechapel and headed back. It was really interesting to see those neighborhoods in person, after hearing the description from Jen. I didn't see the same areas she did - she was north of Angel, near the canals - and the bits I saw were less appealing to me. Lots of taller, newer buildings, not much of a neighborhood feel. The Barbican Centre was huge; I was walking down the street, looked up and all I could see was this building.
(photo from the Guardian - photographer: Greame Roberston.)
I was trying to remember why the name "Barbican" sounded so familiar, and then when I got back I remembered a bit about the history of the Barbican Estate.
Our trip out was cut short by phone woes. I was using the iPhone map to get around and simultaneous trying to respond to an email from the estate agent regarding an apartment in Shoreditch - calling his office depleted my phone credit. How, exactly, I'm not quite sure - still figuring out the phone policies here - but my phone kept warning me that I needed to "top up".
I had tried to figure out how to do this online the night before, but in order to register with the phone company, even to create an online account, you need to give them your address. Since I wasn't sure how hard it would be to change the address in a week or two, when we're (hopefully) in our own place, I gave customer service a call. They were closed after 9PM.
So I gave them a call while I was out today. However, the customer service line is totally automated, and to top up the credit over the phone requires that you put in your postcode. It does not recognize a US zip code as a post code, and the automated message kept cheerfully requesting that I try again. No luck. Now the phone was fully out of funds, which meant that every couple of minutes I would get a message that said I'd be unable to use the internet until I put more money on the SIM.
The way that mobile phones work here is different than in the States. There's two options for service - "pay monthly" and "pay as you go". Pay monthly is a contract, similar to what I'm used to from New York. It seems to be available in 18 and 24 month blocks. That's not an option for us, as we don't have a credit history, a bank account, or an address here. So Pay-as-you go it is. You buy a phone, and then buy a SIM card with money on it. Different carriers have different options, and you can pick one based on the coverage, the different plans they offer, or whatever other criteria is meaningful to you... Logo color? Spokesmodel?
O2 and Vodaphone are the two biggest, with Orange and T-Mobile being next in line. Stewart said that O2 and Vodaphone had the best coverage, although according to the ads I just saw today, T-Mobile and Orange are now sharing transmitters, which should increase the coverage for those services. The interesting thing about pay as you go is that there's nothing tying you to one provider from one month to the next. You can get a SIM card from Orange one month and Vodaphone the next. I think you can even transfer your number fairly easily, although I haven't tested that out yet.
Anyway, £15 on the SIM card was supposed to get me 100 texts and 500 MB of data free, although there's apparently some kind of procedure where I have to text O2 and tell them which category I want my £15 applied to, but the text cost me several pence, bringing my balance below £15, which made me ineligible to apply the £15 and end up with the 100 texts. The salesman at the O2 store had said that I should be careful and wait until I got the confirmation text from O2, otherwise this would happen, but I'd gotten a text that looked awfully confirmation-esque, "Calltime loaded. Your balance is now £15.00. Thanks for topping up with O2" so I thought I was good.
Looks like today I'll be taking a visit to the O2 store to sort all this out.
Back to the walking around part - in addition to the phone buzzing to let me know that I needed to somehow feed it money, Jed was really unhappy about having to wear his hood. Although it was merely brisk when we were in the sun, if the street was shaded it was downright chilly. I was feeling okay with a flat cap and hooded sweatshirt, but I was also walking briskly while pushing a stroller (pram!) and carrying a backpack. Jed was not at all into the idea of having his hood up, and when I insisted that he wear it, he started yelling... and yelled and sobbed for about an hour, trying to get out of the stroller, pulling at the straps, etc. I tried giving him a scarf to play with, but that only intensified the anguish. Still not really sure why he was so upset - he's worn a hat before with no issues. Ah, two year olds. Fortunately he was much calmer on the tube. Trains do a pretty good job of distracting him.
Apart from those aggravations, the walk was pretty great. Brick Lane reminded me of Atlantic Avenue, only with lots more Muslim-related shops. Even the Subway has signs saying that the meat is halal. We walked past the East London Mosque, which is massive. We also saw Spitalfields Market - basically an open square with shops like this around the perimeter:
Then inside that square were a bunch of stalls selling food, plus picnic tables, and then inside that circle were a bunch of vendors. Wikipedia tells me that there's been a market there since 1638 - Charles I gave a license allowing the sale of "flesh, fowl and roots", but I also saw paperback books, Beatles paraphenalia, scarves, jewelry and ironic T-shirts on offer. Kind of reminded me of some of the shops along Broadway south of 14th, only condensed into one area.
At this point the phone battery was almost gone, so we headed to Whitechapel and got on the Tube to head home.
Things that are different between the NYC subway and London Underground:
1: Getting there, and back again:
In London, the subway doesn't run for 24 hours. Sometimes it doesn't run at all. You can look at the Transport for London page to see which lines are experiencing delays and which have "good service". Jen was over an hour late for work the other day; the train stopped. In New York, if the train stops, you tend to just hang out for a couple minutes and see if it's going to go again, or what. Here, she said that the train stopped in the station and everyone just piled off. And not to wait for the next train - they headed out to get busses or cabs. In fact, an informal poll of her coworkers indicated that having an Underground stop near the house is not as big a deal as living near a subway stop in New York was for us. I need to do some research on bus lines that go to her office, and look for housing accordingly.
2: Oyster Card!
I saw shops with signs advertising "Oyster Top-ups". Despite the name, it's not actually a delicious snack. The Oyster card is like a Metrocard, only instead of swiping, you tap it on this yellow button. Well, by tap, they mean "lay flat against the button till the little light comes on" Also, in the two stations we entered today, the station attendant physically opens the extra-wide door to let a stroller through. And there were two attendants in the station, both of whom were extremely friendly and helpful, even remembering Jed when we came back through later in the day. Not sure how much of that was standard service, and how much was the combination of clueless American and cute baby. I knew teaching him to give people high fives would come in handy!
Unlike NYC, in London you also have to tap your card upon LEAVING the subway system, otherwise you get charged the max amount. The cost of your ride depends on actual use, rather than a flat fee to enter the system, and the cost is higher during peak hours. I'm kind of back and forth on which system seems fairer - on the one hand, why not charge people for their actual use of the subway? Those who commute shorter distances and therefore use the system less, should pay less.
On the other hand, in NYC, cheaper housing tends to be farther from the city center, so lower-paid workers who have to commute longer distances would pay a higher amount, whereas those who can afford to live in the more expensive parts of Manhattan would also pay less for transit. In theory, I like the "level playing field" aspects of the same price for everyone, bum or billionaire.
Not sure which is more effective for the city - I'd have to do some research on how much of the subway's budget the riders actually cover.
3: Physical differences:
Here, the subway cars themselves are actually shorter in length, with a lower, curved roof, and the seats are cushioned and cloth-covered. When I heard that the subway was upholstered, I began grimacing involuntarily, thinking of all the unpleasant things that could be living in the fabric. If you've ridden the NYC subways, you're probably getting your own disgusting mental picture right now. Sorry.
Unlike New York, the tube in London seemed pretty clean - not sure whether that has more to do with social attitudes towards people using the subway like a combination bedroom/bar/toilet or just the Underground lines and stations that I saw.
I have no idea how you get around on the Tube in a wheelchair. There were signs next to the various stops that indicated which ones were handicap-accessible, which didn't seem all that phenomenal to me until I got to one that wasn't. There was easily a vertical 10 inch difference between the door of the subway car and the subway platform. Jed said "Bump!" as the stroller...errr, pram went out.
Additionally, there were lots of stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. I had no problem carrying him up and down them, but if we were riding at peak hours with more commuters, it could get tricky.
(more to come!!)
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