I find it really hard to write posts about cities that people love and travel to a lot. London of course is one of these cities.

The thing about London is that it's big. There's something for everyone. It's old and new at the same time. And, it's funny to hear people speaking English with an accent.

<a title="Tate Britain  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6693698465/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6693698465_02b603f6b0.jpg" alt="Tate Britain " width="333" height="500" /></a>I had a great time and I find myself insanely jealous of the fabulous museums in this city. These museums put those in Sofia to shame. Sure British Museum is full of stolen things but to their credit they did steal pretty great stuff and they've done an even better job displaying it.  I mean: mummies (men, women, children, birds, cats and even alligators?!) <em>and</em> the Rosetta Stone?!

So I spent a huge portion of my time in museums and galleries--looking at things, admiring art and trying not to be snippy with pushy tourists (and there are some <em>crazy</em> tourists in London). The fact that I love art, history and old things makes visiting London in the middle of winter seem much more reasonable.

Each day I basically did some variation of: walk to a museum, see the museum, walk around the neighborhood, find something to eat/drink and then I'd go to another museum and repeat. Truth be told, I was happy as a clam to do this. I didn't go to London to shop. Sure I popped into a few shops but most of them were crawling with people scooping up post-Christmas sale-items and the shops themselves were usually in disarray. This is not my idea of a good time. Ever.

So I stuck to wandering. Taking pictures. Eating. Exploring.

After all of this, I think that if you're short on time in London there are probably five must see museums: the National Portriat Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern.

In writing this post, I tried to determine if I had a favorite museum in London but that's sort of like comparing apples and oranges. I was pleasantly surprised by how modern and hip the Victoria and Albert Museum came off even with their various collection of objects. This is a museum with a good sense of space, style and humor. And the Chihuly glass sculpture in the foyer is incredible--what to know how they clean it?! The V&amp;A has a <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/behind-the-scenes-chihuly-chandelier/?utm_source=V%26A-website&amp;utm_medium=redirect&amp;utm_content=int-chihuly-desktop-wallpaper&amp;utm_campaign=ugc-rev-nov11" target="_blank">behind the scenes piece on this</a> on their website.
<a title="Bridge to St Paul's by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6693684039/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/6693684039_702da143eb_z.jpg" alt="Bridge to St Paul's" width="640" height="427" /></a>
I was prepared to LOVE the Tate Modern which I did. Just with lowercase letters. The Tate Modern has a pretty wonderful collection but between the layout, the colors and the bookstore/gift shop the Tate Modern seems like it's trying too hard to be cool and cutting edge. Should you go? Absolutely. Just be warned.<a title="Millennium Foot Bridge by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6693679605/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6693679605_b811d44710_z.jpg" alt="Millennium Foot Bridge" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Tate Modern Poetry and Dream by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6693685895/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6693685895_6151b54663_z.jpg" alt="Tate Modern Poetry and Dream" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Tate Modern timeline by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6693684599/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7022/6693684599_76463677fa_z.jpg" alt="Tate Modern timeline" width="640" height="427" /></a>

The Tate Britain seems a little stodgy but they have a lot of classics, big rooms and plenty of places to sit and really look at the art. This museum in comparison to many that I visited was comparatively empty. I felt like I had the museum to myself. That was good because it gave me plenty of time to check out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia_%28painting%29" target="_blank">Sir John Everett Millais's Ophelia</a>--a painting I've seen plenty of times reproduced in textbooks but which is even creepier and more intense in person. This interestingly hangs just feet from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott_%28painting%29" target="_blank">Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott</a>. I knew both of these paintings were here but I wasn't prepared to seem them on the same wall.