England

After four month without any considerable travel, it was time to go on the road again, a short trip was all I can afford, time wise, at the moment. The idea of traveling to England has been teasing me for a while, and thus was born this 10 day trip.

Airport security has always been strict in Ben Gorion airport , especially if one is a young male Arab travelling on his own, but this time I had an even elaborate welcome, I was stopped right at the entrance to the airport, were I was interrogated for considerable time, all this before being allowed to the airport, at some point I put my hands in my pockets, and was asked to take them out with a threatening tone, then the security person called his supervisor, who repeated the same questions again, and by the time I finished , I had to tell my story about five or six time, to five or six different people. I was then accompanied to the security area , where all my luggage was xrayed and searched, then I was given a body search, and was even asked me to put my pants down, after the security check, I was accompanied to the check in desk, then to the terminal area, at no point during this I was allowed to wonder on my own in the airport. For the most parts I managed to stay patient, what good it is to get worked out over this, I have a trip to enjoy.

My first stop was London, the first night I stayed in a hotel next to the airport, because my flight arrived quite late on Thursdays night, the next day I moved to a hostel at Shepherd Bush, were I met Dave the Kiwi in the evening, I met Dave first time in Argentina, then again in Colombia, a big bold guy, who may look threatening until you speak to him, then you will realize he is one of the friendliest people you will ever meet, and probably the most famous traveler in south America, we had a few drinks at the hostel bar, then Andy came to meet me at the pub, an Irish guy who I met in Iguassu in Argentina, we tried fill each other in, with what happened since the time our ways diverged, which was not easy , we had to shout to make hour voices head over the loud music in the pub.

My next stop was Manchester, to were I travelled by train, trains are expensive in England, unless you book them in advance through the Internet, which I did, there was really one purpose to my trip to Manchester , to watch a game at Old Trafford, Manchester United vs Arsenal, I managed to get a ticket to the game , through a Man U sponsored web site, which allowed club members to trade tickets, through this web site one is able to buy tickets from other club fans at face value. A lot of my friends were jealous because I manage to get a ticket to such a big game, they wanted to see the game, but they did not know how to get a ticket, they were not aware of such web site.

Since I arrived in the evening of the day before the game, I had a night to spend in Manchester, I went out to one of the bars which had live music, there were several performances by amature bands, most of the audience were either friends of the bands cheering them up, or family with video camcorders capturing the performance, but the music was not bad , and I quite liked a couple of the performances.


The next morning I headed to Old Trafford, the biggest football stadium in England, with a capacity of almost seventy six thousand seats, it still gets sold out for every home game, my first stop was the ticket office, were my ticket was waiting for me, then I entered to the Man U shop, were I bought my Man U shirt, with my name on it. Once they opened the gate , I went up with all the other fans to the stands, I had a descent seat, in the northern stands, upper most tier, giving a good view of the game. The game itself was interesting, with Arsenal starting better, getting a penalty in the first ten minutes, I felt with united gall keeper, who conceded a penalty in the first ten minutes of his first game, but he managed to redeem himself by saving the penalty shot, Man U get better then, but failed to score, at one point Ronaldo came to a one on one situation against the Arsenal goal keeper, but his smash only manged to hit the keeper in the face, which some of the fans thought was worth more than a goal, in the end Arsenal managed to steal it with a late goal, but all in all a wonderful experience despite the result.


My next stop was Eindhoven, where I lived for three and half years, the purpose of my visit was to take care of my stuff, that I left in a storage room, I inquired about shipping prices to Israel, and they where quite expensive, so I decided to get rid of all but the essentials: my mountain bike, guitar, skis, books, one small suitcase of clothes, and one suite case with the rest of the rubbish that I decided to keep. The Guitar I was to carry with me, and the rest should fit in one cube meter, and the stuff I was not going to keep I gave to Harry, the friend that I was staying at his house, he knew some people who could use the stuff that I did not want. Harry is a painter , but he has been struggling for inspiration, the painting above he started during the Iraq war, but did not finish it, then came the Lebanon war and that finally gave him the inspiration to finish it. During my stay in Eindhoven, I also met with a few old friends, Adel and Ania, Naeem, Geert, and other Colleges at my ex company Sagantec, and it was good to catch up after a few month.


After meeting my friends and taking care of my business, I flew to Liverpool, were I was to meet Graham, another traveler I met in south America, I stayed in a nice hostel in the center of Liverpool, and went for walks in the city, a lovely city Liverpool, with a lot of beautiful ol buildings, friendly people, a nice student atmosphere, and a center that one can walk by foot, I definitely prefer it over the huge and ridiculously expensive London. Of course Liverpool is also the birth place of the beatles, I walked down the famous street, were the Cavern club is, were the beatles did there live performances before becoming famous. In the night we went out to a bar, then to a student pub, which was of course in a basement, were they played a lot of sixties music, and in general the whole atmosphere had a retro feel to it, it was godd fun. I met a friend of Graham, who was with clutches, he had them since he broke his leg, biking on the death road in Bolivia in March, Ouch!

But London was were I went next, there I stayed at Andy's place, we went for a night out in Brixton, where apparently there was a party sponsored by the Mill House hostel in Buenos Aires, I did not manage to spot any other travelers from South America in the party. On our way back we took the bus, I asked my friends if I needed to pay, they just told me to wave any card or ticket to the driver, I only had a used tube ticket, but they just told me to it is fine, I decided that in London I would do what the Londoners do , and I just entered the bus brandishing my used tube ticket, the bus driver did not bother to check, the fact that I was among a big crowd of people entering the bus helped.

For my last evening I travelled to Reading to meet Rohdri and Lisa, two other travellers I met in Peru and Bolivia, were I had a great time with them, we had a dinner together, during which we brought up great memories from south America.


Over all it was a nice trip, too much travelling for such a short time, next time I would rather stay longer in one place, but this trip helped me find out were in England I would like to stay next time, Liverpool, I am interested in doing a TEFL course (Teaching English as Foreign Language), I can do it in Liverpool, also having a good friend there, Graham, helps, and it is not too far from Manchester, so I could go watch more Man U games at Old Trafford.