The healthcare is free and so are the museums. And being cheap in addition to being the well cultured, well mannered, educated, civilized, mannerly, polite, sophisticated, genteel and modest lady that I am, I've visited almost all of the galleries and museums that have been available to me. I still stand by what I said after my visit to the TATE Modern; just because I don't understand doesn't mean I don't appreciate. The English should be proud of the collection they have between all their museums, there are some very famous, very profound and extremely beautiful works, and it's free so hooligans like me can still appreciate them. Art for everyone. I have a limited number of pictures from my museum wanderings because photos are a no-no quite often, but I did see it all. I do have pictures from the museum that is just, generally, England. Because I'm traveling alone, I keep my own hours for the most part and so that leads to a lot of random wandering and inefficient waking, but I see the most amazing buildings, things that are old and older and beautiful, beautiful in a way that new things don't know how to be. And it is so awesome, and it makes me feel small in a good way and even when it can't fill my lens it fills my eyes and I know that I will dream about these things for years to come because I saw them, with just me. But that's also something I think about a lot when I'm counting the Sunflowers, standing beneath a cathedral or looking up at a Titian or Monet; I think about how I'm the only one seeing it with me. I recommend traveling alone. But I also think it shouldn't be the only way you travel. Part of what makes what you see real and worth remembering is who you share it with. Your awe and wonder and gratitude will be reflected in the eyes of who ever you are with, especially if they love you. It's like I stand there, humbled by what I'm seeing and the fact that I have the opportunity to see it, and sometimes what I want to do most is just share that moment with someone. Sometimes it's like just seeing it isn't enough to do it justice, it needs to be shared.
Now that I've vomited my sensitive side out, I gotta tell you about the hilarious freedom I've discovered accompanies me as I travel alone. Now, I recognize that what I'm about to say could be interpreted as an onset of madness because I've been alone for too long...but lets just not go there homie. As validating as it is to share in wonder with someone, it also means you share in traveler reputation, needs, timing and preferences. It's taken me a few weeks of solo adventure to realize that I can walk around how ever I damn please and it won't make any difference. The epitome of that has been London, I'm somewhere new everyday, it's a huge city and the energy here kinda encourages me to let things get weird...long story short I'm moving around like DGAF bitches don't know me. Letting my freak flag fly because no one here knows my colors and there will always be people who are being more socially unacceptable than me. I'm strolling through national moments and galleries and winking at security guards and inserting myself into people's conversations about art and snobbery like I know something. I'm singing along to what's on my headphones in public and sometimes there's honestly nothing playing. I'm grooving on the train and reading over peoples shoulders. I'm the one who offers to take pictures for the couples of ambiguous Asian ethnicity and then conducts a full on photo shoot with them. I go into expensive stores and try things on and pretend like I'm somebody and then dip out to catch the cheapest bus. I'm ordering food in a variety of different accents and then just pretending I only speak Thai when people who actually speak the language I was faking ask me for directions or god knows what in our supposedly mutual native tongue. And admittedly, sometimes I do get too weird for myself and have to stop walking and crack up for a second and then pull it together to be normal for a minute. But it is really rewarding, knowing that you have nothing to lose. I'm never going to see these people again, and even if I do, it'll be in such different circumstances and I'll be such a normal and average person that they'll probably just say, "Wow! You look strikingly similar to an oddly deranged girl we once saw in London" and I'll just be like "Oh do I! How utterly hilarious, ha ha, oh ha, ha ha. Ha". I must see at least 300 different people a day, we're all strangers to each other, and that gives us all this amazing opportunity to be something extraordinary for the three to five seconds that is the entirety of our relationship with one another. I guess my hope is that at least one of those 300 will go home and someone in their life will ask how their day was and they'll say "Boring, normal, average...except for I saw this one girl, outside the office, she was walking by and singing 'Call Me Maybe' and she winked at me! So weird..."
I'm just a nerd trying to bring joy to London by weirding out the general public, one day and one shenanigan at a time. And I'd be lying if I told you I don't have a ton of fun doing it...LET'S GET WEIRD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a76yf3AXHCg
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