Anyhow, England has so many great museums that are mostly free to get into! It's amazing, I don't think museums are free back home. When I first arrived in England and spent 10 days in London, I visited three museums, all very different. Another thing I love about museums over here are their exteriors! Just look at these photos - such striking buildings.
This one is the Brisitsh Museum, which is in Trafalgar Square in London. I went here with my hostel friends Nicole and Colleen for about 3 hours, which wasn't enough time to get around the whole place. But by that point we were kind of museum-d out! I loved the classical history part of this museum the most. It had reliefs from ancient Roman structures and original busts - including the one of the Emperor Augustus. Soooo cool! The ancient Egyptian section was also cool - it had lots of mummies on display, including one that was believed to be Cleopatra! The Rosetta Stone was also here, and was what all the tourists (including us) were cramming around and trying to get a good look at.
This one is the National Gallery, also in Trafalgar Square Not a 'museum' as such, as it's a gallery, but I'm going to include it here. I think this was the place that made me think 'oh my gosh I can't believe I'm seeing these in the flesh!' Because there were works by MONET and VAN GOGH and DA VINCI!!!! Being able to see these paintings I've read about and seen many photos of in real-life was just awesome. There was also live classical music playing and a guest-artist painting in one of the rooms, so the whole ambience/experience was perfect.
The famous Natural History Museum! I came here with Nicole, who had to leave part-way through for a flat viewing, so I saw most of it on my own. This place is also free and I want to go back already. It covers everything imaginable about the natural world - including geology, how the human body works, dinosaurs, birds and insects, mammals, geography, etc etc. It's all very interactive too - which is fun for kids and also was fun for me cause I like to have a go at all those sorts of things too. haha.
The next museum I visited didn't have such an awe-inspiring exterior, but was well-worth a visit. This was the National Museum of Denmark, in Copenhagen. Also free! I went to this museum with a Korean guy I met on the walking tour I went on in the morning. It was super cold outside so was nice to come inside and soak up some culture. The museum covers the history of Denmark as well as other cultures. All the annotations were in both Danish and English, so no problems there :)
This is the Ashmoleon Museum in Oxford. The Ashmolean is the world's first University museum - originally created to house a cabinet of curios donated by Elias Ashmolean. I think this is my favourite museum so far. Well, that's hard to say cause they're all soooooo good but this one wasn't so huge to the point of being overwhelming (a la British museum), had a few interactive things and had some exhibits that were different, like a whole section on Imperial Japan, which was really cool. There was also a huge collection of china crockery which was very impresive. It's very modern, clean and well organised as well. Plus it's in Oxford, which means it's fantastic by association.
Oh, I also went to Brighton Museum when I was there. It wasn't too bad, but kinda had the same sort of cultural history stuff I'd seen in other museums already. Still enjoyed the visit though.
I <3 a good museum.
xx
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