So, who else hates travelling for vacation?

[SilverLi]

Most of the time I enjoy doing nothing and being in my apartment. But since I moved away from home and live alone now I am actively thinking about doing something else for a change. I could easily waste a vacation on doing nothing and just playing the same old games a whole day instead of maybe 4 hours.

I want to travel. I love driving and I don't dislike doing something new. But I am more of a fan of the traveling than the actual destination. I would rather do a 20 hour roadtrip back and forth instead of visiting some attractions. But it is that "hassle" which is the problem. I have to check up on my passport, booking everything and leave my house. That's annoying. I am thinking about doing shorter weekend trips to different cities in Europe during summer. Perhaps a 3 days' trip to Germany, England or something like that. Just to get away from home and doing something. Test something new and actively do something else instead of rotting in my apartment.

But to answer your question. I am not particularity fond of traveling because it takes time and I am not at home. But if I know myself I am most likely enjoying myself whenever I get my ass out of the sofa and do it. Hell it could just be trip to another country and just sitting on a pub an evening just talking to people. 

I was in London around 10 years ago and watched Arsenal and visited a lot of London's traditional landmarks. It was fun but it was a lot of traveling with the subway back and forth.

[Fred the Barber]

So the past day has been pretty good. I spent the first evening mostly walking around the city centre, since I didn't really get situated until pretty late in the day so I couldn't go see any attractions or whatnot. There's an unbelievable amount of things to see in a tiny little radius in the London city centre. I walked away from my hotel in the direction of the National Gallery, and found myself in Piccadilly Circus. Cool. So then I thought, oh, guess I'll walk over to Hyde Park, because who hasn't heard of that place? But I got distracted on the way there by Green Park, which looked like a nice place to walk through, so I did that, and then at the other end of it I found myself directly in front of Buckingham Palace. Their gardens are beautiful. There's too much stuff worth seeing here.

I hit up the aforementioned Botticelli exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum today. It was pretty sweet. They had it broken down into modern stuff influenced by Botticelli, some historical context on his rediscovery in the 19th century, and then a decent collection of work by him and/or his workshop.

The stuff in that first category was by and large stuff I hated, but there were a few interesting points. The first was a clip of Honey Rider coming up out of the ocean, from the first Bond movie, Dr. No - I never thought about it before, but that scene really is a pretty clear nod to Botticelli's Birth of Venus. The most fascinating thing was a very recent and lovely painting by a Chinese artist, which reimagines that same Venus with Asian features and some Asian influences to the style. Gorgeous in person. The stuff I hated included a couple of Warhols, and a newly-discovered performance artist for my "modern art is shit" list, ORLAN.

The second one, the history lesson, was surprisingly interesting - I had no idea that Botticelli was basically unknown (even in Italy) from around the time of his death until the mid-19th century. Nor did I know that it was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood that brought him back into the spotlight. Might've been good to know these things back when I did quizbowl and maybe could have put them to use...

And the last one, a bunch of stuff by Botticelli, was also pretty good. Botticelli's two biggest and most famous pieces, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, are both never going to leave the Uffizi (unless they forget who he is again, I suppose), so they didn't have those, but they did have Pallas and the Centaur, which is super-famous and interesting, and which I hadn't seen in person before. There were also a couple of paintings of his I had never heard of before that were awesome: an idealized portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, and one called Madonna and Child with Angel:

Spoiler

Note: the lighting on this next picture was clearly screwed up, so the colors look weird. It looks way better in person:

I found a couple of cool things at that museum aside from the Botticelli exhibition. Most notably, there was a large collection of massive biblical history paintings by Raphael, collectively called The Raphael Cartoons. Apparently "cartoons" in this sense is a technical term for templates which weavers would use as the basis for making tapestries (there was also a sample tapestry in the room); so there's another thing I learned today. They were, of course, excellent; Raphael's genius for composition is really something else, and he really flaunts it in these big paintings. In addition, I also just happened across a rather small Bernini statue, looking rather unloved in the middle of some random "16th - 18th century Europe" room with a bunch of lesser-known artists. It wasn't in great shape (apparently it was some Italian noblemen's fountain for a couple hundred years - that'll really take it outta ya), but it was still a Bernini; pretty great.

It turned out I didn't have the energy for two museums, so that was it for today.

Food is decent, in spite of the British reputation, but that may be just because I've been sticking to ethnic cuisine - I hit up an Indian restaurant last night, and today was ramen and then Thai. Indian and ramen were fine but unremarkable, but the Thai was really quite good. It was also a bit cheaper than the other two, so if you find yourself around Trafalgar Square and like Thai food, try out Thai Square.

Incidentally, when I say that Thai place was relatively cheaper, I mean it was merely very expensive, instead of crazily expensive. Seattle downtown has a pretty high cost-of-living (not Manhattan or San Fran, but pretty high), and the USD is incredibly strong right now, but stuff was nonetheless 2x what I'm used to spending, for comparable quality. I knew beforehand that London has the highest cost-of-living in the world, but it didn't register until now.

Tomorrow: Shakespeare. Aww yeah.

[tymmur]

On 4/4/2016 at 11:45 PM, Fred the Barber said:

• anybody is interested in regular reports on what I see and do while I'm in London (arbitrary destination where I won't be nervous about a language barrier, go!)

I'm not sure about the language barrier. It might clash with the dialect in London (no joke). Still it could be worse. I encountered non-English speaking people in Germany

 

The first thing, which comes to my mind is the science museum. The UK was the world in the 18th and 19th century and they started and powered the industrial revolution as well as scientific progress. That would be something, which is uniquely British.

 

Ride the Underground (nicknamed the tube). The Metropolitan line (the black one) opened in 1863 and is not only the first underground railroad in the world, it's the only one, which figured out ventilation to successfully run steam underground. Today it's more or less just another line, but the stations reveal their age if you pay attention. It could be something to add to the list when people asked you what you did, even if you just used it for transportation.

 

Stand on the middle of London bridge. It was the best place to see the important buildings in the 19th century and it's still a good place. Do not confuse it with tower bridge, which would also be worth a visit.

[Fred the Barber]

I've been neglecting this thread, so here's a summary of the past three days:

I'll cover today first, before launching into painting stuff that nobody cares about, because today was quicker:

Today I spent a fair bit of time in the British Museum. What they have is not so much my thing, but I did spend about an hour in two rooms with a bunch of clocks, a nice display about the mechanisms for clocks and pocketwatches, and some nice history of European (especially British) clockmaking. Also a little bit on marine chronometers. I really, really want a 17th-century Germanic masterpiece clock now - they had everything, man. Here's a good example. Clock? Hah. Any journeyman can make a clock. A master will make you a quarter-striking astrolabic clock enameled with Zodiac symbols, with an armillary sphere mounted on top. I hardly even know what most of those words mean!

On Thursday, when I was supposed to go to Stratford-upon-Avon, jet lag reared its ugly head (despite totally reasonable times going to sleep and waking up the first night and first morning, respectively), and that ruined any possibility of both making it to Hamlet and not sleeping through it (no matter how excited I am about something, if I'm exhausted, seated, and not actively engaging, I will sleep through it). So, instead, I hit up the National Gallery.

Holy shit. I spent all day Thursday there, and decided I had to come back Friday to see the rest. Friday was another full day. I still haven't seen the current big Delacroix exhibition (which is a shame), but I saw literally the whole regular display collection. And what a collection it is! They don't have anything beyond about 1905, which misses one of my favorite movements (Blue Rider and Kandinsky), but they had fantastic pieces in all my other favorite eras, and some works awesome enough to give me new favorites.

I never thought of myself as a Constable fan before, but of course they have the Hay Wain. It's great, sure, but also hanging nearby was this amazing piece called Stratford Mill, which I absolutely fell in love with. Very beautiful lighting and contrast, in both the ground and the sky.

The second day, I came across a Rembrandt called The Blind Tobit and Anna. I have never been so moved by a painting in my life. The light in it is so... soft, and the mood is simultaneously melancholy and content. Absolutely wonderful.

Because they had some rooms closed off, I almost missed a room full of Van Gogh and Cezanne. Since I have plebeian taste, I like French Impressionism as much as the next bourgeois, so that would've been a real shame; that whole room was awesome. I never get tired of seeing Van Gogh paintings of sunflowers or cedars in person. In addition to the gorgeous Cezannes and Van Goghs, they also had a very impressive Rousseau; not someone you see a lot of. Probably all the other guys with stuff in that room would've been horrified to hear his work was hanging next to theirs in a top-notch gallery a hundred years later.

So I'm standing over on one side of that French Impressionism room, glancing all the way across the room, and I see the most bizarre painting: the forms look exactly like a typical Cezanne landscape, but the colors are downright bizarre. I think "that's gotta be a Cezanne, but it sure is weird..." So I sidle up to it and see it labeled "Braque". Braque? That Braque? No way. I read the rest of the description, and it says something to the effect of "This painting, done in Braque's typical wild coloring, was made in 1907 when he was heavily influenced by Cezanne." Ok, I'll give myself a half-point for that one.

Tons of amazing Renaissance paintings, of course. They had a Leonardo, the Madonna of the Rocks; pretty great. Lots of Raphaels, including some rather famous ones. A single half-finished Michelangelo; you can just tell the curators must have really wanted to be able to say they have a Michelangelo, and nobody would sell them a completed one in good shape.

Some very nice Spanish Renaissance paintings - I'm a big Velazquez fan, and although I'd never seen it before, his Immaculate Conception just pulled me across the room. Stunning.

They had three Caravaggios. Three! Unbelievable. The Supper at Emmaus wasn't one I'd seen before, but it's gorgeous. The expressions, the light, the shadows. What a genius. Definitely my favorite murderer / painter.

I never thought of myself as a Canaletto fan before (shit, I don't think I'd even have produced his name if you gave me a day to list every old Italian painter I could think of), but I was sold after seeing a few here; I love his big paintings of Venice filled with boats and people, especially one depicting the annual Regatta on the Grand Canal. Very lively. I think that means I have shit taste, though - apparently his smaller-scale landscapes are "better".

I could go on and on and on. The more time I spend on this post, the more great stuff keeps popping into my head; sorry. This is surely already a lot more than anybody cares to read, and I think I covered most of my favorites, so I'll cut it off here.

[Okarin]

I develop iron-grip attachments to both my bed, my house and my town. I could endure a change and I'm gradually growing tired of this city (the memories have all been made and so), but I'd take some time to readjust.

I dislike short travels (a week or so) and I've always done so, because they make me lose balance, presenting me with a different environment and destruction of routine. A place has to be seriously awesome (I'd like to go to Japan, too) for me to do such a thing.