aussietobe

Only a few places stay open past 3am in London. Amd I fail to see what is so great about Oxford St?

aussietobe

I was really disappointed with New York.
the shopping was the same you get everywhere, so was the restaurants and most of the time you had to pay 20USD just to get inside a bar. riding the metro was a most depressing experience (farse worse than London's underground)
Cities i would rave about include: Barcelona, Rome, Melbourne, Montreal, Hong Kong, New orleans (before Katrina.) And Edinburgh.

aussietobe

This comment reminded me of listening to ABC radio yesterday and hearing about how english settlers massacred koalas to the point where 80% were wiped up. the saddest story was settlers who poinsoned a koala, waited till it dropped from the tree, then skinned it alive before watching it climb back up teh tree

humans can be horrible creatures.

Deancm_MKII

Loads of places stay open after 3am in London. You just need to be in the know.

Turban Explorer

True. I was still hard at it pub crawling at 6 am a few weeks ago in Hoxton Square and then Vauxhall.... Now I go to bed about 9 pm again and get up at 6 am!

Amazulu

Sure, I've always managed to get a drink whatever the hour and it's even better now that pubs can stay open later. On our trip there last year, I was out till stupid o'clock on a Thursday and my wife was not impressed when I got back to our hotel. I find that late-night London can have a certain unfriendly, slightly aggressive edge to it. A lot of the late-night places are shitholes and people only go there because they can get a drink. Paris, New York, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, San Francisco, LA kick London's ass for late-night fun.

RedT

3am in London wasn't the problem as we were in our hotel rooms drinking wine cunningly purchased from Sainsbury's earlier! it was 11am the following morning when we went out for breakfast and a mooch down Oxford St and **** all was open. There were tons of people about, mainly tourists, all expecting that on one of Europe's biggest shopping streets, they'd be able to find somewhere open at 11am!

Amazulu

Much of Oxford street is a dump and has some incredibly down-market shops. Last July, I noticed that the huge ex-Virgin megastore was still empty and boarded up and the big Borders bookstore was no longer there. The main HMV store was still open and very good it is too.

I will be avoiding OS on my next visit.

ozzieeagle

Sometimes I think you forget that I'm a born and bred Londoner. I dont know of one Street in London that has as many dimensions as Sydney Rd.... Again maybe you have to live here as long as I have... circa 25 years to know what I'm on about.

38 bars along it's length for starters. God knows how many eateries from all over the world... from Ethopia to Argentina and back to Afghanistan and most inbetween. There is even a Rastafarian section..... we both know how few West Indians there are in Aus.


Once you get past that... then and imagine what it's like to live here, experience this daily and how disappointed you are with life in other places. One cannot help but compare.

It's definitely the best Urban place I've lived and I'd love to hear nominations for better Urban Living. I'm struggling to think of any in London. Some places may have finer dining etc etc... but diverse I'm not so sure.

the troubadour

Wise move. Not sure why anyone would seek out breakfast on that strip. There are so many great places to go for that.

We did spend a frustrating morning looking in a few of the shops there last year. I couldn't take more than a couple of hours in fact and met my OH in Foyles Bookshop off Tottenham Court Road. Don't mind browsing a few hours in there but Oxford Street just gets worse by each visit.

brissybee

Actually, I think the gay gnome ads are in Sydney.

steen1976

Can't really comment on the other cities around Oz as only either visited for a few days or not been. But Sydney really is the most liveable city ($$$ for accommodation aside!). I have loved London for years and was always my favourite city in the world and probably still is but for living Sydney wins hands down. It's a great city in its own right but then it has amazing beaches and parks and very easy access to national parks which London doesn't have. Someone mentioned coming here for culture and cuisine and you would be disappointed - not here. We've had some of the best food ever (Namak anyone?). I love the outback too and spent many long days driving through it never tiring of it and just waiting for those sunsets. Places like Kakadu and The Whitsundays are what the place is all about. Loads of folk from the UK would love to come here and it's those places and koalas and roos that tempt them. But it's always seemed and expensive dream because of the cost of flights but now with the exchange rate as it is and expensive services there's no chance of an upturn in tourism.

paulry

Better for tourists yes. For local residents it was a disasterous decision.

paulry

Along with the "Are you impotent?" ads

Deancm_MKII

I know the late night places you're talking about but they're not the same ones that I am talking about. A lot of the establishments that I am referring to are cool and trendy.