It was a lovely morning in Liverpool and I visited the World Museum. How worldly is it? Let's take a tour with me. LOLx Looks like in-house guiding. Entering the main gate, I must admit that I'm a bit lost. Well, it's the first time I wander around a tourist attraction in UK.
The first thing that came to my mind would be asking for help. My ideology, "If you can open your mouth (and money), you can go wherever you want in Europe." Got help from this lovely guy, the museum visitor assistant who even joked that "everything is free, except the food and drinks."
Entering the sliding door, this bone below greets me. After taking some crappy shots, I walked towards the information counter to get my free tickets for the planetarium show as advised by the assistant. Got 2 tickets, one for the "Night Sky of Summer" and another for the "Moon". Started planning my time as soon I got my tickets.
There are 6 stories, including the ground floor, to this building. Each level have this specific area on display. The display topics according to level are as follows:
G - Cafe and Large Artifacts
1 - Aquarium
2 - Plants and Bugs
3 - World Cultures
4 - Dinosaurs and Animals
5 - Planetarium
I made my way to the 4th floor first to see the displays of animal evolutions, from dinosaurs to the living creatures on our planet now. After viewing some dinosaurs fossils (bones, footprints), I enter this area that show 4 different climates where animals lived - The Frozen Wilderness, Dark Northern Forests, Endless Plains and Steamy Jungles. Each part shows the type of animals that inhibit in the designed area and also what had human done to destroy it. =.=
After settling this level, I proceed to the Planetarium. Here, they display the apparatus that are used in space and time technology. There are clocks, from ancient timing tools to modern machines, and also space information and equipment. There are so much that interest me here.
At 11:55AM, I entered the theater for my first show. It was just a 10 minutes video, but I learnt a lot. ^^ Now, I have this basic knowledge of where to locate the stars in the summer sky. The experience is somehow similar to the Malaysian one, just this is shown in a much smaller room.
With much satisfaction, I continue to the level that will fascinates me the most, World Culture (especially the ancient Egyptian history). In the first quadrant, I was greeted with the Roman cultures. Most of them are sculptures.
Then, it's Egyptian stuffs. ^^ There are much information about this ancient civilisation in the museum. There are artifacts being displayed with the sarcophagi and mummies grabbed most of my attention. Too bad it's just some random mummies, not of a Pharaoh.
Proceeding next was the Anglo-Saxons and Ancient Greeks, sadly information was minimal. T.T The history of Greek should be longer than the Romans, and the information offered disappointed me.
After exploring the ancient cultures of Europe, I walked around the atrium to learn about other ancient cultures from other continents. First, there was this culture of the Africa. Not much that interest me, some tribal ritual stuffs such as weapons and daily tools.
The gallery brought me to the Americas, detailing of ancient cultures of the indigenous people, especially the Mayans. Other than these ancient civilisation, there are also tools used my the northern community, those around the Arctic. I like their visors, much more cooler than those worn by my classmates (which I felt looked like housefly).
I passed by Oceania's room without much reading. Then, it's Asia's turn. There are a lot of exhibits here, with the Burmese and Javanese culture stuff in the first room. Then, there's this special room housing artifacts about Buddhism. Follow on were history and artifacts of China and Japan. And that's the end of an interesting level 3.
Going down to level 2, there is this special exhibition being carried out. It will be quite interesting for the kids. Plantastic - which I think is a very awesome name, has many interactive games on the desk for children to try their hands on.
Not interested in those games, I walked around the atrium to this Bug House. It was a really scary entrance for the group of ladies in front of me, who screamed as they saw this larger than human mechanical housefly. LOLx Following the flow, I got to see many specimens - bugs and also larger creatures at the end of the road (including some fisheries). There is also this Leafcutter Ants which are so skillful at harvesting the plant. Their pace are scary.
In the aquarium at Level 1, the museum displays fishes and other sea creatures from around the world, except the deep sea creatures in tanks. The tanks have different condition to suit the creatures from Indo-Pacific coral reef, mangroves & mud and sandy shores. There are also tanks for starfishes and shell creatures. Those fishes are just so cute, and colourful. ^^
That was a worthy tour around the museum, more worthy when considering that it's free. But the museum might not be there for you in the future as the authorities wanted to cut down spending and might force the closure of a few of the museum chain around the city. It's a very informative place to gain knowledge. The National Museums Liverpool had launched a petition there, and also 7 other museums around Liverpool in order to save these places.
I recommend that everyone should visit here. Please help sign its petition for the future generation, for the children (I sounds gay here =.=). TARCians from LJMU, I hope you can help signed it while on your way back to Atlantic Point from school. That's a few minutes that can make a difference.
