We don't consider the intersection of Cromwell and Gloucester roads in London seedy at all. That's OUR tube stop when we visit London and we love it.
But I must admit we were somewhat taken aback a couple of years ago when returning from a Saturday night concert at Royal Festival Hall. As we exited the Gloucester Road station we noted a band of revelers in police uniform marching down Gloucester Road from Exhibition Road.

We were even more amazed when we turned the corner to see at least 50 more men of varying ages, clad as female bobbies, headed in our direction. How did we know they were men? By the way they were urinating against the (exterior) walls of Gloucester Arcade.

These guys were perfectly peaceful, cheerfully parted to let us make our way back to our apartment, and weren't even making much noise. We never found out what it was all about and nevere saw anything like it again.

Marilyn! HA HA HA! I don't know if they got their money worth, but they sure did get an eye full!

Before we got to Athens we spent a week on Corfu in a tiny pensione in Pelikas? Running water was brown, there was dirt on the floor but we had the time of our lives! We danced and swam for seven days. We were having too much fun to notice that the room was such a dump since we were hardly in it. It seemed as though everyone on that side of the island just sort of slept on the beach. It was cleaner than our pensione for sure!