London is a town that shows signs of wisdom. As it used to be the centre of the imperial movement, it is now a city that shows great multicultural celebration. In addition, their local newspapers employ citizens to hand out FREE newspapers TWICE a day. This leaves an interesting scene of everyone staring at the newspaper in the tube (the subway). No wonder this town is so damned informed about world events. I am proud of the business model that encourages a large reader base, but I can’t help to cringe at the environmental effect that this might have. I also think of how easily the public could be swayed if the power of the paper went into the wrong hands.
Onto the three attractions. First I went on the Eye of London which is the worlds largest Ferris wheel that moves slowly and takes 35 minutes to complete one revolution. Though the views are great, it’s monochromatic theme gets old in 5 minutes when you are trapped in a capsule that is as hot as the tube and costs 17 pounds (about 28 bucks). This was my least favourite of the attractions and it happened to be the most expensive.
Next was Westminster Abbey, the resting place of England’s royalty. This 15 pound monument is worth every penny. It comes with a splendid audio unit guide. It’s iconic value completes the story of how dominant a nation England used to be. This place has so much rich history that it practically has stacked priceless sculptures and tombs on top of each other. I spent 3 hours here and thought every moment was worth it. The architecture here has to be seen in person. Casually hidden behind half inch glass among other artefacts was a ceptor which held a 530 carrot diamond the size of an apricot. Eat shit crown jewels!
Finally I went to the Imperial War Museum which was the best sight I went to the whole day. It also happened to be free. It covered every war and war machine for the better part of 200 years. Each of the exhibits were perfect in terms of breadth and depth. Many school children of various ages ran and played through the exhibits, missing the gravity of their offering. I remember back to high school and how interested I as well as my entire class were about both of the world wars and the auxiliary conflicts. When approaching the world war one and two exhibits, there are dozens of pictures and timeless quotes ranging from Plato to Churchill. The overwhelming theme was that war is largely a mistake. And in this wisdom was shown by quotes from over 4 thousand years. At the end of the exhibits I was left with question “where is the current exhibit?” Where is the Iraq war exhibit? Or did we not learn our lesson from the quotes, from the thousands of years of war? More importantly, where is the action against this war. Where is the initiative in their wisdom?
Tired and emotionally fatugued I made my way to the top floor that housed the Concentration camp art exibit. I didn’t break stride for the 3 minutes that I spent in the empty halls. Passing into each semi corridor, my feet triggered a creak in the floor that reminded me that I was not dreaming.