London, March 1999
My London trip was great fun. Inspired by some cheap tickets and free accomadation, it gave me a few memories to last a while. I took in the sights of Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Tower, and Tower Bridge as part of the usual tourist runs on the first two days. On the third and fourth day I preceded to see the British Museum, the British Art Gallery and Portrait Gallery, and the National War Museum, all of which were fantastic. The Bristish Museum is for free and contains artifacts from all over the world through most of the ages. Since I was there for only a few hours, I spent my time just looking at the Egyptian and Ancient Greek stone work. Some of the sculptures are just incredible. The British Art Gallery and Portrait Gallery contains many paintings by famous artists such as C�zanne and Gogh, to name the easy ones. I spent two hours easily in there, just looking at paintings that caught my eye from a distance. Lastly, the National War Museum is devoted to modern warfare and covers from the 1900's forward. The ground floor has an incredible array of war machinery, from German tanks, Russian artillery, to American missiles. The exhibits are layed out first by separating World War 1, World War 2, and the Cold War. Then the exhibits are prepared by "side", i.e. the German exhibits, the British, the Americans, etc. The museum is amazing and I would definitely go back to see it. A lovely aspect to it is that it is free after 4:00 pm.
I then took in some district sights such as Trafalgar square, Piccadily Circus, Covent Gardens, and Soho, to name a few. Trafalgar square has a huge, tall monument, surrounded at the base by four gigantic bronze lions. There is a lovely little fountain set to the side by the monument and the crowning achievement of the square is the number of pigeons, for which you can buy seed and drape yourself in living feathers. On the north side of the square is the National Art Gallery and to the west side is Canada Place, the Canadian Consulat and place for access to 15 minutes of free internet. Piccadily Circus is just a major shopping attraction and the streets around it are filled with some of the most luxurious clothing stores, as well as a giant HMV music store. Covent Gardens I don't actually remember much about other than it was there, but Soho is unforgettable with its numerous strip clubs, sex shops, and prostitutes on parade.
In the nights I managed to hurt my head by visiting a few good pubs and discos such as Southside and The Springbok. Both the Southside and The Springbok were Australian bars, but hey, Foster's is an okay beer. Overall it was a fantastic trip and I made a new aquaintance, Mike Strutt from Vancounver, B.C., Canada.
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