My favorite piece of technology

I must confess that my favorite piece of technology is really, quite dated, but still insuperable to me, I mean; the record-player or turntable and the vinyl record. I choose those because I love listening to music, and I consider this as the best music player. 

I have listen music from CDs, cassettes, music in delicate formats such as flac, even with the best headphones, but these experiences do not exceed the sound quality offered by the record player. Of course, to have a good sound experience, you need two importants resources; A vinyl in good condition and a good needle. This is so because many old vinyl records are scratched, and this causes us to listen with interruptions, or listen over and over again, as in a musical loop. However, even if we have a new vinyl, we will not be able to fully enjoy its sound if we do not have an optimal needle that reproduces it. The needle is crucial, because it is the device that captures the vibrations produced by the grooves drawn on the vinyl, similar to what happens with wind instruments, which use a reed to produce the vibration in the instrument, and thus produce sounds.

 The vinyl and the record-player together are a kind of musical instrument for me, because with them is possible listen to music on vinyl without the need of a speaker, because when the vinyl is turning and the needle vibrates, an acoustic sound is produced, not electronic, as in the case of other music player devices. For all these reasons, I consider the vinyl and the record-player as an insuperable device to this day. If you have the opportunity to listen to a good vinyl, do not hesitate! It is very similar to listening to live music.

My Study Trip in London

Day		Place		Entrance Fee	Tube Station	Travel Zone
Monday	AM	Hop-on hop-off bus tour (24 hours tour)		£28	None.	Central London
	PM
Tuesday	AM	Big Ben and Westminster Abbey		£17	Westminster Station	Westminster 1
	PM	London Eye		£20 student	Waterloo Station	Waterloo 1
Wednesday	AM	Buckingham Palace		£40 + £2.40	Victoria	Victoria, Central London 1
	PM	Hyde park		£0	Hyde Park Corner	Hyde park 1
Thursday	AM	Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter		£46.95 + £10	Watford Junction	Leavesden, Watford
	PM	Paddington Station and Little Venice		£7.60	Paddington Station	Paddington 1
Friday	AM	Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum		£32	Baker Street	1
	PM	Jack the Ripper Museum		£13 + £2.40	Tower Hill Station	1
Saturday	AM	Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre		£13.50	London Bridge Underground	Bankside 1
	PM	Tate Modern Museum		£0	London Bridge Underground, Bankside	Bankside 1
Sunday	AM	The British Museum		£0	Tottenheim Court Road	1
	PM	Embankment Pier to Tower Millenium Pier on River Bus, and Tower of London.		£8.70 + £2.40 + £19.30	Travel for Thames: Embankment to Tower of London	1
			Total Costs	£263.25

For the first day of this travel, I will take a Hop-on hop-off bus tour, because this is a good way to give a preview of all the city, before of visit each important place. This tour has a maximum duration of one day, in which I can freely choose the stops that interest me or call my attention. The next day i will start to know some famous and iconic places of the city. On the tuesday morning i will go to know Westminster Abbey, from inside and Big Ben only from outside. These are very close (50 mt.). After that, I will walk across the Westminster Bridge, until I reach the London Eye. Here I will pay the ticket to get on that giant 135 meter wheel, because I really like that kind of entertainment, besides that it will give a beautiful view of the city.

To the next morning, I will go to explore the Buckingham Palace. I will pay the complete tour to know The State Rooms, The Buckingham Palace, The Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews. I think this place is perhaps one of the most important in the whole world. After to know the Palace, I will take the Tube on Victoria Station to Hyde Park Corner. I want to know the Hyde Park because is the largest park in London, and I am struck by the fact that it is located right in the center of the city.

Thursday will be a movie day. This because I want to visit the Harry Potter Studios. I am a fan of the saga, those movies marked my childhood, and I would feel very sad if I couldn't go to visit that place. To get there, I will take the Tub to Watford, and a bus too, to Leavesden. This should take me an hour at lest, for these reasons, for this day in particular I will need to get up very early. After that, I will return to London, and I want to stop of this travel on the Paddington Station, because here was filmed another movie that I like, about a bear with the same name of the Station. To finish this day, I will go for a walk on the Little Venice. This place is very close of the station, and is a beautiful kind of replica of the Venice Waterway, and it appears in a scene from the movie too.

If the mood of Thursday will be the fantastic world of movies, for Friday I pretend to create a day to the mystery and horror. On morning I will go to visit the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. This place has wax sculptures of many famous people, but I am interested to visit The Chamber of Horrors, because here you could see a strange collection of serial killers, dismembered bodies and other curious things like that. Following with the topic, I will need to take the Tub from Baker Street to Tower Hill Station, to end the day visiting the Jack the Ripper Museum.

To the two last days of this travel I want return to visit some historical sites of London. On the Saturday morning I will go to the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, that even if it is a rebuilding, I am sure that I will love it. After that I will go to visit the Tate Modern Museum. This museum is few steps to the Globe, on Bankside too, and has thousands of paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and artistics installations of the modern and contemporary Art.

My farewell to the city will begin in The British Museum, because this place brings together thousands of objects and works that are invaluable for both London and universal culture. After that, I will take the Tub from Tottenheim Court Road Station to Embankment Station, because I want to get on a River bus from the Embankment Pier to Tower Millenium Pier, sailing the Thames. Finally, after about 15 minutes on the river, I get off at the Tower Pier, to see the Tower Bridge from afar, and to visit the Tower of London, in order to say goodbye to the city.