Ancient History

Today we navigated our way through London’s underground to visit the British Museum. It boasts an impressive collection of historical artifacts dating all the way back to about 6000 BC. One day in this museum is not nearly enough time to study all that it contains, but I tried my best to take it all in. There was a large collection of ancient Greek statues which, interestingly enough, were replicas that the Romans had created from the original works. There also was a large collection of pieces of ancient Greek and Roman architecture to enjoy. 

              The museum also contained a massive array of artifacts from ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia (e.g. Samaria, Assyria, Acadia, etc.).  Some of these dated all the way back to around 6000 BC! This was my favorite part of the museum because it contained the oldest artifacts. These ancient civilizations had a form of writing, courts of law, market places, and all other things you would expect from an advanced civilization. It made me wonder if maybe someday artifacts from our civilization today will be viewed by some future ancestors.

              The final thing I viewed in the museum was a huge gallery containing considerably newer artifacts from the Age of Enlightenment. It was a huge amalgamation of anything from Captain Cook’s booty to old bibles. 

              After we felt we’d had enough of the British Museum, the group I was in decided to go to the Tate Modern. We made our way across the Millennium Bridge, which is a walking bridge across the Thames River with a beautiful view.  The weather was typical, rainy and cold, which made this walk much less enjoyable. I spent very little time at the Tate Modern as I was feeling quite tired from lack of sleep. Try sleeping on a sofa bed for a whole week when you and three other occupants snore frequently!  My apologies to those I’ve kept awake. So a friend and I made our way back to the room for a nap.

              Later on in the night I made my way to Victoria Casino in London to play a no limit hold em’ poker tournament. I made it pretty far into the tournament but got knocked out before I won any money. I was hoping to win so I could recoup some of my expenses from London. It seems everything here is about twice as expensive as back home. Instead of the McDonald’s dollar menu they have a “pound saver menu” which has items at around 1.19 pounds which is over twice as expensive! So I’ve been eating rather frugally while we’ve been in London, which amounts to a lot of fast food. We’re now headed on a train to Manchester that has been severely delayed. I’m sure you will read about this in the continuing blogs, I’m looking forward to see how Manchester’s prices compare to those of London’s and also getting to Ireland, the land of more reasonable prices (hopefully), the perfect Guinness, and drunken leprechauns.

Cheers!

-Ryan