It appears that I owe you a few days worth of writing.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "No way, Lior! you said you'll write once a week!", and you're right. Technically I don't owe you nothing (Nothing! you hear me!), but it seems like I've been through so many stuff, that I should probably write it down before I start forgetting what I did. So this post is going to be extra long. I'm going to cut it to sections so you can break off whenever you want and continue reading later.

So, to the point, what have I been up to lately? Lot's of walking, mainly. Yeah, I know it's not surprising, but you have to remember that up until last week I was a complete couch potato. I'm actually kind of proud of how I'm handling it all. Never missed anything because I was too lazy to walk. That's an accomplishment for me.

Saturday, April 19th

Let's see, the day after I went to the Tower of London, I tried one of those free guided tours. It was a tour around Westminster, and it was kind of nice. not super exciting, and not super informative since I've already been there a couple of days before that, but the guide had a few fun facts that were interesting, and he brought us to see the changing of the guards in St. James Palace, which I didn't know of.

The tour started in Covent Garden which used to be part of the gardens of Westminster Abby, hence the name (Convent Garden became Covent Garden), and today is a very lively neighborhood with a market and lots of shops. We went through the neighborhood until we got to Trafalgar Square.

(Here was supposed to be a picture of Trafalgar Square with some kind of funny caption, but apparently I don't have one so...)

A bit of history for you (Yay!) - Trafalgar Square was build in honor of Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory over Napoleon's fleet off the shore of Trafalgar, Spain, in 1805. It was a really big deal since Nelson's fleet was a lot smaller than Napoleon's, and the British had a lot to lose in that battle, since the French fleet was headed towards Britain. Nelson's statue stands on top of a a tall column in the middle of the square.

 Nelson's Column. At least I have this picture

Cool story - His way of inspiring his troops was by arriving to battle wearing his full uniform, with the sword, hat and all his medals. Now, Nelson fought in a LOT of wars, so he had a LOT of medals, and usually it wasn't a bad thing, only it turned out that the day of the battle of Trafalgar was a very sunny day. Imagine him, standing on the deck of his ship, screaming commands everywhere, shining in the bright light like a tiny sun on top of the water. Now imagine you're a sniper trying to kill the enemy's admiral. Your job has just become so much easier. So yeah, he got shot. But the shot didn't kill him immediately. He died three hours later, and in those three hours he managed to lean his fleet to victory.

Cool story number 2 - After he died, his sailors didn't really know what to do with his body. They didn't want to throw him to sea, which was the sailors' way of burying their brothers, because he was too much of an important man. They couldn't bring him to London, either, because the trip was 10 days long, and the body would have rotten by then. In the end, one of the officers offered to put him in a half empty barrel of rum. The alcohol should act as a preservative, so they should be able to make the journey to London without the corpse rotting. And so they did. Problem was, the officers never told about this special barrel to the other sailors. You can imagine what happened next. In the end, the corpse arrived safely to London, though the barrel was, by then, only a quarter filled with rum.

Back to my trip, after Trafalgar Square we went through the Mall, to St. James Palace. St. James Palace is probably the most underrated palace ever. It's not that it's very beautiful or anything, but it's the official Royal Court, and is actually the most important palace the Royal Family owns. Though the Queen doesn't live there, this is where the kings of England have ruled from since Henry VIII.

There we saw the also very underrated ending of the changing of the guards. It was particularity nice because not many people know about this part, and so there weren't many people there to block the view. 

Changing of the guard at St. James Palace. Is their head really that big?

Skipping ahead a bit - We saw Buckingham Palace later (the official Royal residency), and St. James Park. Then from there we walked to Parliament Square which stands right in front of the Parliament house and there the tour concluded. 

Cool story number 3 - Apparently Big Ben isn't the name of the clock tower. In fact, it's the name of one of the bells inside the tower. The story goes that the man who designed it was a bit on the large side, and his name was Ben. So when the newspapers published a picture of Ben standing next to his huge bell, people laughed and said that they couldn't tell who Ol' Big Ben is, the bell or the man. The name stuck.

Me at Buckingham Palace. Probably the exact opposite of a selfie

The rest of the day wasn't that good. I went to the National Gallery and thought it was kind of boring. The problem with it is that there are just too many paintings there, and after a while they all start to look the same. Besides, I don't know much about art or art history, so I didn't know exactly what I was seeing. The only part that I was somewhat excited about was the Impressionist wing which was pretty impressive.

Later I just walked around Soho. At this point I was starving, and I was looking for a place to eat, but everything was shockingly expansive. I actually started feeling a bit weak, and I guess that wasn't so good for my mood, but in the end I found a nice hamburger place with reasonable prices, so everything was ok.

Sunday, April 20th

for those of you he don't know, the last weekend was Easter. Which is kind of nice, I guess, if you're Christian and you're 7 years old and you get to run around and hunt for eggs, not so much if you're a tourist. The thing about Easter is that there is a school vacation, and all the parents want to take their kids out to see cool stuff. The same cool stuff that I want to see. Yeah, Not good. adding insult to injury, it was a very rainy weekend. Why is that bad? you're asking. Well, when I saw it was going to rain all day I figured I should probably go check out the Natural History Museum. Bad idea. Such bad idea, in fact, that every parent in London had it.

Natural History Museum. Just so you know what I had to deal with

The museum itself was alright. I guess it's more suited for kids learning about Biology and Geology than for adults. Most of the museum is educational, and there aren't a lot of actual physical artifacts. There's a Volcanoes and Earthquakes section, which I thought was terribly boring (unless you're interested in the fine art of cartoon volcano illustrations), there's a huge section of stuffed animals, which wasn't as cool as it was supposed to be since I thought everything looked too plasticy, and, of course there's the Dinosaur wing.

Again, if you're a 7 years old, there's nothing in the entire world that interests you more than seeing Dinosaurs. I mean, come on, Dinosaurs! so, of course, this was the only gallery that had a line  to get into. And a huge line, at that. I had to stand 45 minutes in the rain to get inside the museum, and then another 30 minutes to see a couple of dinosaur skeletons. Not cool. 

A dinosaur and his shadow. Grrr! I'm a giant feathery lizard! Fear me!

Also, did I mention there was a room full of rocks?

Rocks.

Ok, the rocks were actually pretty cool

Monday, April 21st

Lior, stop complaining! you're saying. You're in London, have some fun. Well, I'm happy to say that the next 3 days were actually pretty good. Easter was over, and though Monday was still a vacation day, I had learned my lesson. I didn't go to the British Museum as was my intention, instead I decided to have a relaxed day in Hyde Park.

Hyde Park. Should have been called Quite-Easy-To-Find-Park really

It was a nice day. The sun finally came out, the skies were blue, birds were chirping, ducks were quacking, the whole package. I sat on the grass, leaning on a tree and decided I want to draw. I did that for a while (you can see the results on Facebook), and then I decided to go look for another interesting composition that I can draw. I started walking along the Serpentine, the long lake in the middle of the park, when suddenly, and it was really very sudden, it started raining again. I ran to the nearest shelter, completely forgetting about my quest. There goes my day, I thought, I can't sit on the grass anymore, nor can I sit on any bench. I can't sit at all, actually, and that was quite a big part of the relaxed day I was planning.

A few minutes later it stopped raining. Well, I thought, I might as well walk a bit around the lake, see all it has to offer. It's a really beautiful park, to be honest. Lots of nice places to sit and enjoy some peace and quiet, or a have a picnic, or feed the birds and watch as they crowd around your feet. I ended up walking all around the lake. On the way, I passed through 2 interesting points which are closely connected.

The first are the Italian Gardens (it's technically part of Kensington Gardens and not Hyde Park, but whatever). It's a small garden on the  north-western tip of the serpentine that's designed like a Renaissance Italian garden, with lots of water fountains and statues. The garden was dedicated to Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, and their initials are engraved on a wall in the garden.

 The Italian Garden. Imagine the water bill

The second point was the Albert Memorial. When Albert died, Queen Victoria was devastated. The magnificent queen had a magnificent memorial for her beloved consort built. An eternal memento of their love (by the way, the Royal Albert Hall, which we now know how many holes it takes to fill, is right next to it and is named after the same person).

The Albert Memorial. I don't think it's funny, actually

So I was standing there at the entrance to Hyde Park, after having walked quite a bit for a relaxed day at the park, and I was looking at my map trying to figure out what to do next. Eventually, I managed to convince myself that this is not going to be a relaxed day, and I decided to go to Green park which is just nearby.

On the way, I passed through some historical monuments (mostly World War II stuff, not super interesting). The park itself was surprisingly serene. I'm saying surprisingly because it is adjacent to Buckingham palace, so you might expect that all the tourists would pour to it in one point or another, but they don't. They stay at the gates of the palace, and this green haven remains almost bare.

It's missing something of the livelihood of Hyde Park, but what it lacks in energy, it makes up for in charm. It's the kind of place you take your date out to have a romantic picnic. 

The thirds park of the day was St. James Park, which is just beyond Buckingham Palace. It used to be a hunting area for the king, but now it's just another tourist attraction. What doesn't happen in Green Park, happens times a thousand in St. James. Every tourist that goes to Buckingham Palace must go through St. James first, so it is filled with them. Which is a bit of a shame actually, since it has a great potential.

 Views from St. James Park. Who had the brilliant idea of putting the palace right next to it?!

Cool story number 4 - In St. James there used to be a Chinese bridge and a Pagoda right next to it. They were built for a party in the 19th century (don't remember the exact year, sorry), and for the event they were filled with fireworks that were supposed to be the main event. On the night of the party, though, something happened, and the fireworks caught fire before they were supposed to. The entire thing went up in flames. The unsuspecting audience thought it was part of the show, so for a very long time they didn't try to put out the flames. When they did, however, it was too late and both the pagoda and the bridge were lost forever.

And that's it for now folks. I know I'm not done telling all I've been up to, but it's getting late and I'm getting tired of writing. I'll try to continue tomorrow or the day after that.

Until then, stay cool and don't forget to mind the gap,

Lior

First day

OK, first day of actually travelling is over. It was weird. So many times I wanted to share something with someone and couldn't, I actually found myself talking to myself. It sounds terrible, but when I got used to it it wasn't that bad. The only thing I could never get used to, probably, is the budgeting. Counting every penny that comes out of your wallet is a real pain in the ass, not to mention it spoiling the fun.

But anyways, I had a good day of travelling, so I might as well share it with you.

Yesterday was sort of an introductory day. All I did was to take the Tube to Westminster and walk around a little. Wasn't very exciting, but it was a nice way to start to get used to travelling alone.

Today, on the other hand was a full day of exploring. Well, maybe not that much exploring since I've only been to one place, but I've explored the hell out of it!

So today I visited the Tower of London. For those of you who doesn't know what that is, it's a castle in London, right on the river Thames, close to Tower bridge (surprise surprise) and The City. It was first built by William The Conqueror after his conquest of England, almost a thousand years ago, and have been rebuild a few times over the years. Today it's the house of England's Crown Jewels and a flock of huge fat crows.

Crows. Seriously, England?

The crow bit needs a bit of explaining. Apparently, someone sometime and for unknown reason had decided that if the six crows living inside the castle walls were ever to leave the castle, the entire castle would crumble and fall, the monarchy would cease to exist and Britain would succumb to total anarchy. So what's the reasonable thing to do? Keep a flock of crows in your gardens at all times of course!  and also cut off their flying feathers so they can never ever escape. They are being fed daily, at least, and they seem to be quite alright with all the fuss around them.

Anyway,  I was very excited for this visit, as this place is full of history. So many interesting things happened inside these walls, and I was itching to see it for myself. So you can imagine that I was a bit disappointing when I got to the ticket booth and I saw that these were the exact same thoughts all of the tourists in London were apparently thinking. I seriously have never seen a line this long, a record that will hold for about an hour.

Kids doing what I failed miserably to do almost 20 years ago

So after standing in line for the better half of an hour, I finally got to step inside the castle, and what can I say, it's a cool place. The tourists though, ugh, the tourists make it almost seem like a cheap Disneyland replica. When I saw a father showing his 3 years old daughter the place where the scaffolds were and said, "You see sweetie, this is where they chopped peoples head off", I wasn't sure if I was feeling sick and possibly disgusted, or actually proud that at least in one place in the world people are actually interested in history. I let myself believe it was the latter.

I started with a Yeoman tour. Yeomen are the wardens of the castle. You probably know them as the People-With-The-Funny-Outfit. Every half an hour they take a group of people around the castle and tell some stories. It was actually very nice. Our guide was very jealous of his football team, though. I'm still not sure what team he actually supports, but whenever he saw a kid with a shirt or a hat of a different team he mumbled, "what an ugly shirt, that is".

My Yeoman guide. Don't let the old fashioned costume fool you, they are actually quite funny

Despite now being old and fat (his words, not mine) our guide Colin was actually quite the bad-ass back in his day. apparently, all the Yeomen are individually handpicked out of elite military units. Colin used to be in the Royal Air Force, and he fought in a war, though he didn't mention which or where exactly he served.

After the tour I decided I'd go right to the main course - The White Tower. The White Tower is the heart of the castle. It's the oldest building in the compound, the most impressive by far, and the one with the most interesting history. This is where dozens of monarchs lived and rules, where hundreds of criminals were tortured and killed and thousands were held in captivity. By all accounts, it should have been the best thing ever for me. But it wasn't. And you know why? yeah, you guessed it - those goddamn tourists. So many of them! there were lines everywhere, and I couldn't stop for even a minute to read something or to examine a piece of armor, becasue some kind would start pushing my right away, or straight up jump in front in front of me and block my view. This is the kind of place where I need silence and time to appreciate the history and imagine what it used to look like. But it's very far from quite, the exact opposite in fact.

The White Tower. Should have been called The-Not-So-White-Tower, or maybe The-Sort-Of-Beige-Tower really

I was feeling a bit down at this point. Having no one to share these thoughts with I was kind of stuck with them. I began to feel cornered, like there were just too many people around me and I have to go out and take a walk somewhere more quiet.

"No!", I said to myself, "You are here right now, and you have paid way too much money to just run away. You will enjoy this, by hook or by crook!". So I decided to check the Crown Jewels. On paper, it should have been a huge mistake, the line was miles and miles long and definitely beat the lines in the ticket booth as the longest line ever, but it wasn't. It was actually just what I needed.

Maybe it was the unconscious shift of attitude, or maybe it was something else, but I really liked the Crown Jewels, touristy as they are. It was really a nice experience to have. Besides being incredibly beautiful and majestic, they actually have quite an interesting history behind them, like everything in this place. 

These jewels are actually new. Well, not exactly new per se, as they were made in 1660, but they aren't the jewels that were used to crown all the monarchs before that. The original jewels were destroyed during the Civil Wars in the 17th century during which England was, for a brief time, a republic.  the winning parliamentary forces broke into the Tower, stole the jewels and melted them into coins. Twelve years later, though, the monarchy was re-instituted, so new jewels had to be made, and these are the jewels that are on display today.

(Also on display are few other crowns that aren't part of the coronation regalia, like the incredible Crown of India, that was made for George V in 1911, and was only worn once. A good use of the tax-payers money right there)

I was on a run after that. I was getting kind of late, as the castle closes at 17:30, and there was still a lot to see. Lucky for me, the people who were in charge of arranging the whole place were pretty good at their job. There's a route that leads through the walls of the castle and its towers. except for one or two interesting towers (mainly the Bloody-Tower, where the twin princes were held and killed. An interesting story on its own. I'll just leave a link at the end for the Wikipedia article for you to read. Trust me, it's worth it) all the interesting bits are connected with a nice, organized route. More importantly, most people seem to only want to see the Crown Jewels and the White Tower, so almost any other attraction is empty, as it should.

Some of the prisoners in the various towers left graffiti on the walls. Some are as old as the 16th century

Needless to say, this was more to my liking. I got to see the medieval palace, where king Edward I lived for just 57 days (again, great use of taxes. British monarchs seem to really love throwing it away), his throne room, the tower where Thomas More was held (he later became a saint, by the way) and where Jane Grey prayed right before her death (she was queen for nine day. The conclusion - If someone desperately offers you to be the next king or queen of England, even though you have absolutely nothing to do with the royal family, refuse politely and walk away) . It was a lot more like what I came to see and when finally I came out of the castle compound I felt good about myself. My first adventure as a solo traveler was done successfully.

 The Tower of London and I, in my first ever selfie

Just the Tower of London, no selfies

A few tips for you, if you plan to sometime visit the Tower:

1. You should, it's awesome, but read a bit about the British monarchy first. It's not a must, but it's a lot nicer to understand what's the big deal about Ann Boleyn and why everyone keep mentioning her name, for example.

2. Skip the whole 'Torture at the Tower' exhibition. The Queue is almost as long as the Crown Jewels one, and it's just not worth it. It's a small room with 3 exhibits you could as well see in pictures and not lose anything.

3. If you have a lot of time, skip the audio-guide. if you have average amount of time, take it. If you have very short time, it's your choice.

4. To see the Crown Jewels with a very VERY short line, come at 16:30 or even 17:00. By then most of the visitors are already gone and the line is maybe 5 minutes long (instead of the 45 minutes I stood in line).

Finally some links for you to read. I really recommend it, some very interesting stuff:

The Twin Princes in The Tower

Ann Boleyn

Lady Jane Grey

Thomas More

Also, I went to concert in a church called St. Martin-in-the-Field. Mozart's Requiem. Was awesome. The elder woman I sat next to thought I was some kind of phenomena. Probably because I was the only one there with a plain t-shirt and jeans. "What made you come to this concert?", she asked.

"I just love this piece and I wanted t osee it performed live", I said.

She was very pleased. So pleased, in fact, that when she later moved to a better seat, she saved a seat next to her for me. In the end, I thanked her and said it was excellent.

"It was, wasn't it?", shad said, smiling.

St. Martin-in-the-field. The thing about English churches is that hey are way too white

It was a good day, all in all. Still kind of weird, though.

Lior.

לפני הכל הערה - אני הולך לכתוב באנגלית. למה? כי אני רוצה שגם חברים מחו"ל יוכלו לקרוא ולהנות. בגלל שאני נחמד, בצד שמאל יש לכם כפתור לתרגום הבלוג, ובעזרתו האדיבה של גוגל תוכלו לקרוא הכל בעברית, גם אם רצוצה משהו.

And so starts my journey.

I'm sitting here at Ben Gurion Airport and my mind is soaring through all the possibilities, all the places I might see, all the things that I might experience, it is almost overwhelming.

Let's relax and take it step by step. What am I doing here?

Long ago I decided that travelling is one of my major goals in life. I've always wanted to explore the world, be a modern day Ibn Battuta. So, naturally, after I finished my military service, like many of my friends, I wanted to start exploring right away. At first I thought the destination would be Japan, but as it became clear that I would be travelling by myself, I thought I should take it easy on myself and change course to Europe.

Wait, why ARE you travelling by yourself? You're asking.

Well, apparently all my friends are either too busy or too poor to travel, and besides, nobody seems to share my enthusiasm with European history, so it became apparent that I'm on my own. And I'm fine with it. I think

To be honest, it is scary. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done. Anyone who knows me for some time, know that I'm terrible at navigating, and I tend to forget things and be unorganized. Very bad set of skills for a traveler. But it had to be done.

I am now 23 years old. Soon I'll begin studying at Tel Aviv University, and then, before I know it, life begins. I will never have the time and money to do this. Also, and more importantly, this is my Odyssey, my rite of passage, my gateway. I need to overcome this to be independent, to be an adult. It's scary, sure, but it's also empowering and thrilling. for once in my life I have complete control of all my actions and decisions, and now I will finally know what I'm made of.

So, first stop is London, and who knows what will be next. Expect updates, at least weekly.

Take care and see you in a few months,

Lior