There is no truth to the rumor that the way my wife and I figured out the itinerary for our next vacation was that we consulted TripAdvisor’s recent survey to figure out which are the dirtiest cities in Europe. It is true however that both London (#1) and Athens (tied with Rome for #3) which we plan to visit are on that list. To make matter’s worse Athens, since being voted #3, is having a garbage strike.

According to World Hum:

If the survey had been done this week, however, Greece’s capital might have made first place. Garbage collectors have been on strike for days, as part of a nationwide union protest against government pension reforms.

The garbage hills are not quite mountain-sized yet, as they were last year when the city landfill was overflowing. But the rot is stinking up the early spring air and prompting breathless television reports declaring the streets “apocalyptic”, a la Naples. Striking workers are even pelting police with the garbage during demonstrations.

It sort of the ruins the mood when youre out for a $10 (and climbing) fancy coffee at an outdoor cafe.

Sadly, Athens didn’t make any good TripAdvisor lists, i.e. best cuisine or most romantic. The cleanest city was apparently Zurich, though it was also voted one of the most boring. But clean doesn’t always mean boring: London was voted the dirtiest city, but also the city with the best nightlife.

Zurich being the cleanest city I can easily imagine. Those of you who listen to the Amateur Traveler may remember that in episode 100 I talked about going to Zurifast. The huge crowd had scattered garbage, broken bottles etc everywhere by 5 AM. Magically by 10 AM the city was already Swiss clean. Those guys are efficient.

Picture this, you are minding your own business as a tourist on the streets London when suddenly and without warning the crowd around you stops moving, freezing in place.

The day London froze. Inspired by Improv Everywhere and made a reality by 100’s of volunteers. At exactly 3:30pm on a secret cue, almost everyone in the square froze. The few bewildered tourists didn’t know what was happening. For 5 minutes the participants held their positions, and then magically everyone unfroze.

In a scene right out of the movie The Terminal a man has been living in one of the London airports. Unlike the movies, this story does not, at least not yet, have a happy ending.

A homeless chef was locked up today after making Gatwick airport his home for THREE years.

“Cheeky” Anthony Delaney ate, showered and slept at the busy airport, brushing off security staff who stopped him more then 30 times.

He told his lawyers he was happier staying there because he was “clean, dry and warm”.

In fact he rarely left the busy south terminal, popping out only occasionally to collect his Jobseeker’s Allowance, the court was told.

In scenes reminiscent of the Steven Spielberg movie The Terminal, Delaney passed his days watching holidaymakers and airline staff going about their business.

A court was told he did not suffer mental health problems, was neither a drug nor alcohol addict, and did not cause “a stink”.

We have started to plan a trip to Europe in May. The only definite part of the trip is that we are flying through London so my thought have started to turn to London, especially when I saw this wonderful video about the Tower Bridge in London. Ah London. My family went to London shortly after the birth of my son, when he was about 15 months old, and my wife was very pregnant with our daughter.

My wife remembers feeding my son on the steps of St Paul’s cathedral thinking “this is what I would be doing if I was at home… but… I’m in London!”. Ah London.

P.S. Let meknow if you would be interested in an Amateur Traveler London Meetup May 18th or 19th.

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London Underground passengers had a surprising ride recently when a group of people rose from their seats to perform the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Had they read the recent story about pole dancers on the New York Subway? New York, back to you.