iLondon

My last days in London were pretty lazy. Given that I had spent Wednesday through to Saturday running my feet off sightseeing in a busy city, I felt entitled to a bit of a break. I spent the early afternoon of Sunday visiting a plant and flower market with Anton, the likes of which I had never seen before (flower market that is, not Anton). A flurry of busy stall owners shouting out the latest deals, and people pushing through crowds to get to the best deals, it felt like a whole other country, certainly not like Metropolitan, modern London. From the market I visited the British museum, staying until they closed at 5:30. It is hard to describe the British Museum. Albeit a beautiful building, entering into it feels like any other museum. There are exhibits, people strolling from room to room to see more wonderful things. But there comes a point (for me it was in the Ancient Egyptian room), when you realize that you aren’t just looking at “some exhibit”, you are looking at the real deal. No longer are you viewing the replicas and photographs of lesser museums, you are looking at the real deal! Used to those lesser museums, it hit me and I had a “holy shit that’s a real, live, 4000 year old mummy!” Well it turns out it wasn’t so live, 4000 years dead in fact, but the moment quite something. Every room you visit, every exhibit you view, you must remind yourself that this museum doesn’t house replicas. In fact there are a lot of things this museum doesn’t house, like anything British. Interesting statistic, number of exhibits in the BRITISH Museum that are BRITISH in origin: 0. Ah the joys of having once been a globally dominating colonial power… In fact, some countries are really quite angry with the British, and want some of their stuff back! The Greeks, for example, have (or rather had) a series of marble statues from the necropolis which are housed on display in the British Museum, taken from Greece in the 1700’s (+/- 100 years, I can’t remember exactly). For reasons that should be obvious, the Greek government wants these statues back. But for quasi legitimate reasons (the Greeks lack proper safe, but public viewing facilities), the British have refused to return them. In an unheard of move, the Greeks responded by building a grand museum at the foot of the necropolis to house such artefacts. And now, with a modern, safe museum in which to display the statues, the Greeks ask again. Controversially, the British Government and Museum have still refused to return the statues. So I guess it’s finders keepers here in the UK, but soon, more governments are going to want some of their displays back, and start constructing buildings to house them, and asking a little louder for property which is (I would argue) rightfully theirs. In a modern world where multinational ruling bodies decide what is proper for the most possible countries, it is hard to excuse what is essentially looting, no matter which century it happened in. I imagine the Egyptian government is a little confused as to why almost every mummy dug up in Egypt currently resides in the UK! If the British capitulate to the Greeks however, they will quickly find themselves with few exhibits. Keep an eye out for that one in the news!

Monday was spent for the most part at the Science Museum, a grand building with some very impressive displays. But impressive was all. The museum has some very grand displays, but they are almost just that, displays. I felt the museum lacked interactivity, until you reach the top floor where you find a children’s playhouse, where adults stand on the sidelines avoiding eye contact awkwardly (a theme I have noticed regardless of where you are in London). And for a museum district which sees so much traffic, the attempts at interactivity (usually a touch screen computer where you could peruse through oodles of reading material) were hardly designed for a high volume of traffic. This is not to say I wouldn’t recommend the Science Museum. Their displays are impressive, and like the British museum, they have many one of a kind displays from the world over. But if you are looking for a museum where you can really get hands on with science, and learn from some enthusiastic staff (that’s an entirely different matter at the British Science Museum), this is not the place. Below however is one of the most intricate Rube Goldberg machines ever (a perpetual motion machine where one event triggers another to eventually accomplish some simple task), it is a video on display at the science museum. This is only a part of the whole video which can be found at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/videos/on_the_move.aspx

Tuesday, the weather turned “British”. I was amazed that for being here an entire week, I hadn’t seen a single raindrop. But all that was made up for on Tuesday, when it poured literally all day. What a wonderful day to plan and ponder! And plan and ponder I did. My itinerary is set for the next week, taking me to Canterbury, Portsmouth, Bath, and then Cardiff. But I also had a good chance to ponder on the London I have experienced over the past week.

London is a very modern city, where technology is never out of sight. From the constantly updated arrival times at every bus stop in the city, to the ubiquitous use of cell phones, it is at times difficult to get away from that technology which makes life so much easier. And easier it does make life! I have found myself lost without my Blackberry at times, wishing to have a better map (on demand courtesy of Google Maps), or to be able to call ahead to a hostel, but mostly missing the constant map and GPS capability. I walked 15 minutes in one direction believing the Science Museum to be that way, only to find out I had started one block away the other direction. There is always the option of asking a local for directions, but I have been met with many a rude response to my queries, as people are too busy with their technology to have time to deal with real people (ah…how the convenience comes back to bite you).

London’s love of technology culminates in Apple products. Everywhere you look, is an iPhone, an iPod, or an iMac. I think everyone here needs to get a iLife and not just swallow whatever Apple throws at them. I can only explain the number of iNuts as herd mentality, to get whatever latest and greatest everyone else has. There are many great phones and music players out there better than the iLine, but people still swarm to the iCrap. iZombies buying iGarbage don’t bother me on their own, it means less people on my network at home. It is only a shame in that by blindly supporting one company to such an extent, you put its competition at a disadvantage, with fewer funds to improve their already better products. Never mind Research In Motion and their line of Blackberries, Nokia has some of the best smart phones out there, and Palm recently released a product similar but superior to the iPhone. Hopefully companies like Nokia, RIM, and Palm will keep up the good fight, continue to put out superior products, and quietly kick iAss. If someone ever cared enough to make a virus for iPhones, such a thing would spread like wildfire in a city like London (wouldn’t be the first time for something like that), and I guarantee you would shut down business until a solution to the virus was found. Talk about iScrewed!

However, there is a slightly darker side of London’s technology. In London, you are recorded on CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) every 20 seconds. That means that in one day you are recorded on around 1600 different cameras during a day of sightseeing. I believe that would be an average however, because in certain areas, I don’t think it is possible to ever be OFF camera at any point. According to our tour guide, London has 20% of the world’s CCTV Cameras. An invasion of privacy? I believe it shouldn’t be if you aren’t doing anything invasion-able on public property, but one must wonder why security is so tight. At some point you realize that there are no garbage cans to be found anywhere heavily trafficked, your bag is searched practically everywhere, indeed, there is a definite element of paranoia about security in London. Not that it is unfounded… Far back in history, Londoners have been dealing with some pretty…shitty circumstances. Invasion by many foreigners, plagues, fires, bombings, paranoia about the big bomb, smaller bombs planted from within, smaller bombs again. Have I missed anything? Over and over London has found itself under assault. So it’s no wonder that there are CCTV cameras on every corner. Following the IRA garbage bin and letter box bombings, it’s no surprise there are no garbage cans in Westminster, London, or any underground stations (however seriously inconvenient). With recent suicide bombings, it’s a no brainer that your bag would be searched whenever entering a museum or large historic site. So if YOU visit London, careful where you scratch, someone, perhaps many people are watching.

From paranoid London, my first stop is Canterbury, a quaint city with a big cathedral. I’ll let you know more later! Feel free to leave comments on my blog or photos, its good to know people are viewing (whether they are or not).