London is calling...

Actually, all of England has been calling me since birth. Being the first to taint the bloodline and be born in the States, out of the endless generations of my English family, there's no wonder London has been calling me ceaslessly. Finally, after seventeen years, I answered. London told me she had an endless supply of sights and history to show me; and she was right. She was the first, and best, seductress I have ever experienced.

More than willingly, I left behind the glare, heat, and cloudless sky of Los Angeles, only to be thrust--nine and a half gruling hours later--into the welcome bone chilling gray skies of London's January winter. Upon my first step out of the Tube station and onto the grounds of London, all of the air left my lungs. My eyes were met with the most perfect apartment buildings I could imagine. Rows of them lined the small dark street, like perfectly placed toy buildings. All around me were the most perfectly molded buildings--down to the drugstore, Boots, which looked like a Victorian estate compared to the Walgreens of Los Angeles. Being a native of Los Angeles my entire life, I had never taken in such a vast city filled with lavish little jewels for buildings.

 

After wondering a bit and stealing a few hundred pictures of everything and anything, I ventured to my most loved spot in the world--still to this day: The National Gallery of London.

Having almost cried several times, and almost passing out from seeing the love of my life/favorite piece of artwork ever--Bronzino's Allegory of Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time--in person, I knew this city would take up most of my heart. Not only does the National Gallery house a number of my favorite Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque pieces, but it sits like a little treasure box itself in the heart and centre of Trafalgar Square.

The charm and charisma of London belongs to London alone. There is no other city that I have ever explored that has the same energy as she does. London remains the treasure box of the world. She holds gems from all corners of the world, polishes them, and places them on display for all the world to see. However, of all the gems London houses, the most beautiful are her own. From a small and hauntingly beautiful cemetery at the end of High Street Kensington (my street), to the overpowering beauty of the Parliment at night, the outskirts of Windsor and Leeds castle, to the streets of the Whitechapel district which still hold the energy of Jack the Ripper, her treasures remain the brightest of them all.

 

She is a city that has produced some of the most genius artwork, minds, and humor that the world has, and will ever see. She invites anyone and everyone whole heartedly to not only visit her, but to experience her as only each individual can. As Lord Byron wrote in his most famous poem (which I firmly believe is about London),

 "SHE walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that 's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

But then again, that's just my opinion...