Please Don't Touch Anything. Touring London in Three Days: Sunday the Third

Sorry for the delay in posts; it's been a busy week, plus a busy weekend, which I will write about in a separate post. But first, the exciting conclusion of my three-day weekend with my Canadian cousin Kaitlyn.

The weekend had already been busy enough, so I was starting to fall behind on homework. Kaitlyn and Alison decided to go to the British Museum on Sunday, so I sent them off and stayed home to do my homework instead. I got a little work down but looked outside, saw it was gorgeous and sunny, and decided I didn't want to be cooped up.

So off I went to meet them at the British Museum. It turned out those silly girls hadn't seen the Elgian Marbles yet, and were about to leave! So I gave them an art-major lecture and took them to see the Greek stones, explaining the story behind them. I didn't seem to impress them, but at least they've seen them. Maybe someday they'll appreciate the experience...

A fun shot from the Science Museum.

Anyway, after getting a bite of lunch, we headed to South Kensington where there are three museums located right by each other. When leaving the Tube, you can walk through a foot subway to each museum, rather than dealing with traffic up on the street. I managed to slip on the escalator and bruise my thigh big time, so I spent the rest of the day (and most of the following week) hobbling about, as I felt the bruise right in the muscle.

First we visited the Science Museum, which is extremely cool. Obviously, I love art museums. I have one art degree and am working on my second, with the intention to work in an art-related field: including, potentially, museums. I love museums. And the Science Museum is no exception, because there was so much art and stimulus in there! My absolute favorite exhibit was on The Sound of the Internet. It's an award-winning exhibit, and after sitting through it twice, I can see why. If you have the opportunity to visit the Science Museum anytime soon, definitely do, because this exhibit was incredible. Words will not do it justice, so here is a video clip showing part of it:

This exhibit completely mesmerized me, and I may well have to go back just to experience it again. I also enjoyed the technology section, and there was an interesting exhibit about the "code breaker" during WWII.

The only dinosaur I've ever seen at the Natural History Museum.

After the Science Museum, we visited the Natural History Museum. This is a museum I want to like, I really, really do. But it does not interest me at all. I think it's geared more towards children, first off. The exhibits are a bit cheesy. Plus everything is about rocks and bugs and there's a room full of taxidermied birds. Basically nothing remotely appealing to me. Plus I hate birds. Blech. I would love to go see the dinosaurs exhibit, but apparently that's the most appealing part of the museum to everyone, and so there is always a half-hour wait to get in!

Finally, we concluded the day at the Victoria & Albert Museum, which I have spent the most time in of the three. I love the V&A, because right when you walk inside there is a glass chandelier that was commissioned by the V&A from Dale Chihuly. Last time I was in London, I wrote about "a touch of Tacoma pride". The V&A is a fascinating museum; it's full of all sorts of collections. I don't even know how to compare it to other museums; it has art, it has artifacts. It has everything, basically, and it is fascinating.

British Pop exhibit

I had been telling the girls about the theatre exhibit, and a photography exhibit featuring famous actors in live productions from the last time I visited. The photography exhibit was gone, but in its place was a photography exhibit about the rise of pop music in Britain, which was very interesting. We also looked through a photography exhibit from contemporary Iranian artists, which was also fascinating. For such a traditionally censored culture, the photographs made some striking commentary on their own culture as well as Western culture.

Anyway, Sunday ended without any excitement. We parted ways with Alison in Hammersmith, and Kaitlyn helped me make dinner (read: Kaitlyn did the majority of the work while I played British pop music). I came through the weekend with a bit of a war wound, but otherwise unscathed.

To conclude this post: my brother claims there is a Monty Python clip for everything in life, and I believe he is right...for here is a clip of Monty Python in an art gallery, to complement the museum post: