My Friend The Big Blue Whale

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London, UK. One of the largest and most famous cities in Europe. More tourist attractions and sights in one concentrated area than most other places. Enough to create memories for a lifetime for the average person. My first visit left one single impression. Ok, I was six, not an age when you absorb and appreciate the might of a world city. So, what out of all these sites caught my attention to the extent that it left an unerasable memory? A safe bet would be being in the crowd of an Arsenal-Tottenham derby at Highbury. The derby of derbys in the world of soccer; the sport that I eat, breathe and live. Nope. Maybe Madame Thoussauds wax cabinet, already at the time an impressive collection of wax dolls? Nope. What then of the impressive constructions of Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s cathedral, or the Tower Bridge? Nope. A shopping spree at Harrod's? Nope.

The one and only recurring vision that appears and that is more London to me than anything else is located in room 24 of the Natural History Museum. Or rather, is filling the room. A model of a giant blue whale is hanging from the ceiling, with a model of its skeleton hanging above it. It's surrounded by a number of models of other whales and land mammals. It's however the vision of this giant of giants that is sticking to my brain. Possibly my first memory. The little Swedish kid standing in the doorway of the room looking up at this incredibly big animal. Turns out modern marine research proves the model to be out of scale, slightly too fat. But hey, what does a six-year old know...

Almost 25 years later I return to pay one of my first friends a visit. Standing in the exact same doorway I can do nothing but to lose my breath. A very vivid flashback occurs, as this is the exact same position I was standing on back then. Occurs to me later that the angle was slightly different as I was obviously shorter. But the fascination is the same. Magic, almost. This is likely to be the origin for my fascination for large marine animals and the oceans. The blue whale. In danger of extinction. We mustn’t have that…

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