-
20 Festivals in London in 2020
A few weeks ago, Barack Obama shared his annual list of favorites — books, films, and music. The former US President reflected that ‘outlets like literature and art can enhance our day-to-day experiences’. As a Psychiatrist, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, one of the reasons why I love living in London is the number of music and film festivals, as well as other cultural events, available. Last year, I attended quite a few festivals and cultural events, and I subsequently published several posts about my favorite festivals in London. I particularly enjoyed the music festivals taking place in the summer, and the film festivals in the autumn. Here are…
-
Leeds: 9 tips by a (former) local
Leeds. Live it. Love it. This was the slogan of the city of Leeds when I moved there in 2011. I lived in this West Yorkshire city for 6 years. And, boy, I did love it. Leeds, the largest city in Yorkshire, reminds me of my hometown, Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece. In terms of population, they’re both medium-sized cities (the city of Leeds has almost 800,000 inhabitants, whereas the population of the wider metropolitan area exceeds two million). Like Thessaloniki, Leeds has several universities that attract tens of thousands of students each year. Like many other medium-sized cities, it has a fairly compact center that can be walked…
-
Explore the Isle of Man in 3 days
Bank holiday weekends provide a perfect opportunity for a short trip away from home. Yet, with the Brexit disaster fast approaching, weekend breaks in Europe may soon be a thing of the past. Halfway between Great Britain and Ireland, lies the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea, which is neither a part of the United Kingdom, nor of the British Overseas Territories (such as Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, and 10 other territories spread across the world). The Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey are the three so-called Crown Dependencies; all three of them are located off…
-
Summer in London: top 20 tips by a local
London is my favorite city in the world, and I am glad that I can call it home for the last couple of years. Summer is my favorite season and time of the year, so summer in London is simply a dream combination (although, to be absolutely honest, I would probably put summer on the Greek islands first). A few weeks ago, Glastonbury Festival took place, but sadly I hadn’t been able to secure the much-desired ticket and see Kylie, Chris and Carrie live (it would’ve been my second time for all of them). But every cloud has a silver lining, and I was lucky to attend two extraordinary…
-
Ealing Summer Festivals & 12 tips by a local
Spread over 6 events, Ealing Summer Festivals take place this month. The programme includes Greenford Carnival (which took place on the 7th of July), Ealing Beer Festival (taking place between the 10th and the 13th of July), Acton Carnival (due on the 13th of July), Ealing Comedy Festival (18th-19th and 24th-26th July), Ealing Blues Festival (20th-21st July), and Ealing Jazz Festival (27th-28th July). The latter is one I would have been looking most forward to, had I not been invited to a friend’s wedding that weekend. The line-up of the latter includes the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra and the Stefanos Tsourelis Jazz Quartet (daily tickets cost £5). All 4 festivals take…
-
Chiswick: Top 12 tips by an (almost) local
Lovebox and Citadel Festivals are coming back to Gunnersbury Park this month. It was a year ago when both festivals relocated from Victoria Park in the East End of London to the lesser-known Gunnersbury Park in West London. Since Gunnersbury Park is located in the London Borough of Hounslow between Acton, Brentford, Chiswick and Ealing, the relocation of the festivals helped put these districts on the map. As a local to this part of the capital (I live in Brentford, in the London Borough of Hounslow), I am very familiar with Chiswick and Ealing, and this week I will be sharing my top tips for the former (my top…
-
A walk and a recital in hip Shoreditch
Sat in a café in Shoreditch, reading books and articles about happiness and the neuroplasticity of the brain, I came across some research studies about the iconic London black cabs and their drivers. In a landmark study, Maguire et al scanned these taxi drivers’ brains and found that a specific part of their brains (the posterior hippocampus, believed to play an important role in spatial memory and navigation) was significantly larger compared to controls. Based on the findings of their research, Maguire concluded that ‘there is a capacity for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands’. This is of extraordinary…