Part II - London

So...., continuing from the first part, we woke up on day 4 bright and early to catch our train. We headed over to the station to find that we had to go through a whole security checkpoint and customs. We went as fast as possible to make it on the train. Unfortunately, when we got to the boarding area, they said it had just left. We were lucky enough that they gave us a ticket for the next train at no charge. So we got on and left for London. The trip was somewhat enjoyable. It was very quiet and peaceful. We got to see a lot of the French countryside. The part of the trip where we went underground went by really fast and then suddenly - we were in England! Soon enough we arrived at the station and exited to the street.

We walked down one of the main roads to find our hostel. It was interesting to see all of the hustle and bustle in London coming from Paris which seemed to be a bit more calm. We arrived at our hostel which had a modern flare to it. It had a cafe/bar, 24 hour reception, and other nice amenities. The down side was that the rooms were like dorm rooms - with bunk beds and up to 8 people per room. We also had to share a bathroom with the rest of the floor. Anyways, we went to change our Euros into Pounds right away. After using Euros for a few days, I found the pound system to be very confusing with its all different shaped and colored coins. Euro bills may look like monopoly money but they were much easier to use. After a quick breakfast, we decided to head over to Regent's Park where we saw the Queen's gardens. Being as exhausted as we were, laying down on the grass seemed like a good idea. I can't remember how long I was laying there but it felt very relaxing. Eventually we mustered enough energy to get up and made our way over to a restaurant for some fish and chips. In my opinion, the fish and chips were not that different than what I have had at home. Even so, I really enjoyed them.

Our next stop was the British Museum - a history and culture museum with over seven million objects. I found the artifacts and various statues to be amazing. The Egyptian section was especially interesting to me. Unfortunately, the museum closed before we could see everything we wanted to. With not much else to do, we decided it was time for dinner. On our way to dinner, we walked down Oxford Street, which is London's version of Champs De Elysee. It has all the designer stores, nice restaurants, and other aspects similar to it's Paris counterpart. We arrived at the restaurant which was in Soho. It was a very upbeat Thai restaurant. I ordered Pad Thai and I believe Ben did the same. It was probably the best Pad Thai that I have ever had - yum. After our delicious dinner, we decided to walk around the Piccadilly Circus area (another main street in London). We even stopped at a Mac store and used their internet to check our e-mail on our i-pods. By the time it got dark outside, we were ready to head back to our hostel for some much needed sleep. Little did we know at that time that we would not be getting all of that sleep. The problem was that one of our roommates was sick, and had a monster cough. The whole night, he was coughing away and it was almost impossible to fall asleep between each one of his booming coughs.

We woke up tired, and missing our Paris hotel room. Our first order of business was to talk to reception about switching rooms. We didn't want to have another bad night of sleep. We were given the option to switch - but we had to move from a 6 person room to an 8 person room. We figured it couldn't be any worse than we experienced the night before. We moved our bags, ate a nice breakfast at the hostel, and headed out for another adventure. We had planned to do a free walking tour of the city this day so we started heading over to the start point. On the way, we stopped at a Nike store on Oxford Street and I bought myself a Manchester United mini soccer ball. Also on the way, we walked through another royal park called Green Park. This park was very nice. It had lots of paths with trees lining them. We relaxed for a bit on a bench in the park. When it was almost time for the tour to start we walked over to the meeting point at Hyde Park Corner.

I didn't know what to expect from the tour but I was pleasantly surprised. Our tour guide happened to be American and she was very good. She told lots of stories and interesting facts that helped make the tour entertaining. Starting at Hyde Park corner, we learned about the Wellington Arch. (By the way, all the pictures for this tour and the rest if the trip can be found on my Facebook page). The Arch was originally built as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington with his statue on top. Now, however, a statue of the angel of peace resides on top of the arch. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. I was not as awe struck as when I first saw the White House but the Palace was still great to see. We heard stories about how a lot of people have been able to break in to the Palace without much effort. One story was about a drunk guy who just wandered in and ended up on the Queen's bed telling stories. We were told that when the Royal Standard flag was raised, the Queen is in the Palace. Unfortunately, the flag was not raised that day. Also unfortunately, we didn't get to see the changing of the guard. In front of the Palace is a Queen Victoria memorial with a large garden and a statue. We went on to see the Princes Palace. The Palace was mostly hidden behind trees but we could see a bit of it. In front of the Palace were 2 guards on duty. They would stand still for a while, do some gun movements, and then some marching back and forth until filing back into the same positions. We learned that people used to be able to go right up to the guards and mess around with them and take pictures. Now, however, they have a chain fence that we were not allowed to pass. The closest we could get was about 5-10 feet away from them. We learned that this is because of a tourist who decided to march alongside one of the guards and ended up getting shoved top the ground. You can see this video at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPK1kPWj1E - so funny. We then stopped by St. Jame's Palace which is not used so much lately except for special meetings. Our next stop was Trafalgar Square, a main tourist attraction with fountains and statues. Nelson's Column is a big monument for Admiral Nelson with a statue at the top. On the way to our next stop we passed under the Admiralty Arch - an office building with an archway over the road. The arch was built as a memorial to Queen Victoria from her son Edward VII. The Arch is well known for having a nose like protrusion in one of the inner walls of the arch. Tradition is that soldiers riding by on a horse rub the nose for good luck. On our way to the next stop, we passed a bunker that was right next to St. James Park. The bunker was covered in ivy and had a grass covered roof. We soon found out that they did this so that enemy planes flying over head would think it was part of the park and therefore would not bomb it. Cool stuff. Our next destination was the Big Ben clock tower. I had really looked foreword to seeing it and it did not disappoint. We heard a funny story about how Big Ben might have gotten it's name. Unfortunately, I can't remember the story so I will have to talk to Ben (not Big Ben, little Ben). We saw Westminster Abbey but did not get to go in. It was very impressive from the outside though. Our last stop were the houses of Parliament. We were told about how there were numerous failed terrorist attacks long ago. The caught terrorists were hung, then beheaded, then their heads would go on display in the city to set an example, and many other bad things. I think times have changed. So that was the end of the tour and i think we both really enjoyed it. I learned so much about the city and had fun doing it.

Ben and I went to get lunch. I picked up an apple cinnamon pancake from a stand by the Thames River. It hit the spot. Ben found a sandwich and drink at a mini grocery store. From that area, we had a nice view of the river and also the London Eye ferris wheel behind it. I had wanted to do the ferris wheel until I found out that it was around $20. Ridiculous. Ben wanted to see the National Gallery, an art museum located by Trafalgar Square. So we went back and spent a short time in the museum. After this, we decided that another trip to the British Museum would be nice. We had only seen a couple sections on our last visit so we made our way over for round 2. This time, I really enjoyed seeing a section about currency, and one about clocks. There was this one clock with a ball that rolled along a path on a metal plate from one end to the other to the other......... until it got to the other side. This whole process takes 30 seconds. So, each time the ball hits the other side, the clock adds 30 seconds and the plate angles in the other direction so the ball will roll back. I found this really interesting and I think Ben and I examined it for a good 5 minutes at least.

Dinner for this night was Indian Tapas, a popular food in London. I had never eaten Indian food before so I was excited. We ordered a bunch of different dishes, making sure to avoid the oens that said spicy. Everything was going great until I ate some of a potato dish and got a hot pepper seed stuck in my throat. I kid you not, my throat burned for a solid 10 minutes or so. I chugged a glass of water and my fruit drink. It didn't help, Everything I ate tasted spicy and I couldn't get the horrible taste out of my mouth. I think the food in general was good but that one hot pepper seed got to me pretty badly. After dinner, we realized that we hadn't gone to a pub yet. So we walked a few blocks over to a place called the French House and enjoyed some beer. It was a pretty nice last night in London as we headed back to the hostel where I printed out my boarding pass for my flight back to Tel Aviv the next day. We settled into our new room and fell fast asleep.

We got great sleep that night without any sick people to keep us up. We enjoyed another hostel breakfast consisting of cereal, a pastry, a fruit and some coffee, tea or juice. I love breakfast. After checking out of the airport, we walked over to the Underground station where I was taking a train to the airport. Ben was leaving later but I had to go so we said goodbye and went our own ways. I got off the train at Heathrow Terminal 1 and the rest is history. I was sad to be finished with the trip but I missed Israel at the same time. It was nice to be back and I was so glad to have been through such an amazing experience.

My final thoughts are that I loved both cities but Paris had such an amazing feeling to it. London was very modern and felt like a big city whereas Paris was peaceful. I would love to spend more time in each city - especially since we had such little time on this trip. We ate amazing food, met really nice people, and learned a lot about history and culture. To sum it up, every dollar I spent was worth it.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my travels and be sure to check out my pictures on Facebook. In the meantime, I am sitting here writing this in my apartment with exactly a week to go. In fact, I will be arriving in Cleveland in about one week and 5 hours from now. I am anxious to go home but sad that this trip is coming to an end. It seems to have gone by so fast. This next week should be a good one with a few days off, a last visit to one of the schools I volunteer at, graduation, and much more. I am hoping to make the best of it. I will be starting my Masters of Education at John Carroll University a little over a week after I get back to Cleveland so things are going to be a whirlwind during that one week. Anyways, once I get my computer working I will post the rest of my pictures and update you with the rest of the trip and the parts in the middle that I missed.


From Ramla Israel,
ל'לה טוב