My Love Affair With London (by Nikita Patel)

I have had a love affair going strong for almost 20 years. It's disastrously unhealthy, but it's fulfilling in every way imaginable. It seems sometimes I do nothing to keep it going, yet I am never, ever bored. It's been long distance for the last fourteen years, but that's what makes it work. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they say.

It's with a little place called London and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

I first met London when I was four. I still remember the day, like an old film. It was drizzly, the wind was howling, and my stomach was not in a good mood. My parents stopped the car and let me walk around a bit to calm my rumbling tummy. It was then that I first experienced those dirty streets, the same ones that I would later experience all over again. I won't ever forget the way London smelled that first time. It was a mixture between pipe tobacco and fish & chips, which may seem like an unsettling combination, but I somehow couldn't stop breathing in the scent. It made me feel better. And I just stood there, mesmerized by the fast pace people walked, the glow of the stop lights, the burst of colors. It was love at first sight.

photo: A day out in London | Nikita Patel

From that day on, I spent every weekend with London. I'll admit that it was kind of overwhelming at first. I was from a little town that did not even begin to compare to such a loud, exciting character. But, I quickly got over the feeling and began to see London not as something to be intimidated by, but as something to embrace. I suddenly felt older. Each weekend was spent eating cuisine from far away lands, running around pubs, and just lying in parks reading books. I was obviously still young, but I knew that I wanted to be with London for as long as I possibly could. It was like an insatiable need that could only be fulfilled every time I went back.

Good things don't last forever, as I soon came to find out. I moved to the U.S. when I was nine, and I was heartbroken. Who was I going to visit every weekend? London was thousands of miles away and I certainly wasn't old enough to visit by myself. I suddenly felt alone. But, thinking about how much I missed London lead me to  a certain conclusion. If anything, London taught me resilience. A lot has happened to it in its years, yet it was still standing. By result, my problems seemed minute and I somehow realized that. So, I got off my high horse and began to live without it. Of course I visited, but it never was the same, especially after only seeing it once every few years. The spark was gone. London seemed banal and lifeless. It didn't really want to show me color. It wanted to show me what I had already seen and I just wasn't having it. That is until the summer of 2007 when everything changed.

photo: Millennium Bridge | Nikita Patel

I studied abroad at the University of Cambridge that summer. After my stint, I decided to visit London for old times sake. I wasn't expecting something extravagant. I thought we would go to those old places, like the pub or the corner restaurant. However, something had changed when I got off the train. London, it seemed, was very much alive and I immediately felt swept up in its beauty. It was like a rush of emotions all at once. My teeth were chattering from nerves as I walked through King's Cross. London was actually making me anxious, I thought in disbelief, shaking my head.

As the slanted escalator brought me up from the underground, I smelled it and I heard it and I felt it. The sun was shining (for once) and there were children running through the busy streets, making pigeons flutter into the sky. A reggae band was playing on homemade instruments, stopping everyone from investment bankers to bums to have a listen. I stood there with my luggage and took it all in. The sunlight touched my body, filling me with a single thought: this is why I fell in love with London in the first place.

photo: Tottenham Court Road | alighthere.com

I never experienced London as an adult, but being one made everything that much better. I could walk around Piccadilly with my friends until the morning popped its head out of the night. I could ride the tube all day long and have fantastic conversations with strangers. I could experience places like Camden Market and Canary Wharf without being held back. I could love London that much more because I was no longer restricted. As a result, I left London that summer a completely different person.

 photo: London Eye | Nikita Patel

Last December, I saw London again. I was no longer obsessed with it like I used to be as a child. It was a different kind of admiration that made me feel quite grown up. When I got out of the airport and was greeted by a cold winter nip on the nose, I was happy. Of course I missed London, but not in the same way that I missed it before. Before, I had missed London for materialistic reasons. Now, I missed London like I missed an old friend that taught me how to live. It may not always be there for me physically, but I am ingrained with its spirit, and that sort of feeling can never be lost.
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Nikita Patel has been traveling extensively since she was a child and is now on a mission to tell stories about the world, one city at a time. You can follow her adventures on her blog or Twitter @Nikita_Patel.