TOPAZ HORIZON

Museums are on top of our must-see list!

London is a very old city and it’s bursting with culture. It’s really fascinating to watch actually. You see centuries-old buildings with ultra-modern ones, elegantly dressed people with trendy/trashy ones. You see many many kinds of people from all over the world—lots of Europeans, Indians and Pakistanis, lots of beautiful black people (hindi yung mga nakakatakot na hiphop ones but these amazingly graceful and deeply black creatures!), but not very many Asians—sad.

Anyway, the British Museum was nearest our hotel so we visited it first. That museum is huge. Kulang ang isang araw para ikutin ito. It’s just filled with all these artifacts from all over the world nung sinaunang panahon. Our super favorite was the Lion Hunt stone reliefs from ancient Aramea. It was an incredibly large, incredibly detailed record of a king and his court on a lion hunt.

Then we went to visit the Greeks and Romans rooms. Sad to say but Vince and I got bored after a while. I mean, after seeing pots upon pots and statue upon statue, our eyes kinda glazed over. So our lofty conceit of us thinking we are scholars just went down the drain. Darn.

We did get a kick out of seeing Dum-Dum in all his stone glory. If you saw Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum, you’d know why we giggled excitedly, “Look, it’s Dum-Dum! He wants gum-gum!” Yeah, I know we’re inane. Seriously, though, seeing a real Easter Island monolithic statue is quite impressive. You look at him, serenely gazing off into the distance, and you begin to wonder what he’s looking at, why he was made, and all those existentialist frou-frou you don’t think about on a normal day living your inane life.

We trooped over to the Ancient Egypt rooms next and there were even more statues and stuff. And then we saw the mummies. Friends, I hate to admit this but my stomach turned over. This was my first time to see dead people. I mean, I’ve been to wakes and funerals, of course, but this is different. These were people dug up from their graves and their wrappings actually still looked moist. I know that’s impossible but I was so horrified kasi lahat ng scary movies na nakita ko talagang binalikan ako and I was scared. Sorry, no photos of the mummies. I obviously didn’t want any souvenirs of those scary things but here’s Vince enjoying the sights.

For even more dead people, we went to Westminster Abbey. Here in this photo, I am trying to decide if the Abbey was worth the GBP 12 entrance fee. Syempre, dahil dalawa kami ni Vince eh di ang equivalent nun PHP 2,000, just to see a church! But the guide book said it was definitely worth it, so in we went. At first, medyo nadismaya ako kasi parang Manila Cathedral o San Agustin Church siya. You know, high ceilings, big windows, altar, fantastic architecture and design elements, etc. I’m not putting down our churches, ha. In fact, ang San Agustin ang isa sa mga paborito kong lugar sa Maynila. What I meant was parang kung parehas lang pala ng mga simbahan natin, baket pa ako nagbayad ng mahal?!

Hay, buti na lang mali ako. My dismay went pffft once we started on the audio tour (it’s so cool—there are these portable things that look like phones and as you go around the Abbey, you get a history per section, when you’re ready. Pwede mo pa i-replay! But the best part? It’s voiced by Jeremy Irons! How frikkin’ cool is that!). Sayang nga lang kasi bawal mag-take ng pictures.

Anyway, I’m a sucker for English history so when I saw where past kings and queens were buried, that was so far out. The tombs of Queens Elizabeth I and Mary I did make me somber. Their history as sisters, rivals, and queens is so significant to the world that being at their tombs—well, it just took my breath away. Andun din yung oak coronation chair. Lahat ng monarchs ng England dun umupo. It looked really crappy already but that’s because it’s centuries old!

What really got Vince and me excited was Poet’s Corner. Here we found the tombs and memorials of great writers Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Keats, William Blake, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and more. We were so astounded! It just humbles you, ya know? Here, at our feet, lie the most celebrated minds of our time and they’ve passed on yet they remain immortal. You can’t help but take stock of your own life and what you’ve done with it.

Anyway, for those graves alone, the Westminster Abbey’s fee was worth it. Although medyo quiet and subdued kami ni Vince after the tour hehe. So wag niyo pupuntahan ito kung di niyo gusto malungkot.

While I liked the Abbey, my favorite museum was the National Gallery. Sadly, cameras aren’t allowed here either. So all we ever got was this shot of Vince squinting at me from outside the museum. In this particular museum I saw with my very own eyes paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Da Vinci, Manet, Titian, Ingres, Degas, Holbein, Velasquez, Vermeer, El Greco, Poussin, Rembrandt and more. I briefly studied Renaissance Art in college and it was one of the happiest things I’ve ever done so I’ve dabbled in the study of European art since then. Now seeing some of the art I pored over when I was young… I was just struck dumb. I even got teary-eyed. Iba pala talaga kung kaharap mo na yung mga famous paintings na ito. Nakakalula.

*continue reading… Contest ahead!

Honeymoons involve dicks, right?

Yes, they do, but I was only expecting to encounter just one specimen not dozens upon dozens!

In the British Museum, I got a real kick out of this particular carving. It’s called Lovers, and it’s the oldest known sculpture of a couple making love. Very apt for my honeymoon, right? Anyway, what’s really clever with this statue is whichever way you look at it, it’s very sexual (observe below). From the side, mukha siyang penis!

Later on that day, I saw more penises. Real ones, in all shapes and sizes and colors! I saw lots of breasts, too. In Oxford Street, after a tiring afternoon shopping away, we climbed on top of a double-decker bus and eto ang tumambad sa amin ni Vince!

For more than 5 minutes, nude upon nude biked and skated and rollerbladed their way past us. These are people who willingly went naked on a really cold day to raise awareness on the environment. They were asking people to stop being dependent on oil and curb car culture. Well, they got our attention!

I’m glad to report that Vince and I no longer use our car every day. We now live even closer to our work (we used to live just 10 minutes away but now the office has moved across the street!) and I’ve always been a big user of the MRT/LRT and buses. We walk to the grocery, and everywhere we need to go is very near. Because of this practice, we only used to gas up every 6 or 7 weeks. Now that we live across work, we don’t know when we’ll gas up next. Every little thing helps our planet!

*continue reading… Contest ahead!

The parks are gigantic but cold on a bright, sunny day

So this is the famous Hyde Park where opinionated people get up on a box and spout their thoughts on everyone willing to listen, among other things. It's a huge park. Immense. Gigantic. Humongous. Vince and I went crazy going around it. We were going, "Where does this frikkin' park end???"

And that's just one park of many in this city. I guess that's why London, despite it being so cosmopolitan and busy, the city smells so fresh. The trees and the parks are just everywhere. And Londoners love it. At the first sign of sun, they strip to their skivvies and lie down on the grass, basking in the rare rays.

Vince and I also rejoiced in the sun but grabe, ang lamig pa rin. Kakatawa nga kasi I wanted to have my picture taken beside a sunbather who was in a bikini while I was in my jacket, scarf, gloves and skull cap. Ganun siya kalamig! But we kinda lost our nerve kasi baka magalit yung babae (she was nearly naked, right) and you don't want to get on the nerves of these people!

Oh! This is a funny, er, what is it? A statue? A memorial? A marker? Anyway, whatever it is, it's near the huge Serpentine Lake. That lake is so nice--people were rowing boats on it. Anyway, back to the stone. On it, these words proudly announce:

"This boulder was brought here from Norway where it was worn and shaped for thousands of years by forces of nature: frost, running water, rock, sand and ice until it obtained its present shape."

See that dark area that Vince is pointing at? Someone cheekily wrote, "MADE IN CHINA!" Hahahaha!

Anyway, we eventually found what I was looking for: The Diana Memorial Fountain. Hmmm. Para siyang malaking rubber band na tinapon mo sa grass at nagkaroon siya ng tubig. Hehe. Kaya siya mahirap hanapin haha. Seriously though, I get it. After the initial disappointment, I sat down and observed it. People were having a picnic, kids were frolicking in the fountain--it was made for people, like Diana who lived for her subjects. And when I went around the fountain, some parts were serene, other parts were turbulent, other parts had the water sparkling cheerfully in the sun—just like Diana's life, I guess.

Now, eto ang memorial. This is the Prince Albert Memorial. Unlike Diana's, Albert's is gigantic so it wasn't hard to find. Vince and I are actually very far away from it in this pic, but it looms majestically in the background. Prince Albert, by the way, is the husband of Queen Victoria, who is the longest reigning monarch of the UK (so far... Elizabeth II sits on that throne still). She was also the queen when the UK became an industrial power and a world empire. Ok, history lesson over!

Big Ben sure is big

And so is my forehead! Harhar!

We really liked walking around this area. About 10-15 minutes away, we got to the South Bank where our real destination, The London Eye, lords it over the River Thames. That's a cool area, by the way. There's an aquarium museum for the kids (sharks!!!), a movie museum (looked unimpressive haha), and Dali Universe. That guy is out of this world. Here are some of what his artwork looked like.

Crazeeee! But great, right?

*Continue reading... Contest ahead!

Up in the biggest ferris wheel in the world!

Vince and I fell in love while riding a ferris wheel. Yep. We were at the UP National Writers Workshop in Baguio nine years ago. We were exhausted from all the criticism the panelists threw at us so some fellow writers got it into their heads to visit a perya to just let loose. It was a cheap perya with cheap rides. Vince and I didn't really know each other and I don't think we really liked each other at that point. However, we found ourselves sharing the little squeaky dangerous-looking pod and for a few minutes we were scared for our lives. Maybe that vulnerable moment did it, or the stars in the clear mountain sky, or the chill of the Baguio breeze, or the most incredible conversation in our life--whatever it was, by the time we got down shakily from that contraption, we were inseparable.

So obviously when we visited the city with the largest, highest, biggest ferris wheel in the world, why, what else should we do??? Catch a flight on The London Eye naturally!