Edinburgh: A Quite Nice Weekend

After a crazy week of working hard on papers for archeology and art history classes, I got ready to leave for Scotland with everyone!  Due to an unfortuante website malfunction, Sam had booked his train ticket to Edinburgh on Thursday and the rest of us were stuck taking a 9-hour overnight MegaBus.  If you learn anything from reading my blog (very doubtful), please please please learn this:  Do not take an overnight MegaBus.  They are cramped, bumpy, and nauseating.  I was able to get around 3 hours of sleep total (45 minutes here and there), with random late night paper and pencil games with Olga.  She taught me how to play Cows and Bulls which is basically a Russian number version of the boardgame Mastermind.  I reccomend this game to everyone on a long trip except for Jenny Janovitz (it involves logc).  Anyways, this is what everyone had to say upon arrival the next morning:

Me: “I feel like I just woke up from surgery, and my doctor was Edward Scissorhands.”

Olga: “I feel like I just got continuously punched in the face for 9 hours.”

Mark: He actually didn’t say anything.  He just had a look on his face that usually indicated complete and utter disgust.  A rare Mark-face, but a priceless one.

Bernacchi: “I don’t feel horrible, but I also don’t feel like I slept at all.”

But seeing Edinburgh as we got off was lovely!  Our hostel reminded me of a hut in the White Mountains that I used to stay at with a fun staff and a good community.  I slept on a high bunk bed with no barriers on the side, but managed to stay on both nights!

Sam came down from his normal night of sleep in a bed, and the 5 of us set off on our first Scottish adventure.  The adventure turned out to be a free 3-hour walking tour of the city with Grace, a punky half-Brit, half-Scot who had destroyed her face with piercings and dyed her hair bright green like a Tomba! character.  Upon making this observation, Bernacchi and I discovered that we were each the only people we knew who loved the old Playstation game, Tomba!  Its actually really rare now and worth over 100 bucks on ebay, but I refuse to sell!  Grace led us to all of the beautiful sites of Edinburgh, taught us some awesome Scotish catch-phrases (lovely/quite nice/brilliant = something good, wee = smallish, ay = Desmond), and gave us reccommendations for trying Scottish food (the disgusting meaty bits of Haggis), Scottish soda (the disgusting neon orange Irn Bru), Scottish whisky (I didn’t go there), and Scottish dessert (surely my Mom’s favorite: fried Mars Bars).

After the tour we were already pretty exhausted (it tends to happen when you don’t sleep) so we relaxed in the hostel and walked around the university and a neat park.  That night we went to dinner at a pub where Sam, Olga, and I got pasta, Bernacchi got Haggis, and Mark got hit on by a drunk, older woman.  Before going to sleep for an early night, we played a few rounds of Presidents and Assholes, the card game.  Sam was president most of the night, and our gracious leader even created rules to try to give others opportunities.  By the end, he was the asshole.  We had fun and it certainly will not be our last time playing during our travels.

The next morning was the highlight of the trip.  We woke up relatively early and ate breakfast at the same place J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter.  Then we made our way through town until we got to a summit of the beautiful landscape surrounding the city.  We hiked around the Edinburgh hills/mountains for a couple hours, finally settling on the highest peak of Arthur’s Seat – named after King Arthur.  We had a great time trekking through the Scottish wilderness, with lots of grassy areas and beautiful stone walls (yes, it did remind me of Lost a wee bit).  The sights of the city below us was amazing, and everyone was happy to make it to the top.  So happy in fact that I made this video:

The rest of the day we spent mostly walking around the city.  We checked out Castle, the fabric museum where they make kilts, and had some great meals: delicious chicken shwarma for lunch and an Italian dinner with generous portions.  Along the way we saw this guy playing traditional Scottish music on his bagpipes:

That night we decided to have a fun time out.  We picked up some items at the grocery store and played cards for a while in the hostel.  There, we met some new friends from Newcastle who we trekked over to a bar with.  Mark was as hilarious as ever, and his presence was a noticeable and wonderful contrast to our night out in Belgium…  One more video!  Why not?

The next day we explored some other neighborhoods in Edinburgh that we had missed the first time around.  We had lunch, played some pool in the hostel, and headed over to the train for a much more manageable ride home.  All in all good fun!  By the way, yes, we did steal a glass.  I was hoping to get a Belhaven for my brother, but I never had a good opportunity.  Instead I settled for “Tennents Ice Cold” which I found just sitting on a window sill early Saturday morning.

Last night in London we saw Ricky Gervais peform.  He was hilarious and brought up some interesting debatable questions! Next up is Italy: Venice and Rome with Sam!  I won’t be back until a week from today (the 24th) so I guess MTG is going on a brief hiatus.  Feel free to comment with suggestions and feedback!  Thanks everyone!

Belgium Part 3: In Bruges and More

We once again woke up early on Saturday morning with big ambitions for the day ahead.  Once again we had our traditional (3 days straight!) pain du chocolates and tea at the hotel and discussed our plans.  We wanted to head to Bruges, an adorable city on the other side of Belgium which I solely knew from watching the movie In Bruges at the New London Film Festival with Caroline last summer.  We had discussed the possibility of renting bikes and traveling to the beach, but it looked rainy and cold out so the chances seemed slim.

At the train station it was unclear whether trains headed to Bruges and if so which trains.  And by unclear I mean not in English.  We asked the ticket window for roundtrip tickets and she told us the platform it was leaving on and that it was in 10 minutes.  Little did we know, multiple trains leave from the same platform in a 20 minute span, so when we got to the platform we just hopped on the train.  Something didn’t seem right when the train left 1 minute later, so we all looked at each other in horror, realizing that we were on some random train in Belgium that could be headed anywhere.  I ran up to a conductor right before the first stop, and thankfully using the art of the point, I was able to communicate to him that we wanted to go to Bruges.  He had us get off the train and told us the platform and time of the train we actually wanted.  A brief scare, but whats a Eurotrip without them?

The actual train ride turned out to be around an hour, and it was highlighted by the antics of a crazy man who looked like Rip Van Winkle and spoke into his cell phone louder than my Dad.  Maybe it was because he was speaking a different language in a booming voice or maybe it was because the lady sitting across from him actually got up to sit somewhere else midway through his phone conversation, but regardless we had a hard time from bursting out in laughter.

My feelings for Bruges was love at first step.  I’ve been waiting all of my time in Europe to find streets made of cobblestone, and Bruges is filled with them.  Most of the neighborhoods have a small village feel to them and their are several canals through the streets.  There is also a grand marketplace in the center and we checked out the main sites like the Belfry (prominently featured in In Bruges) and…well, that was about it.  Bruges is really nice, but there isn’t really all that much to do.  We did get lunch at a great crepe/pancake (they call them “pancakes” in Belgium, but they are 100% crepes.  I like crepes, but sadly, I like pancakes more) place which was pretty much just smothered in sugar and butter.  That last part was for my Mom.

After lunch, with the beauty of Bruges starting to wear off as we debated visits to the Chocolate Museum and the Frites Museum (delicious, but not interesting enough to warrant a museum), we decided to rent bikes instead.  This turned out to be a great idea!  Although Sam and I wished we had brought gloves, the ensuing journey was worth the cold.  We trekked out into the Belgian countryside – full of windmills and cow manure – headed towards a small village called Domme about 3.5 miles away.  If Bruges was an incredibly cute girl-next-door, Domme was an adorable little, old lady.  It was mostly old houses, a strip of shops, and a central church.  We had a beer at a small pub where everyone spoke Dutch, and walked around the village for about an hour finding some pretty cool things along the way.  Here are some pictures:

We biked back to Bruges in search of a supposed 3 euro plate of Spaghetti.  When we arrived at 5:30 to a half-empty restaurant, the owner asked if we had reservations and told us she was full for the night.  Disappointed, we stumbled into another Italian restaurant and discovered these magical take-away “sleeves” of penne pasta with the choice of several delicious sauces for only 2.95 euros.  And we didn’t even have to tip!  The bench we chose to eat them on in the main marketplace just so happened to look directly upon the two famous competing frites stands in Bruges.  We inspected each carefully before choosing the one on the right, and this time we asked for a garlic sauce.  All in all a delicious dinner.

Everyone agreed we had squeezed everything out of Bruges (and Domme), so we boarded the next train back to Brussels.  The night was still young so we decided to check out Delirium again to see if we could replicate the fun of Thursday night.  It was again very crowded but we were all exhausted from the last two days so instead of making tons of friends, we settled for a Free Souvenier!

4) Apple Floris Bier: Downstairs in Delirium is like a paradise but glass stealing connaisseurs like ourselves.  Sam ordered an Orval and loved the beer, but he was haunted by the sight of the bartender pulling out a generic glass to pour it in.  Mark snagged a cool Pilsner Urquell glass (and drank the beer in it first – but who really cares?) and I chose the previously reccommended to me Apple Beer by Floris.  The beer literally tasted like a fuji apple, and I thanked the beer gods for allowing such a delicious, girly-tasting drink to be called a beer, so I could still look cool and manly.  The glass was especially a nice surprise because it coincidently had the name “Josh” written on it, as Floris’ mascot or something.  Anyways, the bar was so crowded that the chances of anyone seeing me slip it into my pocket were weaker than Chad Pennington’s arm.  Risk factor of getting caught: 1 pint out of 5.

That night we went to the rooftop of a parking garage that supposedly had a great view of Brussels’ skyline.  It did indeed.  After Mark figured out how to correctly operate his flash so the city lights came out right, we headed home for a well-deserved final night.

The next day was mostly a blur.  After our pain du chocolates, we walked around the city aimlessly looking once again for Sam’s favorite street.  After several failed attempts, he still didn’t give up and we finally found it.  In contrast, while checking out a pizza place called Moma Roma’s for lunch, I pulled the door unsuccesfully and declared it closed.  While I was walking away, Sam pushed the door in, noting the people in the window and the ease in which I gave up.  It was a good thing he did because we all agreed that the pizza was great!

5) Hoegaarden: The highlight of the day occured at a flea market where we were hoping to find cheap glasses of our favorite Belgian beer before our trip to Belgium, Hoegaarden.  We had been unsuccesful in acquring the glass throughout the trip despite some close calls, so it was definitely on our minds.  As luck would have it, a bar next to the flea market had some outside service and I spotted two glasses on the table as we approached.  I simply just walked by and snatched the glass.  Success!  Sam did the same and we walked around the block back to the flea market from a different street.

After that, Sam wanted another crack at his Orval glass.  We went to a bar near our Hotel and Sam and Mark orderd Orvals.  We decided to sit outside because Sam thought it would be easier to walk away with it.  As luck would have it, Sam’s glass was clearly old and the print on it was peeling.  Mark’s was just about brand new.  What then ensued was quite possibly the funniest game theory application I have ever witnessed:

Sam wanted Mark’s glass because it was much nicer.  Mark didn’t really want to steal at all.  But if Sam were going to take a glass, then Mark felt like the damage was already done so it would actually improve his utility to take his, too.  Mark told Sam that they could either leave both glasses behind, or Sam could take his own crappy one and Mark would take his nice one.  Sam told Mark that he was a dick.  I thought it was hilarious.  We debabted whether they could get away with stealing them, whether Mark’s was really that much nicer, and whether Mark was being a dick (I thought he was acting quite rationally) for about 30 minutes.  In the meantime, they had to drink their beers at about relatively the same rate in order to prevent the waiter from coming and taking one away.  In the end, Mark finished his drink quickly and slid it over to Sam as a peace offering.  However, at that moment the waiter decided to stand at a spot indoors that would make it easy to see us through the window.  We convinced Sam not to take it, and then left.

6) Hoegaarden Rose: Mark and I headed over to the bar across the street.  Sam went to a novelty shop to buy an Orval glass for 6.50.  He just couldn’t let it get away!  In the meantime, Mark ordered a Hoegaarden so he also could get the glass, and I ordered a Hoegaarden Rose because it seemed like an interesting fruity twist on what already was a tasty beer.  It turns out they poured it into this Hoegaarden labeled wine glass.  Mark and I took our time in enjoying our drinks, then pocketed them and left.

All in all we left Belgian with 15 glasses between us.  We had gone too far.  We all agreed to never again take glasses…until our next trip to Edinburgh.

After a relaxing viewing of Jack Nicolson in Chinatown at an old movie theatre we made our way home.  On our way back Mark and I made sure to sample some famous Belgium chocolates!

Coming Up…

Enjoy reading Parts 1 and 2 of my Belgium trip below. The epic conclusion (Part 3) should be up soon. In the meantime, I’m off to Edinburgh!

How about a poll for the weekend? Please vote. I’m going to Italy for a week on Tuesday, and I will be in Rome for 5 days. I’m considering taking a super early bus one morning to Florence and then taking a super late bus back the same night. It costs about $67 roundtrip. Is it worth it? I’ve heard great praise of Florence…

Belgium Part 2: Digging into Sam’s Past

We woke up early the next morning (Friday).  I, for one, went to sleep a lot happier than when I woke up.  After everyone showered and got ready, we made a quick stop at the “free breakfast” downstairs which consisted mostly of pain du chocolate, tea, and OJ.  Then we headed to the metro to make our way to Sam’s old school via train and bus.  I already discussed the important part of our bus ride in Part 1, so feel free to go back and read it if you missed it.

At the International School we were initially treated like kings.  They love almuni (and their friends), so we got free access to the campus with badges that arbitrary Dharma Initiative-like jobs on them.  Mark was a contractor, Sam was a caregiver, and I was a lowly visitor.  But I did look awesome with my badge on (as I pointed out numerous times).

The school was really nice.  While searching for Mr. Hesse, Sam’s favorite teacher, we were asked by a receptionist to put an “Out of Order” sign on a girl’s bathroom.  Apparently, someone had vomited and the receptionist didn’t want to go anywhere near it.  The rest of the campus was much more pleasant!

Next, we took a bus to Overjise, the town where Sam used to live.  We walked up and down the main road as Sam re-discoverd all his old favorite restaurants and shops.  We once again noted that Belgium was ridiculously expensive.  Mark went to a McDonalds and paid over 6 euros for a standard meal!  He also accidently paid .50 euros for a thingy of ketchup which we took around with us for the rest of the trip.  Sam and I settled for a loaf of sugar bread at a bakery he used to like – it was delicious!

Finally, we made our way to Sam’s old house.  It was in a beautiful neighborhood and we did a little exploring.  Once Sam felt like his past demons were behind him, we headed back to the bus stop to hitch a ride back.  At the bus stop, I met a cute, old Belgian woman who only spoke French.  Our 5 minute chat mostly consisted of giggling at each other because we couldn’t understand each other, but combing her little English and my high school French experience (poission = fish…and thats about the extent of it) we managed to talk about snow in London.  By pointing at stuff, she also was able to help us find our way back to the main metro line.

We took the metro all the way to the end of the line to look at this ball-structure called the Atomium.  It was pretty cool considering I had never heard of it, and we took a bunch of artsy pictures (especially Mark) of it from different angles.  By that time we were exhausted, so we metroed back to the Grand Place area to check out one more thing before dinner: the little boy peeing statue.  Its actually called the Manneken Pis, which sounds really fancy and is supposedly the posterboy of Brussels, but in actuallity it is  just a 2 foot tall little man taking a leak into a pool.  We tried taking a picture where it looked like it was peeing into one of our mouths but we couldn’t get the right angle and people were starting to look at us funny.

That night we were hoping to eat dinner for cheap, but we made the mistake of walking through this narrow restaurant market where people from both sides shout at you to come in and eat at their place.  Due to a miscommunication, we all ended up accepting some guy’s 3-course meal for 10 euros offer.  The restaurant was really nice and really empty.  We had cheese croquets for an appetizer, I had the chicken with frites (fries) and salad for an entre, and we had cake for dessert.  The waiter also gave us beer and kept refilling it over and over.  Throughout the 3 hour meal (it was a nice break from a long day!), we probably spent an hour discussing whether or not we thought the beer refills were free.  They were.  Success!  The other funny thing about the restaurant was that the waiter brought all our food over from the restaurant across the street.  I guess it didn’t matter which offer we accepted after all.

That night we met some of our new American friends from Delirium at a bar called Ralph’s.  I didn’t like Ralph’s particuraly much, and I didn’t buy anything to drink, but I did get 2 Free Souveniers making the trip worthwhile.

2) Duvel: Me and Sam needed some fresh air from the strange technoy light show of a bar that was going on around us with a weird large projection screen of a fashion show, so we stepped outside and noticed that numerous tables had empty beer glasses yet to be picked up.  Sam snagged a Brugs (see 3) and I grabbed the goblet shaped Duvel.  It seemed like a good addition to my early collection.  The pockets on my new peacoat jacket are huge, so it fit right in.  We sat on a bench for a while looking unsuspiciously, and then headed back in.  Risk factor of getting caught: 2 pints out of 5

3) Brugs: I really liked Sam’s new Brugs glass so I looked out for one of my own.  Luckily, one of the Americans we were with ordered one and when he finished I asked if I could see his glass.  It was dark and crowded so I just put it under my seat.  When we got up to leave (finally), I put it in my pocket and walked away.  Probably the sloppiest one of the trip.  Risk factor of getting caught: 3 pints out of 5.

I realize that this all seems kind of sketchy that we were taking glasses, but I swear it’s harmless!  Everyone takes glasses from bars and we just exaggerated the fun.  Or at least thats how we justified it to ourselves.

At the end of the night, we followed some of the Americans to “the best frites place in Belgium.”  Sam and I split one with Curry Ketchup sauce and they were really good (although not as good as the next day’s frites in Bruges).  Mark wished he hadn’t left his McDonald’s ketchup at the hotel.  We walked around a little more and saw some places along the way that can only be described as “interesting,” but we were all tired (especially Mark) so we went home for a well-deserved sleep.

Belgium Part 1: Delirious at Delirium

Hi everyone!  I’m back from my weekend in Belgium and taking a break from writing papers.  Turns out that when you travel a lot, your allotted time to do work shrinks.  Anyways, this is the official MTG Belgium recap post…which according to the last poll none of you are excited to read.

I left about an hour before my train departure time at 7:30pm, mostly because Sam and Mark had warned me after missing their earlier train.  Luckily, I remembered to bring my passport along, although in all honesty, the thought didn’t occur to me until after I had packed everything else.  That would have been a really fun scene at the train station…

The Eurostar train to Brussels was only 2 hours and 20 minutes long and for the most part really comfortable.  I read every article in the London Lite and completed all but the “challenging” Sudoku.  The guy sitting next to me kept dropping stuff on me but he apologized each time and gave me some of his crisps.  Towards the end of the ride I began to prepare myself for my arrival: I had to naviagte the Brussels streets alone at 11pm to get to my hotel about 1.5 miles away from the train station.  Anyway who is reading this probably knows that I am somewhat infamous for my horrible sense of direction (thanks Mom), but I studied the Google Maps intently and had written down some key directions and turns I had to make.  The smarter thing to do would have just been to take the Metro system, but I felt adventurous and decided to journey my way through the city at night.

It turns out that the Brussels metro is easier to use without paying (a common theme throughout this trip – keep reading) than the St. Louis metro, but I made it to the hotel without getting too lost in about a half hour and the feeling of success was great!  The hotel/hostel, called Hotel the Moon, was this tiny little storefront a block away from the amazing Grand Place. Sam was waiting for me in the room with news that he and Mark had been hanging out at this local bar called Delirium and had met a whole bunch of Americans.  We quickly headed over.

Delirium turned out to be this crazy bar with over 2400 different types of beers.  And its a mecca of the phrase, “Its a small world.”  We had conversations with Americans from Wash U, UCL, other places in Missouri, Connecticut, and with someone who knew a girl who owes me a football.

Apparently, we were so awesome that we were recognized the next day.  Sort of.  On a bus towards Sam’s old school (see Belgium Part 2), an American girl* asked us where we were from.  We told her we went to Wash U, and it turns out she goes to St. Louis University and had heard from a friend who heard from a friend that there were “a lot of Missouri kids at Delirium the other night.”  Word travels very fast between Americans in Belgium!

*For a fun story about future events, ask Sam what he thought about this girl.

We also met some non-Americans at the bar.  There was this strange Belgian guy who kept trying to get me and Sam to buy him a drink (we didn’t).  A group of Spaniards talked to us about life and their favorite “coffee shops” in Amsterdam.  Sam met a British guy while buying a drink.  Their conversation:

Sam: Are you from England?

British guy: Yes…

Sam: No way!  I’m studying there for 5 months!

British guy: Great.

***

This brings us to the first part of an epic 6 part series called: Free Souveniers.

One of the central themes of the trip was obtaining free souveniers.  Namely, beer glasses.  Belgium is all about their beer and every type has its own unqiue glass it is poured in.  As the trip progressed, our habit of walking out of bars with our (and other people’s) glasses really got out of hand.  As we go through Free Souveniers glass by glass, hopefully you will see this effect.

1) Dobbelen IPA Tripel: The first glasses were taken by Sam and I.  This was the second beer I ordered of the night and Delirium was so crowded that we just walked out with them as we left.  Risk factor of getting caught: 1 pint out of 5

***

Sam and I left the bar late and walked around the city looking for sme random street he used to like.  Although we didn’t find it, we were very active while we walked and had a lot of fun as we made our way back to the hotel.

So that was Thursday night!  I didn’t get to Brussels until around 11pm, but the first night was already epic.  By the way, you may have noticed that Mark was not mentioned at all throughout the night.  This was not to make fun of him; there was a reason why he wasn’t mentioned…  Ask him for details!

Off to Belgium!

I’m off to Belgium for the weekend and won’t be returning again until Sunday night! While MTG goes on this insignificant brief hiatus, please enjoy this conversation I overheard between Buckingham Palace Guards:

No one will read this post because it is too long (but you should!)

Hi everybody!  Once again thank you for your continued support!  This post is jam-packed with commentary and actual content/substance from London over the past through days (as of writing this, OIL hasn’t posted anything new for awhile so this is momentarily relevant).

First, the Super Bowl.  While most of you get to casually enjoy the Super Bowl at its normal time of 6:20ish pm, I have to find a bar in London that shows it and continues to stay open until its likely ending at around 4am (then find a night bus home).  While it may seem like I always get the short straw when it comes to big TV scheduling (the Super Bowl, LOST), I am currently watching the Federer-Nadal finals of the Austrailian Open at a normal morning time for me, and a ridiculously early time back home.  Since half my readership (my mom) cares more about this tennis match then the Super Bowl,  I feel like my complaining is pointless.

So who is the offical MTG pick for the Super Bowl?  While the Steelers are the clear favorites, the Cardinals have become the sexy pick by a majority of the nation according to polls on NFL.com and ESPN.com.  What do we know about everyone jumping on the Cardinals’ bandwagon in past seasons?  It causes them to suck miserably.  The Cardinals were successful this season because this was the first preseason in a while where everyone wasn’t calling them their sleeper team (and the NFC West was the worst).  They were hot in the playoffs because no one thought they would win any of their games.  But suddenly, against the best defense in the league in the biggest game of the year, everyone is suddenly all about the Cardinals.  Stick a fork in them!  MTG picks the Steelers (-7) to win a boring, low-scoring outing of 23-13.  Of course, every year (that doesn’t involve the Dolphins, Patriots, Jets, or Bills) MTG roots for a Super Bowl to go into overtime.  Nothing could be more exciting, and overtime in the biggest game is due!  If you don’t have an allegiance to either team, consider rooting for overtime as well!

Onto TV licensing.  In England, if you want to watch television in your room, you have to buy a ridiculously overpriced TV license.  This is supposed to be a fair trade-off between receiving England’s 5 channels for “free.”  This includes BBC 1, BBC 2, and the mysterious “Channel 4.  “I don’t watch live TV in my room (except the Austrailain Open right now as I type this), so in case I have misinterpreted the rules (about 50/50 chance), I don’t violate them enough to warrant purchasing the license.  This didn’t stop my local TV licensing bureau from sending me threatening mail with the header, “Dear Present Resident of Room 4**.”  I can either call them to stop their investigation, or they might send men to my room to interogate me about my tv use.  Since it would cost me a very valuable 25p to call them, I say, bring ‘em on!

I did say I was going to provide actual London content in this blog post, right?  Since we last left off, I’ve seen two “West End” shows (the English broadway): Hairspray (which was great) and Spring Awakening (which was incoherent).  I learned I like happy musicals with lots of lights and big dance numbers, not ones that make no sense.

Food-wise, I did a lot of cooking this week, mostly trying new things with potatoes, pasta, chicken, and vegetables.  I have yet to cook anything that didn’t involve at least two of those four things.  One night, the gang all made crepes which were used both for dinner and desert (it involved chicken and vegetables).  Another night involved the discovery of Benito’s Hat, a Mexican restaurant similar to Chipotle.  The burritos are delicious but the number of chips on the side they give you are hilarious.  Last time I counted.  They gave me 4 whole tortilla chips and 4 broken pieces.  Next time I’m bringing my own!

While last summer I discovered the joy of Schnuck’s brand everything, in London I have discovered the joy of Tesco brand everything.  Especially their biscuits (cookies).  I really like the Tesco brand Nice biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, custard cremes, digestives, and rich tea biscuits.  And they’re all between 25p and 75p!  Last night I convinced Sam to buy a box of Nice biscuits but he didn’t like them because he thought they were too cocunutty.  I traded him a roll of digestives for his Nice biscuits, 2 of the digestives and 10p.  It was a good (and delicious) trade for me!  It reminded me of my time back in Michigan when my brother and I used to rip off our next-door neighbor with football card trades.

Since all of us not named Mark don’t have Friday class, we all decided to go to Oxford for the day (Mark met us there later).  We saw a lot of cool and quaint things about the small college town including the local colleges, the Great Hall which inspired the Hogwarts hall in the Harry Potter movies, and the exact spot at a local pub where Bill Clinton “didn’t inhale.”

We also followed our dreams of recreating a LOST episode by going to the Oxford Physics department and looking for Daniel Faraday’s mother.  SPOILER if you haven’t seen LOST last week, yet.  I asked the receptionist if she could tell me where Dr. Daniel Faraday’s lab was.  She told me she couldn’t find a record of him.  I told her that I was sure I’d been there before, but I was sorry that I wasted her time.  Sam and I treked up to the attic of the Physics department anyways, but we decided not to break the door open ala Desmond.  Maybe next time.  Here is the video of our entrance to the building:

At night, we met Talia and her friends and went to some local bars in the area.  At some point they wanted to go to a club that required an entrance fee so we decided whether or not we should tell them we were going home.  This lie was voted for in hilarious fashion with numbers and head gestures, but in the end we simply told them that we had to go back.

After we left them, the London 5 trekked over to a pub of our own to try one of my favorite beers of the trip so far called Hobgoblin.  At this pub, we struck up a conversation with the barkeep and he told us about famous celebrities that had visited the pub (including Elijah Wood, Bill Clinton, and two British people that we pretended to have heard of), and informed us that only American bartenders carried on conversations with patrons about sad life stories.  Mark asked him for his name (Andy) and shook his hand.  We decided to try to catch the next bus back to London, but our timing was a little off.  Here is the video of our epic catching of the bus:

The next day we went to our first footie match between Fulham and Portsmouth.  I tried the whole time to call it football, but the word “soccer” just came flying out of my mouth.  The game was actually really exciting and high-scoring (for soccer), and the away Portsmouth fans were great.  They were yelling and screaming and singing and chanting the whole game despite their team losing 3-1 and it being like 0 degrees (Celsius).  Their chants were completely non-sensical to me, but every once in a while we’d hear the words “football,” “club,” or “Portsmouth.”

That’s all folks!  Thanks for reading all this!  If you actually made it this far into the entry, why not vote in this post’s poll?

Enjoy the Super Bowl!  Next Thursday I leave for Belgium, but I’ll try to fit one more short post in before!