What to do for fun in London

Football

 The Premier League (or the Premiership) came into existence in 1992. Featuring the top clubs of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get tickets to games featuring Premiership Teams such as Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea as demand is extremely high. For more information visit http://www.premierleague.com/

 You can expirience the exitment of English football, however, by going to see a match featuring clubs from Football League.The football League consist of 72 professional football clubs in England an Wales and runs the oldest professional football league competition in the wold. It also organized two knockout cup competitions. The official website is http://www.football-leage.co.uk/

 If you want to get as close to your team as possible, some grounds have tours you can go on to have a look around. Famouse London Football Grounds are:

 Arsenal: Amirates Stadium. Nearest tube: Arsenal or Finsbury Park.

 Chelsea: Standford Bridge. Nearest tube: Fulham Broadway

 Fulham/QPR: Loftus Road. Nearest tube: White City

 West Ham: Upton Park. Nearest tube: Upton Park

Tennis

 Wimbledon takes place in June - you cannot pre-order tickets. The best way of getting entry is arriving very early on the morning of the first or second day of the tournament.

 If you want to play tennis, there are 19 tennis courts in Battersea Park. You can play Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for approximately 3.10 Pounds and on weekends from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. for appproximately 5.50 Pounds. According to Moscow prices its cheep.

Cricket

The cricket season runs from June to August. The Lord's Cricket ground is located near St. John's Tube Station. International cricket is shown on channel 4 during the summer.

In London you may find alot of beautifful parks. They are well-cared. Some of them you can vist and enjoy nature.

London Biggest Parks are:

Regent's Park. Nearest Tube is Regent's Park.

Hyde Park. Nearest tube is Lancaster Gate.

There are beautifful places along th Thames River, such as:

Richmond. Nearest Tube: Richmond.

Greenwich. Neaest Tube: Cutty Sark DLR

Southbank. Nearest Tube: Waterloo

Public Transport in London

  If you just came to London you have to choose the transport. This is very importent because if you dont know anything about prices and transport system you may spend for that a huge amount of money :-)

  The main transport options in London are bus (mostly you will see "double dekker"); Underground train (as a rule they are comfortable and fast); Trams; Overground train; National Rail and cycling/walking.

  A very useful website is Transport for London website (www.ftl.uk/gettingaround1106.aspx) which contains links to various popular maps, including Underground, Overground trains and bus maps (day and night). Yuy can find also "Jorney Planner" which will tell you how to get from one address, postcode or station to another, and the approximate time for jorney.

  Street maps:

1. A to Z: One book which is worth purchasing when you arrive to London is the A to Z. You can find and order map of other parts of UK from theiwebsite at http://www.a-zmaps.co.uk/ as well.
2. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/ is useful website which allows you to search by street name, postcode or place of interest.
3. http://maps.google.co.uk/ also provides very detailed maps from the whole country.

Oyster Card.

If you dont want to spend much money every day buying tickets, I must to say - not cheep once, then you may buy Oyster Card and to put money to it, travelling whenever you want, useing any kind of transport. Its better and cheeper to put money for a long period of time as minimum 1 month and more. Quite comfortable system - you may have just one small card and to use it everywhere :-)

Life in London: getting started.

   First of all I would like to tell a little about process of getting visa and things related to it. Every year it's harder to get visa to England but possible. So don't give up if you wish to live in UK! :-) To get UK visa I had to represent to Enlgish Embassy documents about my job, that I am currently working and I need improvment in English to get better job plus I have to show papers about ownership in my country so that means I will return back. At the beginning I did not understand why english government is against emigration and have strict limit to let live in England. After I came to London, I have realised why that is like that. My first day in London I was surprised with number of emigrants in London. Here there are lot of people from Africa, India, Colombia and other counrties where people cannot fully express themselfs and to have suitable life as they wish to have. With every year British government changing emigration policy and putting bigger bariers to get visa to UK.

  First day in London, honeslty saying, was quiet hard because I was lost in the center of London. Having post address of family where will I be living, I had taken taxi from Victoria undeground station. Having seen that address on the road to home, taxi driver told that he cannot get me to destination because the address I had told him is not exact and he needs more exact address :-) As my mobile was discharged, I did not know anyone in London, seating in a taxi I realised that that I was lost and did not know what to do next. Taxi driver just calmly was telling me that he cannot deliver me to destination  I need and was asking where do I need to get :-)  Eventually, after long talkings and explanations, I had remembered that I have an emergency telephone number of language school. So, by chance, a girl answered and gave me the right address :-) So I got, finally, to family house, like that finished my first day in London :-) Advice you not to take a taxi in London - its extremally expansive.