Hi, sweetheart, I'm too tired to read & digest your thread properly just now so will come back to it.
I wanted to write to you about London though. I moved away from there 4 years ago, due to health and family issues, and I feel like I've left my soul there. I miss it so badly, for all its faults. I'm a thousand years older than you, though, so I wanted to tell you about how I felt when I first became a Londoner, and what so many of my friends and family found after moving.
I grew up in the Midlands, went to uni in the North-East and my first job was in Teesside. Everybody up north said "You'll hate it there, it's cat eat dog in London!" and "You'll be back with your tail between your legs." It was a bit scary, but I was given three pieces of sterling advice, which I'm passing on to you. I'm sure others have already, but still 
[1] Get an A-Z and carry it with you at all times. Every Londoner uses the map ALL the time, except black cab drivers. Using it, and walking around the city, is the very best way to discover London. Get some comfy shoes.
[2] Make Time Out an essential part of your life. London's absolutely packed with things you'd love to do, have never thought of doing but would like to try, and things that cost fuck all - ie, are FREE. Hurrah!
[3] Very big cities, like London, are full of folks who haven't lived there very long - in technical terms, a transient population. This means that folks are reticent to make friends in a hurry, as everybody's on the move. The upside of this is that three-quarters of the people you see at any given moment are also newish, don't know many people, and are up for wasting a couple of hours with you if you feel like it.
See? It's a big playground :) All you need is a map, Time Out and some flats with bouncy soles.
I've got to say that my "northern-ness" (I know, southerners all think Birmingham is next to Scotland ..) stood me in extremely good stead the entire THIRTY years I was there. Like you, no doubt, I talk to strangers at bus stops and in checkout queues. You know. Born southerners don't know how to do that, and they love it!
Now, go and discover something. By the time I come back to your thread, I expect to hear you've found something disgusting, something beautiful, something amazing and something funny
Do what I tell you, I'm older 'n you!!!