England Day 2

Today as i was still suffering slightly from jetlag i decided to take it easy, me and my guide Uncle Laurie traveled into leicester square in london via the 142 bus and the london underground which I found out is enormous. Once getting into town we walked over to trafalgar square and wondered around for alittle. After that i bought a ticket to a local double decker tour bus and took a tour of london.

When we passed Westminster Abbey i was so impressed with the size and beauty of the building as well as its reputation that i felt a need to get off of the bus and explore the place. I ended up paying the admission fee and entering the Abbey where I tagged along with a tour for a while and listened to a pre-recorded tour on headphones. while wondering around i noticed that a lot of the art in westmister Abbey bore striking similarities to many Greek and Roman works only at the Abbey the works depicted the saints while in Greek anad Roman society generally the work involved Greko-Roman gods.

After i left the Abbey i was a little hungry so I went to a local pub called the sanctuary where I had a cup of Londons Pride Ale and a spinach cheese and something else i cant remember piece of lasanga. While i was eating i also had teh opportunity to watch a game of cricket of TV although i had no idea what was going on the fans of the game seemed quite intennslyo into it and were cheering on the team who i beleive was the british national team (does any other nation even play cricket?)

After my meal i went back to westminster and caught the tour bus again this time traveling all around the london bridge area which i found out was bough by an american from Arizona. once the bus got to trafalgar sqaure I caught the train from leicester square back to edware where i was picked up by my Auntie Hazel.

After a quick nap at home instead of eating in we decided to take a walk to a nearby indian restaurant named the sanargaon restaurant where we had a lovely authentic (British) indian meal. After the meal we took a nice walk back home, so far the weather here has been fantastic with no rain only breezy sunshines i hope my luck continues to tommorow although i hear that there are predicted thunderstorms so i guess I will just have to wait and see.

in other bews i have begun posting picture however the computer I am using right now will only let me upload 5 pictures at a time so it is quite and arduous task so far the pictures that i have uploaded can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/adiamantcohen/AlonGoesAbroad I am still at work on a way to link my facebook pictures to my picasa profile and i think i have found a solution but will only be able to deal with it tommorow as it is already 11:40pm here and i am exhausted.

cheerio for now


Alon

The Trip Begins

Today I have landed in Heathrow with only a few relatively insignificant glitches. Since I only have a very limited amount of time to spend in England i have decided to make the most of it.

It was strange being the outsider today, instead of laughing at my British relatives who always attempt to sit in the drivers seat thinking it is the passengers seat i ended up trying to sit in my aunts drivers seat twice before figuring out that everything here is the opposite. at the beginning when I was being driven home from the airport i had to close my eyes and reorient myself slightly because while my uncle is a great driver i kept thinking we were about to crash because we were obeying crazy traffic laws.

After landing today we went to a Kosher Bakery a few minutes drive away from my aunt and uncles house and had some authentic British bagels (pronounced Bai-gels). Then after a quick renewing nap we took a trip into Watford where we visited a new mall called Harlequin and went to the virgin store to pick up a sim card for my cellphone. wow prices in the UK for making phone calls and sending text messages are much higher than those in America, there is nothing like traveling abroad to help broaden your appreciation of home. After spending some quality time in the mall we drove back home still on the wrong side of the road and i started planning my trip more intensively, while enjoying homemade Ice cream made by none other than Auntie Hazel.

Although I am tired this trip is so exhilarating that my exhaustion I know will only be temporary.

pictures are soon to follow


Cheers

Alon

Dublin

Hello again everybody

Thank you for all of your responses so far, I appreciate your help and hospitality to no end. As I am planning this trip Ireland specifically Dublin remains the only place where i will have to stay in a hostel. If necessary this is not a big deal however if anyone is aware of any alternative places to stay, perhaps some friends or family who would be willing to host a traveling college student for 2 days i would be most appreciative for their help.

Preparations nearing completion

Hello all

for the past few months i have been halfheartedly preparing for my trip abroad, last month i finally got my act together and began booking tickets. As of today i have many finalized details i would like to share with people and have been trying to decide the best way to do so because the information i have is not all gathered together in one place.

My Travels will begin on Monday July 28th and will end on Tuesday August 26th.

I will be in England between July 28th to August 6th
and
I will be in Amsterdam between August 6th and August 9th
and
I will be in Dublin between August 9th and August 12th
and
I will be in Israel between August 13th and August 26th.


Now to more specific details, in the interest of being simple, organized, and elegant i have compiled all of my information into 2 links that I provide both below and on the left hand site of the blog.

The First link is a link to a simple spreadsheet containing all of my flight information including arrival and departure times and dates. you can click here or copy and paste the link below.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pKT7LBSMtrd130V92B-ieKw

The Second link is a more detailed view of my travel plans while in the countries it is less concerned with flights and more with lodging and activities. This Calendar is an accurate representation of my plans up until now, as of now i have no specific plans on certain dates, i am totally free.

I would like to plan my trip ahead of time so i don't end up without a place to sleep, so if you see on my calendar that i am in your area ( my location is displayed at the top of the day) then please send me an email at adiamantcohen@gmail.com with times and dates that you are free and can host and entertain me please be as specific as possible.

The calendar can be found by clicking here or by copying and pasting the link below into your browser

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=1ie6rbtcjkkcukvi9m7oo9thbc%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

the calendar is also displayed on the bottom of this blog. 

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT WHEN VIEWING THE CALENDAR THE EVENTS I PUT IN ONLY START ON JULY 28TH, THE CALENDAR WILL DISPLAY TODAYS DATE BY DEFAULT YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE ARROW UNTIL YOU ARE AT THE CORRECT WEEK

this is the first of many posts and an easy way to keep in touch with everyone please dont hesitate to comment either on my blog directly or by emailing me my address again is adiamantcohen@gmail.com

thanks in advance to everyone for reading this and being patient and helpful

Alon DC