BritPop week continues, whether you like it or not. Let’s continue our tour of London.

There are a lot of museums in London and for the most part, they are all free (their government actually values their citizens obtaining cultural literacy and being able to visit museums without worrying about a huge donation fee, fancy that!). If you are interested in remaining friends with the person you are traveling with (and lord knows, I wasn’t), you will only attempt to visit two because they are the only ones worth going to. The first, the National Gallery of Art. It’s old art, so there’s a lot of creepy giant paintings of women, like this one:

Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary', probably 1618

Sunflowers by Van Gogh is also here and you should see it here and NOT in Amsterdam. You probably think it’d be a totally awesome idea to check out Van Gogh while tripping on shrooms. How wrong you are, little traveler. See it here. The National Gallery is a big, cavernous, echo-ey space with so many intricate, larger than life pieces that were so painstakingly done, when you walk out, you feel a little spaced out, a little high, the way I feel when I hear this Cure song…

The Cure, How Beautiful You Are

You can have your very own independent movie with dreary, old architechture London in the background to that song. When you keep walking, and walking, and walking only to be caught in the motherfucking rain once again, here’s what to do: you find a pub, you get a cottage pie and a beer (if you order a cocktail, they will make you mix it. If I wanted to make my own drink, I would have stayed in my hotel room and watched Skins!) and you pretend to be totally into the soccer game everyone else is watching. It kind of sucks, to be stuck in this stupid pub, but hey, you’re on an international vacation. Suck it up, partner. You are very, very lucky:

The Verve, Lucky Man

If you’re going to hit up another museum in town, make it the Tate. The Tate is modern art, so by its very definition, full of bullshit, but the building itself is really fucking cool: it’s a renovated power station. My favorite piece? Jackson Pollock’s Summertime 1948. I even hate to put this pathetic picture in this post, but this up close is the reason you even bother to deal with a museum.

Most people are so used to seeing reproductions that to see something like this upclose, not that re-print you bought at the poster sale your freshman year, makes dealing with getting here worth it. And Tower Bridge is super close. Seeing a Pollock up close and Tower Bridge, such iconic London will get you out of your rain induced malaise and almost make you forget the dollar is worth 50 cents. Yay!

Republica, Ready To Go