London -- the rest of the trip

I think of Saturday as market day, and London provided many options for markets. Ahmyn, Seryahna, Djanko, and I walked along Regents Canal to Camden Market. The Canal had a wonderful walking path. House boats lined the canal, and we wondered about what life would be like on a house boat. There were some beautiful gardens and homes that lined the canal, and it offered a great view of various aspects of life in London.  

Ahmyn, Seryahna, & Djanko along Regents Canal

Regents Canal

Mural outside a club along the canal

Musician singing to some friends on the canal

Regents Canal

Chinese restaurant/houseboat on the canal

The Camden Market consisted of several markets. There was a very crowded section of clothes and trinkets, an area that was close or alley full of food vendors, an indoor/outdoor arts and crafts market, and other areas with various themes on shopping. We then went to Portobello Market, famed for its extensiveness and antiques.

Food vending alley in Camden Market

"There's nothing I want to eat..."

Colorful stall at Camden Market

Treats at Camden Market

Bridge near Camden Market along Regents Canal

Near Portobello Market

Chinatown

Chinatown for dinner. Chinatown had tons of shops and restaurants. We did find a restaurant that had tofu for Djanko, the picky eater. The menu had other interesting items that not even Ahmyn, the adventurous eater, wanted to try: pig entrails, duck tongue, duck blood, and offal to name a few.

Sunday meant more museums. There were two museums in London that I needed to see as a psychology instructor. I had offered extra credit to students to see either the Mind Maps exhibit at the Science Museum or the Freud Museum. The Science Museum had an exhibit called Mind Maps that explored the studying of the mind. Mind Maps offered eerie glimpses into how we have learned about the nervous system and how mental illness was treated over the last 250 years. The exhibit also showed more current methods that seem less barbaric. One display that was cool and creepy at the same time was a table or plank of wood that had someone's nerves laid out and varnished on it. One modern treatment that intrigued me was using avatars to help treat auditory hallucinations. For more information and pictures, see http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/mind_maps/object_highlights.aspx.   

Other than the Mind Maps exhibit, the museum had much to offer. One display that caught my eye was the Toaster Project. Thomas Thwaites decided to make a toaster from scratch. For Thwaites, from scratch meant doing everything that would be needed in a toaster, including mining the materials that were needed. It took Thwaites 9 months and cost 300 times what a toaster normally costs. Thwaites’s project highlights the complex technology and use of precious resources that we take for granted in our modern society. For more, check out the information on the exhibit: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/smap/collection_index/thomas_thwaites_the_toaster_project.aspx

After the Science Museum, I was off to the Freud Museum. The Freud Museum is in a quaint neighborhood quite a bit away from the heart of London. The museum had been Sigmund Freud’s home for the last year of his life after he escaped from Austria during the Nazi occupation. Thanks to his fame, he was able to take many of his possessions including his whole library to London. His daughter, psychoanalyst Anna Freud, lived there for decades after Freud died and requested that the home be turned into a museum. No photography was allowed, so you will have to check out the website: http://www.freud.org.uk/.  To me, Freud’s library was the most surprising room in the house. I did get to see the famous couch where his patients would lie and talk about their dreams, their conflicts, their relationships, etc. The library was filled with books and archeological artifacts. Freud actually had a strong interest in archeology, and he was quite a collector. His collection of archeological artifacts provided a great analogy for the foundation of Freud’s theories. Just as an archeologist would dig deep to discover the secrets of the people of the past, Freud attempted to dig deep to discover the secrets of people’s past. To add some humor to the seriousness of Freud’s ideas, the museum included an exhibit of Mel Calman’s cartoons. 

Georgeobelisk at the British Library

On the way back to the hotel from the Freud Museum, a giant statue caught my eye. I peeked into the grounds of the British Library and saw Sir Isaac Newton, or a huge statue of him. The other surprise outside of the library was the Georgeobelisk, a topiary garden in honor of kings named George. 

Sunday night’s treat was music at a local pub. The music was a jam session of a few musicians sitting around their table, playing folk, old-time, Americana style. It got more exciting, though, when a young woman put a board on the floor and started clogging in the middle of the jam session. When I talked to her later, she said that in Scotland they called clogging “flat-footing.” I could see the similarities in some of the American musical traditions and some of the Scottish music and traditions that I’ve experienced since being here. 

Monday – more museums, or to be more precise, the National Gallery. The National Gallery sits on Trafalgar Square, a prime people watching spot. Inside the National Gallery, navigating around the gobs of people was a challenge. However, the challenge was worth it to see some original paintings by Monet, van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne, Rembrandt, Botticelli, and Raphael (to name just a few). Of course, the Gallery is so vast that somehow we missed seeing the da Vinci and Michelangelo paintings that were there. We could have spent days wandering through the treasure troves.

Art outside of the museum -- enough said

A local

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

National Gallery and Trafalgar Square

Outside of the gallery was entertainment. Street musicians, magicians and performers, Yodas who seemed to magically float in the air – all were there to entertain and to earn a day’s wage from generous tourists and locals.  

Recycle Man and Djanko in Covent Garden

Along the River Thames

After full days and nights, we met up with students, faculty, and staff at the train station. We all shared stories of surprises and adventures, satisfied that we all had soaked in as much as possible in a short time. We also were relieved to head to what we now referred to as home, Dalkeith.