Praia and London: two cities one love

Describing two differents cities is a hard and unpleasant duty; however I will try to be fair in my comparison. Firstly, in one hand, Praia is a small African city in the middle of Atlantic Ocean in Santiago island, capital of Cape Verde archipelago. The city have around eighty thousand people living some of them in worst social condition creating big asymmetry between high and low class society. Praia, as many people says, is not a beautiful town but they have their pleasantry as many good beach’s, special nightclubs and few colonial building remembering the old age when the city belonged a Portuguese colony. In another hand, London is a big and structured city capital of United Kingdom. Next to great and fascinated London, Praia looks like a little sand piece in spite of being admired for many cape verdian living in the country side because they tales and stories about plateau and the natural desire of knowing unknown environment.
I lived in Praia during many years before I come to Portugal, however when I arrived in London I felt surprised to see the cars I usually knew by sport magazines and nice and stated of art building that I never saw before, even in Portugal. So, in spite of the bigger difference between London and Praia I recognise they have, at least, two common characteristic and connexion. The cabs in those cities are able to pick up the passenger wherever they are despite the disruption they may cause in the traffic. In the past the famous English pirate by sacking and destroying the Ribeira Grande (old town) for several time and offering special stolen jewels to the Queen in London as forced the Portuguese authorities to move de Old city function to Praia de Santa Maria where was possible to avoid from unpleasant visitor like Francis Drake.
I love London; in the same way I’m very fond of Praia, so I recognize that is impossible to find monument like Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster abbey, great’s museum, Cleopatra knees and Piccadilly Circus wonders at Praia city. At the same way Prainha” and “Quebra Canela“beaches, Plateaus, Liceu Domingo’s Ramos building and the pleasure of the roofless cinema in Bairro Craveiro Lopes, I can’t unfortunately find them in London. Sometimes when I miss my family kindness I burst in silent tears and thoughts: if I have a magic vary I would fuse these two cities in one wich let me a possibility to have my peaceful Praia in London and in the same time the London magnificence and richness in a distant Praia of my teen days as a school boy…