Category: English

I felt crushed as I got up this morning. I managed to wash the clothes from last night’s show in preparation for the next one in two days and then took the train to London. I nearly fell asleep and missed my stop, being so tired and exhausted.

I got to the hotel near Wembley Arena, went to a pub for a late lunch and later went back to the hotel to sleep for about 3 hours. I’m still a little tired and hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel refreshed after a good night sleep. Because tomorrow I plan to go early to central London. Then I’m meeting Adi for lunch and he’ll show me around a bit. I’ve seen London before so we’ll probably go to Camden Town, where there are nice markets to walk around in.

Here’s a video from yesterday’s show, just to give you an idea how crazy it gets:

Another relatively sunny day in Brighton, so I went outside to walk again. Neil notified me that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the show so I had to quickly call up Adi, my friend who lives in London. All these arrangements took some time.

Then I went to see if I can get lucky and actually meet The Prodigy. And I did!! After waiting outside the venue for about 3 hours they finally came in with the tour bus and I got to shake Keith Flint’s hand for the second time in my life (first time was in 1997 in Tel Aviv harbor.) I was very happy but I don’t think they liked it too much. Anyway, I didn’t ask for autographs or pictures. Liam was very cool about it and nodded at me as I was shaking Keith’s hand. It was very exciting. Maxim walked right in, not really noticing me (all three signed pictures for two other fans who were outside waiting for them.)

Adi and I went to the show. Brighton Center is a small venue, so it was great to see The Prodigy there. The show was a blast and I got to see the stage closer than ever simply because the place is so small. That was fun by itself and will stand in contrast with the next show in Wembley Arena in three days.

Tomorrow I go to London, the final destination of this trip. I’ll be staying near the Wembley Arena. It’s not in central London, but there’s always the underground (or “the tube” as they call it here) if there’s anywhere I want to go. Adi will hopefully show me around at least one day and will be joining me to that last show as well.

I’m dead tired and my body hurts in several locations. Also, I can’t hear too well. That’s how you know you had a good day :)

Finally a sunny day in Brighton for me. I just walked around again and went to a movie again (Knowing with Nicholas Cage. Meh.) It was fun, but there’s not much to report.

Tomorrow is the third Prodigy show! I’m actually excited again. Neil will be arriving as well, which would be awesome. I might try to be a true groopy and wait to see if I can meet the band before the show.

Oh yeah… no way I’m trying shopping again. I just don’t have it in me.

Today was one of those days that when I try to think back what I did, I can’t really account for all the hours of the day. It’s a good thing – it gives me that vacation feeling that you get when you’re not really bound to do anything.

Anyway, what I do remember of this day is that I made some calls to take care of my return to Israel in a week. Then I went for a walk and even tried shopping a bit. That lasted exactly 15 minutes – it was way too crowded and I really don’t like shopping. Then I ate, napped a little and later on went to see the movie Watchmen. Going to the cinema is always a good way to pass a few hours. Watchmen is a great movie – not your typical comics-based-heroes-saving-the-world kind of movie.

Tomorrow I might try shopping again, considering that it’ll be less crowded on a Monday. And maybe another movie.

Still a cloudy and somewhat rainy day in not-so-bright Brighton, but I still went outside and walked quite a lot. Being a resort town for the rest of England, Brighton is pretty attuned to the tourists, offering mostly restaurants and niche shops crammed into narrow streets along with all the major names in fashion, all giving a nice cozy feeling for the visitors of the town. So walking around was a lot of fun but got me very tired.

One problem I have here is finding something to eat that isn’t horribly expensive or too fattening. It turned out to be quite an issue today. I ended up buying some relatively healthy food at the local supermarket instead of sitting in a restaurant as I would have liked to. I’m tired of going to pubs and getting fatty foods. And in Brighton the pubs are also expensive. I mean, I don’t mind paying extra money for good food, but getting both something I don’t really fancy and for a hefty price is out of the question.

At night I got out again after resting, only to find the same scene as last week’s in Cardiff – a lot of young adults are on the streets and in the various clubs. Once in a while you get to see a dressed up group going to a hen or a stag party (bachelor/ette party.) I walked around some more just to enjoy these sights, happened to catch on a pretty good fireworks show on the Brighton pier and went back to the guesthouse.

The Prodigy’s show is three days away. I have absolutely no idea what to do here for three days. I think I’ll try to find some kind of activity that will fill out an entire day. I might try to do some shopping although I hate it. I just know it’s a good opportunity before I get back home in a week. Also, my friend Adi who lives in London said he can come and meet me in Brighton so I’ll try to set this up. Adi will be coming with me to the fourth and last Prodigy show in Wembley Arena in six days.

Katz and I got up today, packed and went to the bus station. We said our goodbyes there and went our separate ways. Mine was a 6 hour bus ride to Brighton, a resort town on the south coast of England.

I arrived dead tired and very hungry, my body hurting from yesterday’s show (see video below) to rainy Brighton. The guesthouse I’m staying in (George IV) is very nice and homely so at least I have a nice place to stay. I did my traditional walking about to see what’s here, but most of the stores were already closed so I just ate and went back to my room. I’m done for tonight – it’s 10pm and I’m going to sleep soon after I take a shower.

I was lazy taking pictures today – the few pictures are from London’s Victoria coach bus station and the video was taken by someone else of yesterday’s Prodigy show. The video’s quality is crap but it’s nice just to see how the crowd goes crazy to the beat and then sings together.

Katz and I planned for a walk this morning, so we went out and did that. However, it started getting too windy and too cold to just walk around and we decided to head back and go do our laundry. It turned nicer outside so we went out for dinner and just to look around. Birmingham has a very nice city center with a lot of shopping/dining for whoever is interested.

The city probably has more tourist attractions than just eating or shopping, but both Katz and I are not interested. We like walking around and enjoying the atmosphere, especially now that it’s Easter and there are a lot of people out on the streets.

We took the 2.5 hours bus from Cardiff to Birmingham and arrived at our hotel, Nite Nite, where we have a really tiny yet very functional windowless room. We walked around a bit already and it turned out we’re pretty close to the city center and also near a very beautiful canal (pictures probably tomorrow.) We’re both tired so we’re just watching movies in the room tonight and tomorrow we’ll walk around to see what’s in this town. The Prodigy’s show is in two days and we already saw the arena where it’s going to be – just a 5 minute walk along the beautiful canal.

We got out this morning late because of yesterday’s show. The weather turned winter-ish on us after two beautiful days so we just went for an easy walk in the beautiful Bute Park (which surrounds Cardiff Castle.) I don’t have pictures because I forgot to take the camera. After that it started raining so we just spent the rest of the afternoon eating and napping. Later on we went to see a movie and now we’re packing for our trip to Birmingham tomorrow.

The hotel in Birmingham is 10 minutes walk from the arena, where The Prodigy’s show is. It’s going to be a little uncomfortable going to and especially from the show (being all sweaty and the fact that it’s almost freezing cold at night), but I’ll worry about that on Thursday, which is show day. Until then we have some time to hang out in Birmingham and hopefully we’ll find something to do in the two days we spend there.