When first arriving in the UK, multiple things immediately caught my attention - the weather is much different from that of California with its abundance of sporadic rain showers, sunlight looks different here with the sun rising fully by 5 in the morning and setting at around 10:30 pm, and everything that looks old is actually super old and not built to look old (think about that for a moment... buildings that are considered historic and monumental today were once considered modern and new at the original time of their completion... blows my mind).
Another overarching theme I encountered in London happened to do with color. Being an art history student, I am highly aware of color schemes and their effects and I have come to think of London in terms of color as being exemplified (at least in the city) by the colors red, blue, grey, and black (with the occasional green). This came to my attention as I began editing my photography taken in the city. As I adjusted different color settings in photoshop, I realized that as I altered other colors such as yellow, green, or orange, the picture was hardly changed. This is definitely attributed to the red double-decker buses, red Underground street signs, black taxi cabs, grey buildings and sky, and black road. You can definitely see it in the following photos:
These Underground signs are everywhere, demarcating exactly where each Tube stop is. I am amazed by the efficiency of the Tube (London's underground train network) and its accessibility and its being simple to navigate.
The King's Cross Bus always reminds me of Harry Potter and Platform 9 3/4!
Even though this city has a lot of hustle and bustle, the people feel much less frantic and slower moving than Los Angeles, which was definitely a pleasant surprise.
These photos are a testament to London's beauty as they were all taken as I stood in one spot on a street corner and just pivoted around 360 degrees to photograph everything I was seeing from that one spot.
Before coming to the UK, I thought these double decker buses were only for tourists (like they are in the US) but they are actually just the city buses that locals take!
So much amazing architecture everywhere you turn in London. From the old to the new, I admire London for not being afraid to add modern elements to their historic past and buildings, giving it a more active relationship with its past. I could go on about this topic for a while in terms of London's stance on restoration and changing and adding to historic buildings, but I'll save that for another blog post since it's a much longer, more complex ideology.
In conclusion, I have been in London for about 10 days and I LOVE IT!!
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