London

Sleep. Hard-as-rock beds. Tiny bedroom. Didn’t matter. After a long nap a few of us went to Prince Alfred’s pub and ate fish and chips. I had heard bad stories about the fish and chips but I really enjoyed it. We had a few drinks. I have made it a goal to try as many foreign beers and foods as I can rather than sticking to the original things I can get at home.  That said, I didn't quite like John Smith's  – a little too dark and heavy for my liking.  Guess I won’t be cut out for the Guinness Factory. But they say you must like Guinness when you go to Ireland.  We'll see.. Back to sleep…

 

Day 2

Class and then tourist kinda stuff.  British Museum was interesting but lots of tourists and kids.  The library was better.  We saw a Beatles collection, a Shakespeare collection, the Magna Carta, and several other historic docs.  We also saw the Rosetta Stone at the museum.

A small group of us made a trip to Fleet Street, which is so far my favorite part of London.  Fleet Street was the authentic vision of old time London I've imagined in my head for so many years.

We stopped at a place called “Ye Olde Cock Tavern,” (in British terms of course and not American).  That night, Manchester U was to play Barcelona and lots of people were making it out to the pubs to catch the game.  We stayed there up until the game started and met a few people. The match itself ended up being a let down.  I also learned not to actually call it a soccer game in Europe also - it's a football match, and people have gotten shanked for less.  We went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub once the game started to meet Jay.  It is a place of rich poetic history.  The pub was very dungeon-like with stairs that led further underground.  We went to the furthest floor down.  If you have seen Lord of the Rings, imagine the pub that the hobbits go to when they first leave the Shire - that was this place - great people, fun time.  This was easily my favorite night out in Europe thus far.  We met lots of locals and the atmosphere was amazing.  It reminded me of the typical old time pubs that you see in old English movies. Awesome.