2016-06-23

【Aiden in English】

        London is a miserable city. Not that it feels anything much more than the constant renovations of busy ants building their homes, but it simply has a vibe of being depressing. One would say it is because of us, or the wars, or the rants of nonsense and crazy Shakespearian plays. Nevertheless, the city seems to always shed tears of pain every single day. 

        Our flight landed in Heathrow, London at around 11:35 this morning. The mood of the city had settled in, using AccuWeather to deliver its misery. The next five-day forecast had literally not a single drop of the beautiful gold touch of sunlight that made the small Emoji so much better. The pale, gray clouds of the small predictive window looked so ...scary and unfriendly. Not to mention the idea of rain, as the app reported "chances" of thunderstorms. But, as the saying says, all the water in the world can't bring a boat down if it doesn't get inside. 

        I regret quoting that phrase. 

        The Tower of London, which is more like a medieval castle, is full of pain, suffering, screams, torture, betrayal, and death. Not exactly the pictured ideal Disney castle, but I'm sure someone at the company will make a movie based on a haunted castle. And maybe even for once, the main character dies and doesn't find true happiness and love. That is exactly why it should be filmed in London, where all there can be is misery and rain. They say rain is god's tears. 

        The prison tower has quite a background story. It had successfully played a role in holding many criminals and pre-executed people, including Rudolf Hitler, and William Penn, our favorite guy (if you live in Pennsylvania). The Tower of London is more famous for executions than any other aspect since so many were performed, and all were bloody. Tales of betrayal, love triangles, and false accusations contributed to one of the bloodiest places on earth, causing the ground to run red, rampage with a rage of the dead. The Chapel Royal of St. Peter & Vincula where the guide spoke acted as a betrayal for many dead ones, including one of the wives of King Henry the V. Most had no engraved marks on where the body was located, meaning the coffin contained a traitor, and even some others had their bodies burnt so they couldn't pass onto heaven. It seemed as if the powers from above had rained down their hatred on these criminals, showing torture and a certain few, painful deaths. Just with that said, mom took a photo inside the little church, and I swear, thunder rumbled and the sky trembled and the crowd all looked at my mom. We survived the embarrassment, as mom apparently wasn't in the room when the guide said clearly "no pictures". We went to the restrooms to find ourselves in a situation that we were unprepared for. 

        You know the saying about the water and the boat. Well, I'm pretty sure the water broke a hole in the hull of the ship, letting water freely gush through at will. Before I knew it, I was back at the water park from the last year. This time, it felt much colder and not fun whatsoever. We ran along the ramparts, hiding in a shelter, as the rain gushed down in torrents. Small streams were beginning to form from the overspill of the gutters, and the old cobblestones were quickly becoming too slippery to run on. So there we were cold, soaked, mad, and surprised to see how fast the weather changed. A lesson that you should all understand: never take a photo in a church when God is angry. Or maybe it's just the Brits voting for the separation of the U.K. and the EU?

【红霞译文】

        伦敦真可谓一座凄凉的城市，比起那些鞠躬尽瘁的蚂蚁还要悲催，天色昏暗阴沉，心头难免横生一种压抑之情，有人把它嫁祸到我们外来客身上，也有人指责世界战事不断，还有人添油加醋，怪罪疯狂莎士比亚戏剧一语成谶。总而言之，伦敦好像每天都伤心落泪。

        我们的航班于今天上午11：35在伦敦希思罗国际机场降落，偏偏赶上气象台预告的倒霉日子，好在未来五天暂无雨水骚扰，小小图绘字符才有了用武之地。日后短短几天内，苍白发灰的乌云依然盘旋上空，显得非常……恐怖，而且缺乏友善，天气预报软件推测“可能”有雷阵雨发生，伦敦与雨水难解难分。俗话说过，漏水的船才会沉没。

        我后悔引用上述谚语。

        伦敦塔看上去更像中世纪城堡，饱经痛苦、煎熬、怒吼、折磨、背叛及死亡之蹂躏，与迪斯尼城堡相比略有差异。我敢打赌，娱乐界肯定会把眼前这座闹鬼城堡拍成一部电影，其中主人公直到临终前都未能找到幸福与真爱，而该场景只能设在伦敦，唯有这座城市才疾苦深重阴雨连绵，人们常说雨是上帝的眼泪。

        监狱塔历史悠久，曾经关押许多敌人和即将走上断头台的的囚犯，其中包括鲁道夫·希特勒，还有我们喜爱的人物威廉·潘（假如你住在宾州）。伦敦塔尤以杀人著称，许多帝王将相达官贵人都被囚禁于此并处以死刑，场面惨不忍睹。因为通奸、三角恋及错判而导致的屠杀使之成为世上最为血腥的地方之一，监狱塔血流成河，甚至对死人也不放过。导游站在圣彼得及温库拉皇家礼拜堂内说，这座小教堂埋葬了很多犯有通奸罪的皇室成员，包括亨利五世的诸多妻子之一，不少墓碑并没有留下名字，因此无从查询埋葬地点，只知道棺材里躺的是通奸犯，有的甚至被焚化以表示再也不能进入天堂。如此看来，权力之争渊源已久，失势者被当成罪犯遭受酷刑，为数不少的被折磨致死。话音刚落，妈妈随手拍摄了一张小教堂内景相片，我发誓此时此刻雷声轰鸣天地翻腾，游客的目光一下子全部集中到妈妈身上，真叫人下不来台，显然，导游先前强调“禁止照相”的时候妈妈并不在场，结果自己还觉得心里委屈。

        想必你已经知道有关水与船的谚语，是啊，我坚信如果船体没被穿透，水是不会进入船舱的，而本人去年到水上公园游玩时才明白这个道理。当然今夏伦敦冷得要命，直接影响到旅游情趣，况且大雨倾盆，我们只好沿着城墙疾步奔走，躲在屋檐下进退两难。水柱顺着管道狂泻而出，浸湿了鹅卵石老路，路面开始打滑，跑起来非常吃力。我们冻得发冷，浑身上下全部被雨水打湿，简直花钱买罪受，伦敦的天气变脸真比翻书还快。但愿大家从我们的经历中汲取教训：当上帝生气的时候，绝不能在教堂内拍摄相片，否则今天下雨应该是因为英国佬决定退出欧洲联盟而惹得老天爷难过？