Day 8: London Adventures

Today was a vacation day. We didn’t do any work; we only did touristy activities. We all went to downtown London today. We started at London Bridge. It was very big, and contrary to popular belief it was, in fact, not falling down. We went to the Design Museum after that. There were a lot of new inventions displayed that haven’t hit the market yet that were intriguing. After that we went and ate our bagged lunches and went to the British Library. We saw an exhibit on propaganda, which was curious. In the library they have several treasured documents. I saw original manuscripts from Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Magna Carta. Sadly I didn’t get to touch any of them.

We went to a place called Camden town. You know in the movies when people are walking through a very crowded market where there’s no space to get through and there are vendors all over? That’s what Camden town is like. We walked around there for several hours. Got some lunch from one of the local vendors, and hopped on the Tube to discover other parts of London.

I talked to lots of people today, which was quite fun. I talked to too many to remember all of the conversations but I’ll tell you about the most memorable ones. The first man I talked to was playing the violin down by the subway. He was from Brazil and said that when people with cameras that are rude to him get too close he “licks their lenses.” He also told me that I was more polite than most people. The second very memorable conversation I had was with a gentleman that was with a group of Hare Krishna. They all came through the train station dancing and playing music and passing out literature. It was quite exciting. I talked with him for a while about his beliefs and what they were doing and why they were dancing around. I got his email too! I’m going to convert him.

The night was filled with walking the streets. I got some good night photography and quite a few good videos. There were some street performers by one of the large intersections. There were several break-dancers, and one statue guy. He was dressed all in gold-covered clothes. Even his face was covered with a gold mask. He would stand motionless for several minutes until eventually he would move suddenly and scare people. It was intimidating. He was very good at standing still.

The day was filled with adventures. I also had the chance to get many photos taken! I have a bit of a back up on editing my personal photos since I’ve been working on projects so much. But they will appear eventually, don’t worry. My feet are very sore, and they don’t like me.