One of the many things I love about London is all of the culture. Not only are there tens and likely hundreds museums around the city, many of them are world renowned and almost all of them are free to visit.

Amazing.

I've tried the British Museum, Victoria & Albert, Natural History Museum, National Gallery and a few weekends ago with a friend and art buff in town, we went to the Tate Modern.

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Even the outside of the museum gives away the modern art it holds. The building, up until 1981 was a power station. When the Tate took over, rather than re-make the building, they simply re-purposed it, so you can see evidences of it's past life throughout, but none more so than the facade that greats you as you walk up to the building.

While it was my first time to the museum, she was a veteran and knew the lay of the land, so we decided to first try the special exhibit for Paul Klee.

To be honest, I knew nothing about Paul Klee before this trip. I learned quite a bit though (at least a little of which I remember). He was a German artist at the beginning of the 20th century, who was a skilled musician and painter, but decided to stick with painting.

His work is modern art, but it's a bit all over the place. Some are more like Picasso & cubism, others are a bit less abstract (although we're not talking impressionism still).

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My favourite of course were the pointillist paintings. While not quite the Seurat paintings I love, it's still interesting. And with Klee, the paintings look like nothing much when you stand across the room, but the closer you get, the more the detail and meaning pop out at you.

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Once we finished with the Klee exhibit, we made the rounds of the rest of the museum. I've always been a fan of the more traditional art, so some interested me but some not so much.  We found our way back out to the Thames (with a quick pit stop at the cafe, although it's a fantastic place to stop for an afternoon tea), and off to take in more of everything London & it's museums have to offer.

I might have lamented recently over the pros and cons of expat life, but one of the worst parts of it was recently refreshed in my mind.

While some expats become more like locals as their new home becomes a permanent place, for many, time as an expat is a fleeting assignment with an end in sight.

During our time overseas, we have met some fantastic locals in Istanbul and London, but many of our friends are fellow expats. We speak the same language, we bring a similar perspective to our new lives, we come from a similar background and we have the same sense of adventure that we're looking for in life.

So, with all our expat friends overseas, we often find ourselves saying goodbyes. In Turkey, we said a lot of goodbyes before we said our own. In our 18 months in London, we've been lucky to have a stable set of friends around us. So, recently when a friend moved back to Alaska after 3 years in London, it was a tough one to take. It is also a reminder to people about how more often than not, it's out of your control whether to stay or go.

Our trip to Scotland last year

To make it less sad, we decided to go out with a bang and try to do as many London-y things we could in his last weekend here.

First was indulging in the best ethnic food London has to offer - Indian. While it's not my cup of tea, it's a staple for many Londoners and we found a place that was just hole-in-the-wall enough above the Strand to settle in and stuff ourselves full of bajiis, naan and whatever else they put in front of us.

Saturday, with 24 hours to go, was the big adventure part. I've done some scavenger hunts in London before so we decided to try one of Hidden City's hunts again. From Trafalgar Square to the Strand, to Regents Street and Carnaby, we followed clues around the city that eventually led us to bars (of course). We found some interesting finds around the city, including a tikki bar and a bar with drinks they set on fire. To finish the evening off, we grabbed a bit of true British cuisine at Mother Mash for some pies and bangers and mash.

Our hunt started off inside the National Gallery

On Sunday, the last hoorah before the flight, we went to Tom's Kitchen in Somerset House. It wasn't particularly British fare, but we enjoyed the sunshine, a parting gift from London.

While it's sad to see our friends go, in a lot of instances, they are happy to be back closer to family and friends. Plus, it just means more people around the globe for us to go visit!

Call me a nerd or the daughter of a librarian, I've always loved libraries. Even now in the age of e-books, I love to have a book in my hands as I curl up in a chair and read.

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Each time I visit Dubai, I tend to have new visitors with me who want to see the biggest sights. This last time was no exception as it was Paul's first time.