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Instead of irons, they have trouser presses in hotel rooms. You basically hang your pants (or shirts) over a board and latch it closed where it is warmed on a timer. A lazy man's iron really, which makes it surprising why they are not more prominent in the US.

Television in hotel rooms is horrible. There are only like 5 channels and they are all news or sports. Once such news channel, SkyNews, reports on a days happenings by reviewing front pages of all major UK newspapers. It's even one man's sole job as 'Paper Reviewer' which, I imagine, consists of him simply flipping through the daily papers in time for the 11 o'clock news. When they review a story a scan of that particular page is displayed on the tele and it's the stories that they don't talk about (but are on the same page) that are the most amusing. While they discussed Hurricane Katrina, there was a big shot of Kate Moss taking off her shirt in the back of a car with some gossip about the model's latest lust.

Many have mentioned the lack of dazzle food in London has, but what everyone has seemed to overlooked is that half of the restaurants in the London area are THE SAME, with different names, and slightly different menu layouts. Just look for the pub with a red sign and gold letters (with names like Bag Of Nails, Shakespeare, King's Lion and other generic, slightly British titles) and you will undoubtedly find the same "Traditional Fish & Chips", Bean Burger, and selection of 5 beers. Disappointingly, when I asked for a black and tan, the bartender didn't even know what it was. Which leads me to my next observation…

More than half of the waiters, bartenders, taxi drivers, and ticket sellers you come across in London will be foreign, not speak english very well, and not know very much about the culture or the area.

In the US there are trash cans on every block of a busy city, but in London there are 'litter bins' only every 5 miles. Bathrooms/restrooms are called toilets (I actually got quite a few double-takes before realizing what I was asking for).

The 'tube' is fantastic and easily navigable, and for £4.70 for an unlimited daycard (in zones 1/2) it is quite a bargain. I believe this also includes buses but I never did come across a bus schedule…

Thank god there is a "look left" or "look right" on every road because I never know which way to look. Fighting the trained reflexes of looking left first is more difficult than I thought.

It is a marketing dream for retailers here, because no matter how much I tell myself that if I see something for £5's it is really $10, I still end up spending more on stuff that I wouldn't if it was listed as dollars. Speaking of pounds, their coins seems a bit excessive at a 1 penny, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pound pieces. The sizes seem to be picked out of a hat with the 2 pence being the largest, 5 pence being the smallest, and the 10, 20, 50, and 1 pound piece being about the same size.

Walking to the tube from Les Miserables last night, a taxi pulled up to a lingerie store where a man rolled down his window and said, "Is that a knicker shop? Fantastic!".

I have refused to change the clock on my cell to London time because it brings me great entertainment to be sipping a pint for lunch and realize that it is actually 6am back home.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a train to Paris to catch.