#287 London is Londoning

I don’t know how else to put it, but London is Londoning. The city looks precisely as painted in books and movies. It gave me a sense of familiarity even though it was my first visit.

To that point, the most surprising aspect was the weather or how it made the city look and feel characteristically gloomy. I had thought this was color grading when I watched movies set in England—like how they added the golden-brown filter in Hollywood movies to show that it’s Mexico. But it is indeed real.

Unlike other European cities I’ve been to, London is alive and brimming with energy. It has the charm of old buildings and streets but the fast-pacedness of modern life. People seem to have things to do and places to be.

Anyway, I was here for apidays London, where we ran a booth and a workshop. I stayed back after to be a tourist in what is perhaps the greatest city on Earth. Most of this time was spent wondering—and being rightfully pissed—how the British managed to rob every cool thing they found from every part of the world. There might be more mummies here than in all of Egypt and perhaps more Pyramids if it could have been magically teleported.

Funnily enough, the British Museum asks for donations from visitors as it’s free, and I’m sure every visitor from former colonies will think, “Didn’t we donate enough?” But yeah, we are where we are.

This is an incomplete photo dump.