The ugly American goes Abroad... Aaron W comes to Europe & Israel!

the church of the holy sepulchre is off the chain.

the dead sea is worth the drive, you can hit up some swimming and visit masada as well, as a day trip. however, involves driving out east, so i'm not sure what that's like currently.

re: swimming in the mediterranean - everybody was warning us to watch out for jellyfish :)

I will definitely give a shout out as my UK leg gets closer. I sure hope Engerland is everything I've been dreaming it is. If it isn't somewhere between Something Else by the Kinks, Tellin' Stories, and the La's album, I'm gonna be very pissed at my record collection. Or somethin'.

dude, i'd be pissed at that record collection from the get go. if england was like those records i would leave!

Vicar-- Yeah, I'll bring you back a rock.

Haha Liverpool is pretty much entirely the La's album. Doledrum, to be precise.

I smell a story.

I guess I get to read a prayer at my cousin's wedding in Jerusalem! I hope I can fool them into thinking I can actually speak Hebrew.

More soon... gotta run.

Hey!

So, I have a few minutes to give you an update of all my ... actually, our ... travels thru this country. I'm back in Jerusalem at my cousin Galia's apartment (last night I ran speed disk on her computer and it seems to be running much better) after spending Thursday thru Sunday in the northern part the country.

On Wednesday night, when we (me, my mom and my aunt Lynne) had dinner with Galia, her son Roni, and his fiancee Ronit. After dinner we visited the place they will be getting married on Wednesday. It's this beautiful grove-like place just outside of Jerusalem and the wedding will be at night.

So, on Thursday, we set out for northern Israel (mom and Lynne have rented a car). The thing about driving in Israel is that everything is very close (it takes about 2.5 hours to get from Jerusalem to the northern tip of the country) but, with the way cities and towns are laid out (not with cars originally in mind, of course) and the fact that Galia does not drive (she takes buses everywhere), every trip is an adventure. We've probably seen all of Israel via U-turns and wrong turns.

But, we did manage to find the town of Zihron Ya'akov, which is north of Tel Aviv. It's one of the first modern Jewish villages, and is located atop a mountain. We had lunch at a little spot where, just before we'd arrived, a group of teachers had been so rude to the waiter that he left for the afternoon... kind of one of those unique small town moments. They serve this lemonade with fresh mint here that is amazing. So, after our fantastic lunch, we headed on to Dailyat Al-Karmel, which is on Mt. Karmel just south of Haifa. We stayed with a very, very hospitable Druze couple. The Druze are an indigenous religious/ethnic group that is sort of an off-shoot of Judaism and Islam and lives in peace with the Israeli country (they actually served in the Israeli army during the War of Independance and Six Days War). So, that night we had dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant in Haifa (about 20 minutes away)... you'll notice that eating is a major theme of this trip, by the way. We've been planning our activities around meals.

Then on Friday, we went on to Akko, which is on the Mediterrean. There are many, many shops in this ancient city.... We spent quite a while in the spice shop of an old friend of Galia's and stocked up on everything from Saffron to dried tomatoes to coffee to chai to..... I can't even describe how wonderful everything smelled. Then it was on to Pki'in, another old Druze village to the west of Haifa. Again, we were hosted by a very kind of giving Druze villager who was from one of the oldest families of the town (this was after we got lost). After we had him give directions to Roni and Ronit on Lynne's cell phone, they met up with us and it was to Rosh Pinna, where we spent the next two nights.

Up in the mountains north of the Kinneret, our apartment in Rosh Pinna looked out for miles and miles to the East. It was probably one the most tranquil, beautiful places I've been to. On Saturday we took a day trip to an ancient, abandoned city (Korazin), which is even mentioned in the New Testament (basically, the inhabitants rejected Christ's attempt to convert them, and the quote was something like, "cursed Korazin lays in ruins," which I thought was great). We had lunch at a trout farm in almost the northern most tip of Israel at a place called Dag-Al-Hadam. It was another peaceful, wonderful spot (I'm running out of adjectives) just next to one of the tributaries of the Jordan River (which eventually flows into the Kinneret). After lunch, we went to a park where there was a tree-covered wading pool for the Jordan River which was FREEZING COLD.

Yesterday, we went to Tsfad, which is an artist colony/holy city just next to Rosh Pinna. And we drove home... on the way we stopped to meet friends of Lynne's nephew at a restuarant pretty much in the middle of nowhere.... I heard the Smiths on the stereo. Very weird!

This is only scratching the surface of what I've experienced. All I can say is that Israel is, obviously, not what you read about in the newspapers and I'm less aware of any strife than I am at home.

Today we're heading to a shopping mall to get a few things, will be heading to the Old City of Jersualem, the wedding is on Wednesday, and Friday it's on to Florence.

Having a great time. I miss you all. Talk to you soon!!!

Ok... I have to go pee like a MOTHERFUCKER (I drank a litre of water before I came here) and feel like I'm gonna pass out. I'll be back tomorrow though.

Be good kids!

Heh -- M. R. James uses this place as background info for "Count Magnus"...

Florence is SO beautiful. Any of you ladies want a Prada knockoff purse? They're everywhere and cost around 20-50€. I'm taking a day trip to Siena today to get away from the other tourists.

Peace out,
Aaron

Peace out for reals,
Aaron

I am currently struggling with international calling cards, who may indeed be my nemesis!!!!

Oh, and if you thought security checks at the airport of your choice is bad, wait till you fly out of Tel Aviv-Yafo.

(also have an aperitivo florian at the bar of the cafe florian in st marks square this is less important, don't what ever you do sit at a table).

Also great pizza al taglio in the campo santa margherita, also there is a great little bar their called il cafe but known as bar rosso.

So, I'm in Frankfurt right now... last night was my first hookup with the Ghostly peeps for the tour at this place called Robert Johnson run by I think the guy who runs Klang Records... or something. Last night was a blur.

In the beer gardens of Munich they sell this stuff called ridler which is lemonade and beer and comes in a half-gallon beer stein. I drank a little more than half of it before the bees took over and started falling in.

And yesterday I found out that my CUNTISH roommate, who's supposed to be subletting her room, is letting the subletter use my room and my bed. Classy.

Anyhoo! I'll try to check in before the UK. I'll try to get some more info about Plastic People/Werk.

Peace out.

Anyhoo.... Ryan Air flight to London today and I'll be in the UK until the 30th. Hopefully people will make it out to either or the Brighton or London gigs... if not, maybe there could be a FAP type action on the 25-27? What's Shandy Drinker? And should I stay in London or try to make it to Manchester and/or Liverpool (which I KNOW are boring but it's about the music, mahn).

Hope everyone is well. I'm starting to get anxious to get back to my life, although looking forward to Engerland.

I'll definitely be at Plastic People on Thursday and am thinking about sticking around in London thru the weekend, although I need to figure out a place to stay (just picked up a Lonely Planet guide and will look at hostels).

Shit, my time at this internet station is about to end. More soon. But I'm here and would love to see people (sorry I can't make it to Glasgow! Next time!!!).

So are people coming out to Plastic People? There's a chance that Richard James might be showing up, if that would be an added incentive for anyone (although it can't be promised of course).

There were other ILX in the vicinity: me (browsing elsewhere in shop, not-Japanese girl in black with Nick and Japanese friend), Zemko/chip morningstar, rocking his silas teeshirt but cringing because RT clerk was wearing same exact shirt and filling it with man-mams (unlike Zemko). Zemko was looking for RIDDIMS, we'd just come from:

the Peter Saville exhibition at the Design Museum
the Christian Marclay exhibition at White Cube
Hoxton hataz repent: best chocolate cake in London is at Shoreditch Electricity Showrooms.
Covent Garden after attempting to get a guided tour of the fucking enormous Masonic HQ at Drury Lane but the 12-ft lizard on the door said the last one's at 4.30, grrr.

And then we left to walk home to Ed/dinner/wine and passed Peter O'Toole walking in front of the Aveda store. Nick saw him and I had to run back for a positive ID, and pretended to hyperventilate when I ran back to Nick and his friend.

I'll fight that statement anyday, chocolate brownie from the bakers in Borough market.

Heheheh... no it wasn't me who asked for the autograph, but it was my friend Tadd (Dabrye, Soundmurder, etc). That's really funny. I should've shouted out "ILX" or something and seen who turned around and said hello.

Is $60 a night too much to spend for a hotel in Hyde Park? Or maybe not enough (i.e. the place is gonna be a dump)?

try this, cheap, good and by us.

So, last night in Brighton was a whole lot of fun. The promoter used to run Spy Mania and played us this SUPER early and unreleased Squarepusher cassette that was all techno-y and great.

Hope to see some people out tonight at Plastic People/Werk (which is in fact tonight, not Wednesday like the bloody Time Out London got wrong).

Cheers!

i should see you tonite i think!

the plastic people site also lists it as 'wed. 24th' (sic) - bloody idiots!

Okay, how about a FAP on Saturday? I am staying at the Generator but can travel wherever you guys want to meet up. I'll have to leave it to you to pick a pub since I only get to get on the internet occasionally.

Think you guys can do it? I'll check back tonight and tomorrow to see what you've decided. It'd be very nice to see you Londoners.

Tonight if I'm up for it I might check out 333, although it's more likely that I'll watch a movie and chill at the hostel since I'm a bit exhausted from 7 straight days of drinking.

Oh, and if BA goes on strike or has some more walkouts I might be staying here longer. Fuckers.

ok, lets get onto a saturday fap. people will need to know today i think, before they leave work

333 is not very good

Definitely try to decide what pub you all want to meet at on Saturday before you leave work... post directions and all that and I shall be there with bells on, ready to buy the first round.

So, no pub has been chosen?? Are people up for this or is everyone too knackered, to use the local parlence. I have no preference on area.... I'm staying near the Russell Sq tube stop sort of close to the British Mueseum, but I can get around. Maybe I should start a new thread to catch people's eyes.

I'm seeing the 8:45 showing of Buffalo Soldiers at the Odeon Covent Gardens, in the very off chance that someone's online and bored.