A few weeks ago, I jetted out ofDubai and landed in Heathrow for a two-day layover. I’m ever so lucky to have a charming sister with a charming place in a charming neighborhood there. After a long flight in an airbus packed full of recently laid-off Brits, I took the train into the city, dropped off a bag of stuff at Katharine’s office, and began a short, intermediary adventure. After Katharine finished her work, we enjoyed Vietnamese dishes for dinner, while I dished about my time in the broken bubble shattered capitalist dream that is Dubai.

I was only gone for a few weeks, but I had desperately missed the ability to spend long periods of time outside, and the ability to get from one place to another without paying someone else. In Dubai’s ex-pat neighborhoods, there are virtually no sidewalks, and if there are, they are probably under construction. People take taxis everywhere, shuttling back and forth between the air-conditioned bubbles of home, shopping malls and office buildings. In the slightly more walk-able areas, it’s possible to go a few blocks before running into a giant highway that cuts across your path. Plus, after two blocks outside, especially in the middle of the day, your skin starts to feel like it’s melting (and indeed, my cheap sunglasses did melt onto my face at one point).

After dinner, Katharine made some thoughtful suggestions for my extra day in the city. Should I check out the Tate? The Indian art exhibit at the British Museum? Go shopping in Soho? I planned to do a number of these things in my head, but when I set off the next morning, the only thing that I wanted to do was walk, walk, walk. Through residential neighbors, along crescent avenues, into alleys with tucked away cafes. And so walk I did. I walked from the campus of LSE, to St. Paul’s, where I witnessed an impromptu ballet:

Surprise Ballet!

Across Millennium Bridge: 

Lovely Bridge

 

Down the river:

River Shot, with Shade

I stopped for various cups of tea along the way. I know these may seem like boring tourist photos, but  I am not exaggerating it was truly one of the most wonderful days of my life. The sun beat down on my face, but in a pleasant, non-destructive way that my SPF 15 could certainly handle. Light reflected off the water, and I only had to go inside to use to loo. And finally, at the end of the workday, I met my sister for a drink.

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