highlifer

England, Last Day

God, FINALLY, I finish! Maybe I just don't want to let the trip go.....

Upon awakening on Saturday, we had but one goal - get ourselves to Stamford Bridge. We contacted the guy we found on Craigslist, who told us to meet his mate Bill at the Southwark train station in 15 minutes. Between the 3 of us, we were $30 short, so we also needed to find a bank. Despite the fact that there was a known ATM at the London Bridge Train station, and that we could then hop a train and go one stop to the Southwark station, I, obviously out of my mind, was determined we could walk. Of course, we promptly got irretrievably lost, couldn't find an ATM or anyone who could point us in the direction of the train, and finally had to catch a cab, where we luckily found an ATM and got the tickets. That sucked. Then, I needed to go back to the apartment, so Tom and Montie waited at a pub, the Bunch of Grapes, while I ran back to get whatever it was I needed (I can't remember at this point.) When I returned to the pub, it was determined that I needed to try the Wells Banana Bread Beer, which we all tried and was rather delicious. And we ate bacon sandwiches and just generally had a relaxing time. We left there by Noon and the pub had a good crowd, again of people of all ages and types. Really my favorite part of England.

Now, off to Chelsea. Since traffic was nuts, we decided to take the train, but this quickly fell to pieces, as the station where we were to switch was closed. Going to the next stop brought such an incredible crowd that it quickly became obvious we would NEVER catch a train, so we ran out and caught a cab, making it to Stamford Bridge in plenty of time.

And what a beautiful day it was! Even though our seats were towards the back, we could see perfectly. The West Ham fans were nearly as loud as the Chelsea fans, despite being outnumbered about 8-1. Much of my favorite chant, Who Ate All the Pies? to Frank Lampard. Who is not fat, but whatever. The only score came from Geremi on a penalty kick, which I missed because I turned my head to compare Anton Ferdinand and his lazy defensive ways to former OSU Buckeye Terence Dials.

You can really get a better handle on soccer watching it in person - watching how people behave off the ball says a lot. I briefly came around to Arjen Robben for his all-out play that day (though I'm back to hating him) and truly watching Drogba is something to behold

After the match, we were caught up in a swarm of people so we decided to get a bite to eat before heading on. We went to Bodean's again, just cause it was nearby, and we also thought we could stake out the possibility of watching the OSU-Michigan game, which was starting at 8 that night. This was not to be, but the manager of the Bodeans could NOT have been nicer. No surprise there.

So we finally headed back to Soho to see what was up at Bodeans, and to find the Phoenix, which was hosting the How Does it Feel party which had been tipped to me as fun, as well as having Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake as the guest dj that night. The plan was that we would watch a little football, I would go check out HDIF, text back, and then Tom and Montie would meet me there.

Bodeans was absolutely packed and there was a line outside. Many of the people inside were from the Michigan Business School and they were dorks. Outside were a wide variety of Midwesterners (100% Americans) so we quickly decided to join the college students and went down the street to the deli for a few cans of Carslburg and just watched the game through the window. I am convinced it was way more fun this way (definitely cheaper!) After a quarter or so, I headed off to the Phoenix. Here, I finally got to try Miller's gin (YUM!) and went off to mill about. Unfortunately, I wasn't really feeling the vibe. The party was in the basement of a nice pub. It was filling up fast. The sound was terrible. No one was paying attention to the music and NO ONE was even thinking about dancing. Everyone looked like the usual crowd upstairs at the Ottobar. Both one of the doorpeople and the bartender were vaguely rude. After about 1/2 hour, I decided to just go back to Bodeans, because Tom and Montie were REALLY not going to like it. Upstairs, I ran into Mike and Amber, who were trying to hook up with us - what luck! So I went the few blocks back to Bodeans.

The game was good, but I found myself getting restless. I had noticed some posh Indians earlier and Tom had said they were all going down the street to this bar, funnily called The Amber Bar. So I suggested to Amber we go check it out, and we did. This nightclub was also in the basement and it had the vibe I wanted. The usual diverse group of people, loud music, tons of dancing. A delicious cocktail (or two) called a Toblerone, which was Frangelica, Bailey's Kahlua, cream and honey. We danced we laughed we looked at people, we met the guy above. Then the boys called us and said the game was over, OSU had won, and they were ready to go back to the hood. We couldn't convince them otherwise, so off we went. I'm finally gonna make it to the Rose.

The Rose was also crowded. Unfortunately, my drinking was kinda over, as 2 gin drinks and 2 milky drinks pretty much did me in. Mike told us how he had seen a fox walking down the sidewalk earlier! A Fox! The Rose's bartender told us that was common, and that they tended to be Cheeky fuckers. The Rose had a great jukebox, and the last song I heard before we headed home was the perfect end to our vacation, Jesus and Mary Chains' Just Like Honey.

When can I go back?

posted by jamie @ 4:12 PM