Mike Chowla
Europe Fall 2012:

London

On my first visit to London in 2001, I found the city pleasant but unremarkable. I arrived after my first visit to Paris and I was so taken with charm of seeing Paris for the first time, that London seemed drab by comparison. Eleven years later, I've spent for more time in London than any other place except my home region of the Bay Area due to my brother having settled there. It's taken me a long to see the charm of the place. I'm perhaps a little too easily taken with sublime architecture and London is lacking there. To make up for it, London is drenched in history and that history flows into the present in ways one can see and feel. What I've really come to enjoy about the place is that it has a wealth of worthwhile things to see and do beyond the typical tourist route.