London!

I really want to blog about the two trips I took over spring break before I forget all of the details, so here goes! When I landed at Heathrow, I realized I had no idea when my dad would be getting in or what flight he was on or even what airline he was using, but he eventually found me and we took the train into the city and then the underground to our hotel. We stayed near London Tower Bridge in Southwark. So once we got settled we were both hungry and out of it so we went in search of a cafe or something and found an Arab sandwich shop (go figure) so I got some falafel, which was actually better than I was expecting, and then we got tea and went back to the hotel so I could do some thesis work that I needed to send in that day and he could do some work because it was Thursday and that's when his paper goes to bed. Then we asked our concierge where the best Indian restaurant was because I have really been craving Indian food! So we found one near the hotel that was really good.

The next day, we had to get up early because we had tickets for a tour to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. Salisbury was cool but it was raining really, really hard when we go to the Cathedral so it was hard to walk around, and we got there just as they were getting ready for Good Friday services so we didn't get to spend too much time in the actual Cathedral. But we did get to see the Magna Carta which was pretty cool and we had some cauliflower soup in the cafeteria before heading to Stonehenge. At Stonehenge we all had one of those audio tour ear things which explained a lot about the site and why it is so cool and such a tourist attraction. Fortunately, by then it had stopped raining and I really enjoyed being there because it's definitely something I have always wanted to see. We didn't have enough time there, though... we had to leave after like 45 minutes (the tour guide said "It's just a pile of rocks, really."). Then we headed to Bath, which is an ancient city that has really well preserved Roman Baths and a museum about them so we took a tour there, too, and learned a lot about them and how they were made and what the Romans believed about the natural springs. And Bath is a pretty cool city in general.

Then we went home and we found a vegan Chinese restaurant in the West End because we were trying to get tickets to a play but ended up just going to Shutter Island. The restaurant was so good we actually ended up going there again the next night. It had all of these amazing fake meat dishes that you would find with real meat in a normal Chinese restaurant, so it was a lot of stuff I haven't eaten in a really long time (it was a buffet). And the first night there we met some Israeli guys because they were speaking Hebrew so I asked where they were from and we talked to them for a while. I thought it was really weird but in retrospect I guess it wasn't that weird because, being a vegan restaurant, it was also kosher. But I felt really cool for recognizing they were speaking Hebrew and talking to them. And Shutter Island was kind of bad but not that bad. I've been wanting to see it forever so I was kind of disappointed. Also, European people like to talk all throughout movies so I was getting kind of annoyed. Two Germans next to me literally talked for the entire movie and all I did was click my tongue at them (which I am getting really good at...).

Then the next day we walked literally all over London and bought shoes, and then we went to see Avenue Q on the West End which was funny and good. And on Sunday we had a tour on a double decker bus of literally all the tourist sites... Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Marble Arch, all of that stuff, which you really have to see when you're in London. It was one of those tours where you get off and on the bus wherever you want all day. And we got off at Big Ben and took a river cruise back to our hotel across the river and saw some more sites that way. Then we went to another Indian restaurant, where we had a really interesting and insightful conversation about Israel and the conflict, and about World War II and the nature of England as a country and how the Holocaust happened and what will happen to Jerusalem and I really enjoyed getting my dad's perspective on these things because he is so smart and has so many opinions and he and I don't get to talk about it enough.

And then on Monday we went home... him to DC via Atlanta and me back to Tel Aviv via Austria. Austria Air royally fucked up my flight so after a ton of yelling and fighting with them on behalf of my dad and myself in a way that Israelis would be proud of, they offered me a 600 euro flight voucher which is like $775 and definitely enough to go visit Lisa in Germany this semester, so yay!!!

I really enjoyed my time in England and it was really good to be with my dad. I am so lucky to have such a close family and to have the parents I do, which I thought about a lot over the trip. And after I got home I went to Jordan which I will have to blog about another time because this is getting really long! So I will update again soon.