I will tell you about the mustache later…
| You are invited to view gil.even's photo album: 2010-11-18 London and Wales
Message from gil.even: These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.
|
Welcome to the Millennium Stadium!
Few hours earlier…
The time was approximately 4 PM when I arrived to the Wales capital, Cardiff. Totally unprepared I had an hour and 10 minutes to get tickets to the game, find a hotel and get some cash.
Wise travelers such as myself are suppose to think ahead, unfortunately I am not such as myself and found myself with under 15 pounds, no ATM codes, with a suit case to carry in a 0C temperature.
I passed by a few people who sold their ticket but I didn’t have the cash, so I went to the stadium which is just minutes from the train and was not surprised to find that it was sold out, this Is a huge game and I was still a this point undecided who I was supporting. I always loved New Zealand and the all blacks are amazing and I know nothing about Wales (except that it is a country!!! A principality actually).
I asked a couple on the street how much they want and they say ticket face value (65 pounds) which I don’t have. At the time my super sweet travel agent was attempting to get an ATM code and try to get ticket to the game as well. Cardiff center is small and lovely, but it’s cold and I walk around looking for a bank or something and I spot the Money shop, I go in with 28$ and shekels and ask if they would change it, dollars are easy but not enough. I am sure the Welsh has never seen a shekel in their life and the clerk is looking at the bills like they are forged, scans them , goes to the back and check with the manager and comes back with an approval, so now with all my changed cash I have 60 pounds, now the question is how to get the other 5, should I sell my blood?
I walk back on the main street to Cardiff which is full of Christmas lights, similar to London, the main street Is closed to traffic and it’s fun to walk, but I am in a hurry trying to find the previous couple, they are not there, I walk around a bit and see no one with tickets, then I spot a guy holding tickets but he has his hands at the bottom like he is trying to hide the fact that he sells tickets, he has more than one and I think it’s either stolen , forged or criminal in some other way, I quickly decide that a person hiding their wares is a crook and those holding tickets up are legit. Half a minute later I spot a couple of guys holding a ticket. I go to them and ask how much they want, they ask how much I am willing to pay. So I get out all my money, tell them this is all my money and it’s not enough, I don’t even have money for food and this welsh angel, takes out 20 pounds and gives me the ticket, I was shocked, I tell them this is my first rugby game (as a fan) ever which is true, we have a brief conversation and I depart with tickets in hand and money to spareJ.
I can’t get a hold of my travel agent, but no time and I had out to the Millennium stadium which was 2 minutes walk from there, my back pack and suitcase are searched, then I pass by the gate and I still have some thoughts that perhaps the ticket is a fake. Of course I go in by the wrong gate and walk around half this huge stadium, then climb up the 6th floor with the suitcase and then walk up to my seat and a man sits in my seat. Fish&Chips I say to myself (you cannot say Fu*k any more , in the US they say “Fudge”, “Poo” and other such things instead- so I britishied it), lucky the guy is just sitting in the wrong place , we swap seats. I now face the challenge of sitting with a suite case and a loaded back pack on a stadium seat, lucky the seats are high and I place my back pack under my neighbors seat and the suit case under mine, not comfortable but issue resolved.
This is one of the largest Rugby stadiums in the world and lucky that it’s roof can be closed, and it is closed, and now I am super hot from carrying the suit case 6 flights of stairs and rushing from point to point and now I can relax and enjoy the stadium. The stadium is full of the Welsh red shirts and although I have seats on the top level, it looks close, both teams are warming up and a singing group of about 50 singers all dressed like gentleman are singing various songs which the crowds are familiar with. For some reason the guy in front of them holds a goat, a life white goat, I forgot to ask what is the meaning of this goat. Its game time.
The All blacks are introduced, then the welsh and the stadium if filled with lights and fires and all sorts of effects, after that it’s time for the Hakka. If you are not from the British commonwealth or never knew about Rugby then you probably don’t know what the Hakka is. The Hakka is the New Zealand Maori war dance and the All Blacks team does it before every game as a means of getting inside the other teams head, it’s their trademark (and it works usually), the crowd is aware and the noise at this point is unbelievable, from my vantage point on the 6th floor and facing the All Blacks from the rear, I am unaffected, perhaps the Welsh player are.
The game begins, and the Welsh take a quick lead with a conversion kick, but the Kiwi’s own the field and score a quick try, and the first half ends with the All black not by a large lead only because they missed some kicks. Their main kicker, after his only good kick of the 1st half broke the world scoring record for national teams, all times#1 , it’s like watching Federar break the Sampaers record of grand slams and I was here in person!.
Oh, right after the ticket angel, I had money and purchased a Wales official game scarf and decided to be on the Welsh side today, so I was totally in the game. Rugby is a game of simple efficiency, if you do the basics right, you win, the Welsh missed some tackles and made bad passes and thus were falling behind. But 2 good kicks towards the end of 1st half and they were close.
At half time they introduced a former rugby player who is about to attempt to be the 1st to climb the 7 peaks in one years (these are the highest mountain in every continent). My neighbor told me a bit about Wales, Daffodils are the official flowers and many Welsh are dresses with large yellow flower hats or full daffodil body suit, many color their faces and do all the crazy things fans do. I begin to get cold and find the only good thing about having a suit case with you and get out my coat.
The 2nd half opens in a crowd roar and more fire effects. The Welsh are doing their best and score points with kicks but it’s not enough, it seems the All Blacks score when they feel like and whenever the Welsh get close, they attack in full force and score easy tries, the game ends with the expected Kiwi triumph but the Welsh to manage to score a conciliatory try at the end, and I had a great experience.
I head out to the city (2 minutes walk) and now the challenge is to find a hotel. The reason I left London is the rugby match their and the fully booked hotels and here it’s the same, while I was in the game my sweet travel agent had called all the hotels in the city and nothing, no rooms!. I walk around and check at the Marriot which is full, Alla has called all city hostels, full as well, I spot the Travelodge and they say its full but they give me the number of the switchboard of Travelodge since there are few more hotels for this chain in Cardiff. And lucky, they have room (very expensive room, not rooms) and where? At the same hotel I am at right now in front of the counter while they are telling me that there are no rooms, software cannot be trusted!. So while I try to book with the switchboard, another guy next to me is calling and the counter is saying that only one of us will get the tickets! Crazy faulty system thing. I race on with the operator and finally I got it, possibly the last in the city.
I put my stuff away , dress warmer and head out to Cardiff city. I love this place from first site, the city center is small, and no cars are allowed so it’s great to walk in the freezing air, but there is not many place to go to I see Cardiff castle which is closed at this time, there are tons of Bars and I enjoy the music but do not enter and a large number of kebab places, and I decide to eat traditional food, so I go to the next store who sell fish and chips , but also Kebab (which is actually Shwarma) and I guess it’s a sign, so I order chicken Shwarma, they do it differently here, the Pita underneath, with the meat on top covered with sauces (Chilly and Garlic for me), which makes it a very messy dish. When I eat, it gets messy, no matter how I eat (I am sure travel agent is agreeing with this), so messy becomes extra messy and I look around for napkins and there aren’t any, I go to another shop and no luck, how can there be food places without napkins, in a nearby star bucks I go to the help yourself stand and.. no napkins, I spot a clean napkin on the floor and decide against it, then spot 2 clean napkins on a table that just finished eating and take those and sneak out of the store while happily wiping my lips and sauce filled hands. I cover the main streets of Cardiff in as short time actually walking most street twice and most alley ways, see the Eye Of Cardiff, the Castel, the City Hall, a big church, all from the outside and enjoy the surroundings full of people in Welch colors, an hour and a half I cover the entire center and had back to the hotel.
Tomorrow I plan to visit the castle, see the many booths on the main boardwalk which were closed tonight, perhaps see Cardiff bay, then head back to London (where I don’t have a hotel) and try to do it while the tube staff is on partial strike!!! I think I may try to get to a site on the way to London, hope I get there
Cheers from the last room in Travelodge, Cardiff, the country of Wales.
Hey chaps
Don’t have much time, since the battery is low and there is no plug on this blasted train.
I am headed for a new countryJ, I always like discovering new country, and my destination is wails. Some might say whales is not a country, so I had a debate with a fellow called O.G who I found is a welsh person and he had a debate with his friend, I don’t know the other lad about it, that other lad wanted to see 30 countries by his 30th birthday, and they decided that Wales, Scotland, Ireland and northern Ireland are separate states , I agree (since they have a national soccer team). So it is decided by a vote of 3 and the council of the welsh that country number (I think 41 or 42, need to recount) is just an hour ahead.
And you know that you can’t just come to the place, you must do something of importance, so in about two and a half hours I will go to the Cardiff stadium and watch my 1st ever international rugby match between the local expecting defeat Welsh side V.S the impressive New Zealand All Blacks (one of the top 3 teams in the world) so this is an experience worth remembering, filming and blogging about.
So let’s recap the last few days.
I arrived , wait , let’s go a day back.
Monday after noon I was about to go to the Cleveland airport, and lucky my remembering wife commented that the flight is not from the Cleveland airport, thus saving me another flight story (and yes, again with Delta), so we drove to Akron and had a smooth flight to Atlanta and from there to Heathrow.
Ok now we are in London, Tuesday at noon.
Took the Tube to Hammersmith, then walked to the hotel. It’s a novelty here, people walk, they don’t walk in Cleveland, just last weekend we drove from one store to another in the same shopping complex, how American is that!!!!, so I like the walking part. It was cold , but not too cold.
I freshened up, wore my best clothes (the actual wedding pants) and went to work. The first day was a prepare day and since the staff doesn’t work in the evening unless they have to, I had an early evening, but so tired from the flight that I crashed early, woke up at night for an hour then slept through.
The next morning I was happy to find an English twist to the breakfast, with sausages and eggs (instead of the usual bacon and eggs in this hotel chain, and crausons ( I know its misspelled, but what is the right spelling , can’t find it with the spell check tool) instead of rolls. Then walked to the hospital for a long upgrade day, upgrade days are the worst, you don’t know what to expect only to expect that something would go wrong. Something did, 90% of the work was finished in an expectable delay with obstacles solved, but one issue remained (unsolved till now!!!). so went back to the hotel at 2 am and ate nothing but meat pie (this is my version of local cuisine), came back at 7 am.
Before coming back I had an English breakfast,
This time I wasn’t as excited to find sausages and the roll which I cannot spell, don’t get me wrong, its good, but I like to try new British food. This day was shorted and by 10 pm I went back to the hotel after having a meat pie that day.
On the road back I passed by a Lebanese shop and had myself a Shawarma , I had high hopes of a middle eastern place, but it was late, the meat was dry, the humus was in low amounts, the garlic sauce was very garlicky , and I enjoyed every biteJ.
Next morning, Thursday already and I have yet to see a bit of London, since Hammersmith is a city suburb of some kind without any real tourist attractions other then Bars. I did discover that 90% of woman are dressed in short skirts, and sine I freeze in my pants, how they do not, the trick is the nylons, they all wear some form of tights in all shapes and colors, and the skirt acts as the 2nd layer. I was not cold below the knee since I have the high sock now, but my thighs are freezing, in short, I need a skirt. Londoners are smokers, it is very noticeable and every one drives on the wrong side. I was scared a couple of times by seeing a car with no driver, till I look at the passenger holding the wheel.
This is my 2nd time in London, the last was 15 years ago, and it was my last vacation before the army, I was in a different mindset, to see and experience everything. I am more serious now and focused on work.
On Friday morning I woke up and had an English breakfast with exactly the same ingredients, and spent the rest of the day trying to solve a problem and very much felt like this would never end, every time a hurdle was met, another came, it was ridiculous, with lap tops crashing, new errors, software that does not want to be installed, I blame bill gates and expect a refund.
Later that day (after going to a Turkish place and really enjoying a quality Shwarma). We reached the last hurdle and found, and we discovered that the (some) of the problem lay in a simple network port miss configured, since this type of thing needs to be handled by IT in the facility, we waited for them and I spent the time by reading Narnia (there is a Narnia movie coming up). And left at a reasonable time of 7 pm. I felt I was working too many hours this week (not unusual about the many hours or the feeling of working too much) so I decided to hit the city.
I discarded by nice clothes and wore my Gil clothes and snickers and went out bravely without my pouch to the Tube and was on it around 8 pm, the last tube ends before midnight so I had to plan my time carefully and not miss out. I arrived at half eight (that’s 8:30 for you non UK people) to St.James station, I had a basic tourist map and started to walk fast, since it was cold and I still didn’t have a skirt.
Right away I noticed the blue lights of the Eye of London, it stood out above everything. But it was still far away and I started by passing by the Scotland yard , sorry the NEW Scotland yard and took a photo next to it and checking if any sloth is watching me do it. (btw, Scotland is the only country in the British isles that I have not visited, passing by the Scotland yard does not count, perhaps if they interrogate me) from there I went to the Westminster Abbey which was closed at this time , like most place I would see this night, but it is very impressive at night, you notice more things when you travel alone and you notice more things at night. Like the many clocks on the buildings, Big Ben is not the only one, Trafalgar square had 3. Ben was saying that time was running out so I moved on, watched the lights on the Thames and walked by the river , passing the Great Obelisk and the Sphinxes, and unusually dragon like fish statue on the many lanterns. And always the Great Eye is watching.
I passed the Hispaniola ship and proceeded towards Convent Garden which looks remarkable at night, with the Christmas lights, huge starts and apples (wait for photos), most impressive, but time was short and I moved on through the crowds (it is Friday night) to Leicester square and was surprised by the half price tickets signs in every corner, I moved on to Piccadilly square and from there on Regent Street which was full of huge Narnia signs and lights till oxford circus and proceeded to Totenham square back to Leicester square to Trafalgar square (with the many clocks) and paused there to look at the square from the wrong side.
In Piccadilly I think I took a photo of a guy taking his own Osh photo, never took a strangers Osh photo before, but here I took the photo of the square from behind, you don’t see the faces on the status, but Big Ben is very obvious in the background. It was already 11 and I decided to plow on, so I walked through the Mall. I never knew why the big street in Washington is called the Mall, now I know, it’s because the English have this street, but I still don’t know why the English call it the Mall. It was dark at the Mall (it’s not a shopping mall and it is night). I walked by Buckingham palace and the queen did NOT invite me for tea, how rude of here, I could have given her wedding tips, help arrange the invites, I am now experienced in that sort of thing, but she chose to ignore, so I moved on till I reached wellington Arch and back to the last Tube station.
Oh while in the Mall (it’s a wooded area) to ladies which were peeing in the woods , ran out to their parked car, not an important event, just not something one would expect so close to the rude queen.
Got on the tube at 11:30, the tube was full and too girls in the next cart decided to have fun and do faces through the windows. On the windows they have 2 stickers, with a narrow gap in the middle, so they would stick their faces with the slip just for the eyes, it was kind of funny so I took a video. I managed to be back in the hotel precisely at midnight. Full of cramps and feeling great.
This morning, I woken up, packed and had an English breakfast of the same unchanged menu and went to the hospital for last check, the last problem is still unresolved but it is up to IT to fix, so I had a decision to make. London is full, no hotel beds (in a reasonable price) out there since there is a big rugby match with England facing Australia, so should I spend the day tracking a hotel and walkabout London or do the unexpected. At one point I felt like I was way to serious in the last year and decided to stop and enjoy myself.
So I took the tube to Paddington station and now I am on the train heading for Cardiff, I found out about the game on the train which is full of hopeful welsh lads heading for the game. I have no hotel for the night, only 15 pounds and no ATM number (I do have credit cards so no worries) and no specific plans for tomorrow, but what the hack, it fun.
Oh, did you know that there is no pound symbol on the English keyboard, they Call it the Has sign but whatever the name , it is not there, they also don’t have the At symbol, so I have no idea how they email each other, I have to Google At symbol to find it and copy it to an email , forcing me to be creative.
The country side is lovely with green hills, lots of gray ships and the occasional black ship, some mobile hamburgers in their pre burger form and white frost on the low rolling hills which makes an interesting combination with the green fields below.
That’s it for now, I still owe you tails of the new house and the move itself, but that will come at another time.
Cheers from the welsh border.
“Maybe you should try adding butter to the green beans”, I was shocked to hear myself utter these words today.
Green beans, why did I even try to eat it? In the world of vegetables there are many I never tries or tried so long ago that I don’t recall why I don’t like it. But I gave it a try and, I am still alive. Texture like potatoes but a lot greenier, it has potential with a lot of salt, butter and perhaps a chicken on top of it.
2 days ago I held a check in my hand, the largest I ever carried and actually gave it away! , you need to give money if you want to own a houseJ
5080 Stansbury drive, solon Ohio, forgot the zip code (previously known as the apple house), is now officially ours. We get the keys in 2 days and after some minor repairs we will be moving in in 2 weeks (anybody interested in helping out?).
We were actually looking for some lane, not drive, after watching Wisteria lane, but we didn’t find any so we took the lovely house on this drive.
It began snowing yesterday and snowed the whole day, didn’t stop, the 1st snow on many to come, winter coming, way too soon, so this morning I went to see how the house looks with the 1st snows, and the street was all white, and serene, I took some photos of the house with the trees ready to hibernate and not a single apple on the tree.
One of the neighbors stopped on the way to introduce herself, which was nice and friendly, I live in this apartment for over 2.5 years and don’t know a single name, but here I have not moved in and already met 2 (too bad I forgot the name of the 1st). Tammy said that 3 house away there is another Israel couple. Boaz somebody, so that is a very nice to know, she pronounced it like boeeez, but they can’t say my name right either.
It is amusing to sign the house contract, other than the transfer of the check. You have to pay courier fee, survey fee and a bunch of other crap fees and you hear terminology that you never hear elsewhere like funds in escrow and encroachment, which makes you feel dumb that you don’t understand these terms to the fullest, I will try to learn them by our next house purchase, somewhere around 2038.
Today we went to a short nature hike with a naturalist (also known as a park ranger) in the part of the metro park closest to our new home. The purpose of the hike was to learn about animal signs and hopefully see some wild life. We learned about the various nuts and the crazy squirrels that eat them. We spotted several squirrels, a wood pecker (that was busy packing against a tree), deer poo, signs of buck (male deer) rubbing against a tree, deer tracks, deer trails, a beetle, understood the two main kind of oak (did you know that black oak is actually a red oak), squirrels nest (did you know squirrels nest?), and heard an interesting cries of a young owl or hawk, we couldn’t make out the exact species (we meaning the park ranger, I cannot tell the sound of a hawk from a panda bear).
We also learned a bit about mushrooms, and learned to spot the most risky one. If you eat it, you get sick for 2 days, then you get better for 2 days, then you need a liver transplant! So not worth massing with. I don’t like mushrooms in either form so I am quiet safe here (and yes I did try mushrooms lately and bhhhhhhh)
Went kick boxing yesterday, and this was the 1st real active lesson I took since the surgery. Kick boxing has some kicking, but I am not allowed to kick high yet with my left, so I kick high (high for me means not really that high) with my right , and then low with the left. Punching I am allowed so I did. This lesson is aerobics and fun, but I left it with a cramped (right) leg. The difficult last month and a half took a toll and loss of focus on diet and I quickly gained most (but not all) of what I lost, so now the focus is back on and the avalanche was blocked. It is very depressing to know how easy it is for me to rapidly gain, I must be more disciplined than I am today.
Not long ago we went to a an funny version of the 39 steps, I was expecting a drama, but this was funny with the best ever use of props. They ran on the train, got chased by a plane and drove a car, and it all looked so real, but with using only a few ladders and basic props, this was truly amazing and the actors changed rolls on stage with amazing speed and grace which was unbelievable. A most recommended play.
Around the time we saw an Israeli movie in the Beachwood Israeli movie festival. It’s nice living here where ties to Israel are strong. The movie was about a sumo club in Ramle and I found it very original and entertaining, go see (from the video store by now). I have seen several movies lately but not one of them is a must see, too many OKs. We saw the Town, after I heard the story with an audio book. The movie was fun (not a must) but I don’t understand why will you change the ending of the book for such a drastic change, I want give out spoilers here, but the ending is completely different.
Recent events in my family (I will share on those at some point) and work (I try not to tell about work stuff here) on top of getting married, buying a house, having a surgery seems to make me more serious. Alla today was thinking about a party here and I was telling her to focus on the house first, this kind of thought would never cross my mind before, it troubles me , but am I growing up? Scary!!!
This summer and fall went by too fast and without too many interesting things, I couldn’t do much with the surgery, and I am still limited so approaching dog sledging trips, ski trips and even just running are on hold, but they will happen again as soon as I am allowed. So I have some time to plan other types of event, will tell you about it in 2 weeks. 2 days away from my 1st wedding anniversary (the 1st wedding…) cant reveal the secrets…
Cheers from the 2nd day of winter
p.s- on the way back from the nature hike we saw about 5 deer…. Not one on the hike itself, go figure.
