English Coffee is Different

Instant coffee in England is different. It’s not a bad different, but it’s certainly not the instant coffee I remember having when I’d wake up at home as a kid trying to follow in Dad’s footsteps. The Guinness, however, is better. And that’s a good thing. I’m going to try to make it to Oxford this weekend, and since that’s closer to Dublin, I’m going to test Art’s theory that the Guinness gets better the closer to Dublin you get. I think I’ll actually do a real test by taking a bus or a car through the towns to the ferry, stopping and having a pint a few of the towns along the way, seeing if they’re any better.

There’s a couple who look like newlyweds sitting at the table across from me. What are they doing with they’re honeymoon? Spending it in London. Dang, what a way to live. The British, I’ll give it to them, know how to live. When they take a holiday, they don’t go to Cornwall, or the beach like American’s do. They go to Taiwan, Australia, or South America. If you go skiing in the Alps, that’s just like us going to Colorado, so they don’t really think that’s a big deal. WHAT??? That’s how I plan to spend my Christmas I think. If I can afford it, a small bed and breakfast in the mountains so on Christmas morning I can go skiing. Or perhaps to a couple of festivals in Germany. I’m not sure, but I know I’m going to sit around my flat the whole holiday.

As for last night, my first night out, Hadley met up with me in Holborn (just east of central London), and we walked throughout central London trying to find a pub to eat in. We stopped in Covent Garden to watch a guy doing some tricks with a little circus act, although he didn’t get any of them done. Then we walked around the square and down to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester), where they have a lot of movie theatres that do premier’s and stuff. Well, go figure “The Kingdom” with Jamie Foxx, Chris Carter, and Jennifer Garner was being premiered, so I saw Jamie Foxx get out of a car, wave at the crowd, then bolt in the door. That was pretty cool. From there we walked to Piccadilly Circus, Soho, and up to Oxford Circus, stopped at an Irish pub called O’Neil’s because it was the only place that wasn’t swamped. All the businessmen go out on Thursday nights because Friday is considered “no work” day. On Friday nights they go back home to their wives and families who live outside of London. Interesting lives, I’m sure. Anyway, O’Neil’s had good Guinness, Hadley had some half pints of Foster’s (the cheap beer around here). She had some sausages and colcannon (fancy Irish word for mashed potatoes), and I had some amazing Irish Stew with soda bread. Yeah, good hearty meal to start off my trip. We met her boyfriend, Chris, there who just got done playing some football with his mates (and yes, I’m writing in English talk here, so I mean soccer and friends). I really like this guy. He’s extremely nice, and very respectful to Hadley, so that was great to see one of my friends with such a good guy. So yesterday was a good day. Plenty of walking, learning the tube, about £50 later, and I’m ready for the next day.

Tonight I’m going to a roller derby disco, I think, to celebrate on of Hadley’s friends’ birthday. Now that I’ve realized that its 10:15 here and I was supposed to be at my orientation a couple of stops down the tube at 10:30, I’m debating on whether or not to go to Oxford. Yeah, I probably will, but we’ll see. So anyway, I’m going to walk around London some more, buy an Oyster card (tube pass), look at some mobile’s, then see where I go from there! So have a good day all, and I’ll be taking pictures today.

Laters!