It was raining the whole day, not the torrential downpour that we see in India, just a constant drizzle. Though the intensity was lesser, the annoyance was equal or probably more. Everytime I went to central London the dark, ominous clouds loomed large. And as always this meant that my pics would again be dark and that I would again doubt my choice of camera.
This weekend was a planned weekend with tickets booked for the London Eye, London Dungeon, Madam Tussaud's and the Aquarium. The constant drizzle had already downed my spirits a little and the visit to the aquarium was enough to suck out all the enthu. The bloody aquarium, supposedly the biggest in Europe, was a major let-down. There were lots of fishes but I was expecting a Singapore-like aquarium where I could see all the fishes floating above me, but all I saw was blown-up version of the aquariums we have at home. A vegetarian that I am, I could not even fantasize eating the different kinds of fishes. So rather than feeling bad I started exploring the underwater mode in my camera and tried to replicate the settings in the manual mode. While the underwater mode produced some nice pics, the manual mode pics were total wash-outs. A couple of good pics though.
After the aqua visit me and Siva had some homemade peanut candy(not chikki, it was a different kind) and set off towards the London Dungeon to get spooked. The scare began quite before we entered the dungeon - the queue to enter the dungeon was so huge!!! We waited for almost an hour outside and the rain kept us company. If only the it was a lil darker I would have imagined Raveena and her tip-tip barsa paani dance. After the long wait we finally entered the dark dark dungeon and the scares began. Live actors jumping outta nowhere, gory stautes lined all along, red fluids dripping from the statues, the mirror mazes(never thought it would be so confusing inside a mirror maze).. As we went along, the darkest stories of London history were enacted by the actors, all wearing victorian clothes (all girls wore the corset) and their faces painted to make them look scary. At every turn it was a different story. The only thing predictable was a crazy girl in the group you shrieked every now and then. T'was like the silly girl was programmed to shriek at periodic intervals.
In one of the rooms there was court room scene which was very very funny. Three people from the group were picked and had trial.
Scene 1 (a little girl was on trial):
Actor: Whats your name?
Girl: Page
Actor: Thats a silly name for a girl. Anyways, your honour, this girl was caught in the park pinching.
Judge: Pinching?
Actor: Pinching, you know.. Like stealing wallets.
Judge: So you..
Actor: And also pinching the bums of honorable young men. Page, show us how you pinched.
Judge: So Page, do you enjoy pinching young mens bottoms?
Page: No..
Judge: How old are you?
Page: 11
Judge: Wait another 10 more years and then you will enjoy. Plead guilty and you shall be shot by a canon. Plead very guilty and you shall be shot from a canon and plead innocent and you shall be..
Page: Innocent.
Judge: Hang her.
Scene 2 (Daniel, a german):
Actor: This man was found having a relationship with animals.
Judge: Animals? Relationship? Of what nature?
Actor: You know...
Judge: Daniel, which animal was it with? A horse?
Daniel: NO.
Judge: So it was not even a stable relationship. Hang him. (I was laughing so hard by now, the poor germans could not read between the lines and found nothing funny)
Scene 3 (Stephen):
Judge: Stephen, where are you from.
Stephen: Taiwan.
Judge: Hang him.
It was such a witty trial. After a few more stories from London's dark history we were all hanged to death, with a noose on a screen in front of us there was a free fall and then we were declared dead.
After the thoughly entertaining dungeon we went past the Tower Bridge and went to the London eye. The best part of the day was about to begin. The sun was setting, the city was waking up. As we soared higher and higher, the view got more and more breathtaking. By the time we reached the top the sun had set and all the night lights were out in full splendour. So beautiful was the experience that I will always stay with me. Before I return back to India, I am sure I will go the London eye flight again. The constant drizzle meant that I could not click any great pics, definitely not outdoors, what with the rain tring to get into my lens. Still managed a few good pics from my London Eye flight.
Ended the day with a quick visit to the Leicester Square and Piccadilly circus(there is no circus really, circus means circle in Roman and hence technically the Piccadilly Circus is like our corporation circle). After 12 hours in the rain I got back home to my cosy bed and slept like a log… zzzzzz…
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