EU Tour: London, England

--London, England--

Our opening moments of London were experienced in a place between consciousness and sleep. I'm pretty sure I saw a statue of a man throwing an elephant by its nose but no one in the band was awake to confirm this. We passed Buckingham palace, a few other things we were too tired to remember, and eventually reached the bus station. It was incredibly cold, rainy, and unpleasant in our sleep-deprived states. We were running on loosely four hours of sleep a piece (except that I'd had an hour or two nap in the green room) so even basic navigation became difficult. Because I'd forgot to pack an extra jacket my Random Encounter coat was used to protect my accordion from the rain as we ran from awning to awning, trying to reach the subway station. It took perhaps 20 minutes to get there, and Konami and I were able to ask the EXTREMELY KNOWLEDGEABLE staff at the station (no joke!) the least expensive way to accomplish the journeys we had planned. After we got our tickets we went through the claustrophobic confines of the London tube. To clarify, there were simply too many people in hallways that were too narrow and I, a person who got a CT scan with no problems, felt claustrophobic in there.

Just outside the Eventim Apollo, it stopped raining

After we got through the tube to Hammersmith west (we later learned that we were lucky to have gone to the correct Hammersmith!) we literally walked out of the underground mall across the street to our venue, the Eventim Apollo! The Eventim was significantly larger than our Manchester venue and we were told that a few unique things would be happening at this show, including a guest appearance by Julie Dawn Cole, the actress who played Veruca Salt in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film (who Rook got to talk to), the world premiere of three songs: World of Warcraft: Warlord of Draenor, the original Assassin's Creed song by Riva Taylor, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone, featuring the guest piano talents of David Wise (Composer of Donkey Kong Country, Solar Jetman, and Snake Rattle 'n' Roll!)! The band walked (and I limped) to the green room, a significantly larger room than the previous night located on the third floor. We dropped off our stuff, enjoyed a meal with Tommy, and set up for our sound check.

Future Conductor?

Like with the previous day I spent almost all of my free time watching the orchestra sound check and since it was the same orchestra as the previous night it took time for them to arrive from Manchester, meaning that they weren't able to check until significantly later in the afternoon. Konami and Rook checked into our hotel about a mile away while Kit and I grabbed really cheap sandwiches (2 pounds or ~$4.00 each), beer, and a thank you coffee for the tour manager.

It really glowed!

Kaitlin and her parents were coming to the show, so the moment doors opened I hopped outside to see if I could greet them. I was surprised to see some fantastic cosplayers (I had forgotten about the costume contest) on my path to the Lobby, and while waiting I spoke with another person who was also waiting for his friends to show up. I don't specifically remember the context of the conversation but it was nice not to have to wait alone. Kaitlin eventually showed up with her parents, hugs were exchanged (it was the night of our 2 year anniversary), and I returned to the back stage area in preparation for the show.

I caught part of the show from the audience

The show itself went very well. The crowd was extremely energetic, our personal performances were good that night (the stress of performing is never as bad as the first night), and in addition to all the guest artists and new songs being premiered the Guinness Book of World Records came out to congratulate Tommy Tallarico and give him two additional awards: Longest Running Orchestra Tour and I believe the Most Concerts Performed by an Orchestra tour in a single year. Someone also yelled at Tommy, mid show, to include something from Tron, and completely unscripted Tommy yelled "You want Tron? I'll give you Tron," and showed everyone that he was in fact wearing Tron boxers. Everyone, including the VGL crew backstage, lost it. It was one of those moments where it seemed too hilarious and random to not be scripted but it was a genuine improvised moment. We had a lot of fun watching the show unfold from the side of the stage and getting to chat some with the special guests. Kaitlin's parents (who had never seen me perform before) enjoyed the show, and I was feeling more confident with my wireless accordion's ability to let me run deep into the audience and goof off. It was a great time!

Before we knew it the show was over, people were met at the meet and greet, goodbyes were said, and we were trudging through the cold toward our hotel, which was about a mile's walk away from the venue. The more we walked the more it became clear that I could reduce the pain from my leg by locking it while walking, making me look fairly silly. Such is the price of comfort. 

Aside: Also, after a few remarks from people who read the previous entry I wanted to clarify something about the previous night and future nights where we didn't rent a hotel. It's not that we're utterly crippled by debt, it's that we cannot justify paying a few hundred dollars for a hotel to try to effectively get 4 hours of sleep. The stress from spending that much money would probably keep us all awake anyways...

Not Pictured: The Shower, which was missing a shower curtain, soap, and shampoo

The hotel itself, which was extremely expensive, even by English standards, offered coffin sized rooms with a beds that might as well have been carved from stone, and blankets that were as stiff and useless in the situation as a giant sheet of rawhide. Despite the physical discomfort most of us were able to fall asleep fairly quickly... That is, until about 6am, when a woman from the hotel decided it would be okay to literally just open the door and walk into our rooms. She did this to all three rooms. When it happened to me I thought perhaps that the sound of the door opening was from Moose going to the bathroom or something, and was confused to see a woman from housekeeping just standing there, creepily staring at us. After what felt like two minutes she eventually said "sorry" and left, slamming the door loudly and waking the rest of us up. It was weird... We suspected that she was secretly trying to get a glimpse of something indecent, which she wouldn't find in our rooms, and this only seemed to be confirmed as this phenomenon literally happened on the hour, every hour until about 10am, when Moose finally fully woke up to give her the towels to the bathroom (which she claimed was her reason for waking us up every hour).

Adam's Diner has AMAZING food, generous portions, and fresh squeezed orange juice!

Eventually we gave up on trying to sleep (largely because we had surprise plans for the day I had planned but forgot to tell the others about until the day of) and went to Adam's Diner nearby for breakfast. We didn't see anyone named Adam there, but the ladies who ran the place were awesome, going so far as to go out to purchase soy milk from down the block for my soy hot chocolate! The food was very British, fantastic, and memorable. Moose ate it entirely too fast and vomited about ten minutes after, claiming that he was sick. He was shaking from exhaustion, so we let him go back to the room to sleep, though he probably just ate too quickly. It's worth noting that he reported that even after the hotel lady returned the towels she returned to our rooms a few more times for seemingly no reason at all (even after Moose had said that the room would not require cleaning). Normally I'd say shame on us for renting a cheap hotel, but for the price we paid I can't really say that... this time.

Photos in the London Eye

The rest of us took the tube to the central part of London and went sightseeing!  Despite a torrent of rain (and my shoes getting soaked) we had a blast! Perhaps we shouldn't have played the song of storms the previous night... We were unable to find umbrellas for sale cheaper than $30 so we just got wet. While crossing the Thames River Konami's hair randomly got a huge volt of static electricity and stood perfectly on end. We saw some was statues and for the most part I did an extremely good job of remembering the layout of London from my last visit! We saw Big Ben, Parliament, the statue of Boudicca, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye (complements of my mother), the London Dungeon, Big Ben, Parliament, and had a late lunch in the Sherlock Holmes Tavern, a place riddled with Sherlock Holmes memorabilia, a stuffed hound of the Baskerville head, and a full size replica of Holmes' room on the second floor. Just before dinner I'd noticed a man in full bomb-squad gear leave the building so I supposed that if there were any trouble earlier, it would be safe to eat there now that he was leaving.

"Hey look kids, there's Big Ben, and there's Parliament!"
I must have said that at least 10 times, each time with genuine enthusiasm

Konami was shocked to see the Thames River

Parliament, Big Ben

Collectively full and content on a day filled with adventures we returned through the tube to Hammersmith Station, only this time the subway was so crowded that only two of us could fit on the train at a time! Seriously, there was no room to move or navigate once inside the subway and at any given point I found myself in physical contact with at least four people. I couldn't lower my arm after raising it to waive at Rook. It was most unpleasant to begin with and then someone nearby sneezed... 

We picked up dinner (cheap sandwiches and beer) at Tesco in the Hammersmith station, and when I was sent on another task I totally lost track of what I was doing when I found a shop that specialized in only selling chocolate chip cookies. To clarify, these were AMAZING cookies... So I bought enough of them to warrant using my credit card (8 cookies) and ate to contentment. I remember not if my other task at hand was ever accomplished, but it didn't matter anymore. I had amazing cookies. I bribed the rest of the band with the cookies and they too forgot I'd been sent on a task. Incidentally there are no pictures of the cookies because they did not survive long enough to be photographed, or perhaps a potential photographer could do nothing but consume them. Back at the hotel we listened to the mixed tracks from the Big Blue EP (being released for free on Saturday on www.music.RandomEncounterband.com!!!) for the first time and gave Strader our final set of revisions because apparently that's how we roll in a time-crunch situation. I used a hair dryer to dry my shoes which created a mist of poisonous foot toxins that drove everyone out of the room shortly after. We collectively concluded that we would be big spenders (this is utter sarcasm), "sleep in" until 4am, and simply hire a taxi to take us to the airport the following morning (as opposed to the tube). We hired a taxi online, and passed out shortly after. We were on top of the world.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes's delightful Tavern

EU Tour: Manchester, England

-Pre Tour-

This weekend I went through my computer and watched videos of my love of 9 years, my band, Random Encounter. I watched our practices and shows from the early days, watched myself nervously take to the stage for the first time, head down, trying with all my might to play the right notes. Over the course of years (in the videos) I watched the membership of the band change and shift. I watched the band experiment and try to find its sound. I quit playing accordion in the band for a few shows. I watched the worst show that I've ever played, a show that only exist in the minds of those who survived it and in a folder on my computer labeled "2007 - the dark days" in videos casually named "delete me" 1 through 4. I watched as over the years members of the band got injured, improved some, quit, and noticed changes in myself as well. I watched the final show where the original band ultimately disbanded, and then found videos from practices that took place a few weeks later of a completely different band of the same name. 

Random Encounter, circa 2010

In these practices five youthful looking kids, who met purely by chance, were playing instruments with an utter lack of confidence. However, they put everything they had into what they were doing, which I admired. It was clear that we did not consider ourselves musicians. It was clear that we hardly considered ourselves entertainers but were striving to improve every weekend. Those videos of Rook, Moose, Kit, Konami, and myself are four years old now and in many ways, despite the added confidence that we can entertain people from time to time, there is still magic in everything we do. Every time we play a show to an audience that outnumbers us (and even if they don't) we're still genuinely excited and will do whatever we can to put on a good show.

Lots of looking down at our instruments

I'd written an article awhile back about our amazing journey with Video Games Live in Florida, and how incredible it was that Tommy Tallarico had allowed us to join him for it. What I'd omitted from the story was that at the end of the tour he'd given us an open invitation to perform with Video Games Live in the future. Moose and I noticed that VGL was putting together a tour across Europe and casually asked him if we could be a part of it. Each of the shows we wanted to play had a fairly special significance to us and if there was any way we might be able to make such a tour happen we collectively decided that we would do whatever it took to get there. To our genuine shock Tommy said we could join him so long as we made everything work on our own dime, and Konami and I spent the next few months planning the logistics.

Random Encounter does logistics
(Photo by Jeff Douglas Photography aka JDP)

I won't bore you too much with the specifics but I'm really good at finding cheap ways to travel (I have a reputation at work for regularly staying in the cheapest and most oddly pleasant hotels) and we were able to make the numbers work somehow by sleeping in airports, renting our instruments on site each night (to avoid airline baggage fees), and by spending hours of searching for the cheapest transportation options available in Europe. Even with these precautions this tour was still an extremely daunting prospect...

It was with the knowledge that this would be the single most expensive endeavor the band has ever undertaken, and with the realization that a single logistical issue could ruin any one of our six upcoming shows that Konami and I spent an additional few weeks checking, double checking, and verifying every possible aspect of the tour to the point where we had directions for every street we planned to walk down. We did this work between day jobs, recording the Big Blue LP, and recording two additional tracks for upcoming collaboration projects that would be due around the time we'd be on tour.

Manchester at night

-Manchester, England-

Tour began for me on Halloween with a panicked series of emails from the band. It seemed that while I was en rout via train to Camberley (to spend Halloween with Kaitin and her parents) the band, who was flying in from the US by means of Amsterdam, Detroit, North Carolina, and Florida, was stopped at the notorious UK security checkpoint and unable to get into the country without the address of where we were staying at. As we didn't have a hotel booked just yet they were trying to get my address in Camberly but somehow sorted it all out before their hour of free airport internet ran out and walked about five miles to a nearby hotel. That evening Kaitlin and I enjoyed a nice family dinner, a four story tall bonfire complete with an effigy of Guy Fawkes, and a fireworks display that would rival most 4th of July's. We turned in early, and I was on the train to Manchester by 6:38am the following morning.

Morning in Manchester

Oddly enough, despite living in England for a few weeks prior, this was one of my first experiences of being truly on my own. Traveling light, I had with me with my accordion and my trusty black duffle bag of 15 years, which Kaitlin had recently patched and which contained everything i'd need to survive the coming weeks. I switched trains at the Reading station without incident and slept for the better part of the journey to Manchester. In the moments where I was awake I occasionally caught people pointing at my accordion (which was on my lap) with interest, and I somehow got caught up in a conversation with the man who checked that everyone had train tickets. He was a self proclaimed "practicing pagan" who knew a surprising amount of occult-style lore. We chatted about this, laughing gas, and the finer points of cooking (he knew a LOT about what plants were edible and apparently has a massive garden behind his house) for awhile, and when he had to get to work again I watched the misty fields beyond my window. The only notable thing beyond the beautiful scenery of England was a field of goats in which I saw steam come from the butt of one of the goats. It was cold, I was tired, and I guess you can see more than your breath in those fields.

In Manchester I was about to get off the train (which was considerably packed) with my gear, caught in a crowd of people both behind and in front of me when the train door I was passing through started to close. Unable to move forward or backwards (I tried pushing my way through the crowd to no avail) my leg and my accordion both got crushed by the door along with my morale. It was crippling in many senses. What hurt most was the sad noise that the accordion made as it broke. I had literally just spent hours repainting it, making it extra pretty, dropping money on new internal microphones, and otherwise preparing for the most important two weeks of my life as an entertainer only to have the opening seconds of my journey seemingly be the last. I hobbled out of the train, literally limping from the pain, set my accordion down and surveyed the damage.

A sight no musician wants to see

Beyond my paint job being scratched up the damage was fairly minimal. Still, it seemed that i'd effectively broken two keys, which rendered the instrument useless as it made unwanted noise akin to a donkey's call without me pressing any of the keys. I'll admit I was fairly distressed by this so when I asked for directions and people shamelessly gave me bad advice I walked about a mile in the wrong direction before getting my bearings, pulling out my map, turning around, and limping back to the station. By this point one of the wheels on my rolling duffle bag had broken off and the dragging of the bag had created a hole in the bottom of the bag I didn't notice for a day or two. I lost the majority of my personal hygiene products and the AA batteries my accordion needed. With no means of contacting anyone (no WiFi, no cell phone service) it took another 40 minutes of aimless limping until I finally arrived at my first destination, the 02 Apollo in Manchester!

First impressions of the 02 Apollo

Walking into a venue that the Beatles have played at really boosted my spirits! I quickly met the VGL crew, who helped me find a pair of pliers. It didn't take look for me to determine that the damage to the accordion was too severe for me to fix. The metal inside of the keys had actually bent, not allowing the reed to close. Armed with WiFi I did a quick google search, made a skype call, and found the only accordion repair shop in Manchester, which happened to be in walking distance. I'm not sure what the odds are for such a thing in England, but I assure you that it's extremely slim that a shop would happen to be open, that the tech would be in, and that they'd be willing to accept a "walk in" accordion repair!!! So I immediately walked to a place called the Hobgoblin and met with the repair techs. They worked really quickly and were able to fix my accordion in under an hour! One of them wore a Ziltoid tee shirt, and as Ziltoid fans are a rare breed we chatted about Ziltoid's coffee fueled conquest and our mutual love of video games while the repairs were under way. By sheer happenstance the main tech mentioned that his favorite video game of all time was Earthworm Jim, which was composed by Tommy Tallarico, the guy in charge of Video Games Live. It felt like my civic duty to get the techs tickets to the show, so I did. I surmised that if I lived in Manchester these guys would probably be good buddies of mine. In exchange for me playing the theme to Game of Thrones on the accordion for them (which they recorded to advertise the shop) my repairs were unexpectedly on the house!

It got dark pretty early

I got pizza at the shop next door, bought 2 boxes (the minimum required to pay on credit card), ate on the walk back to the venue, and met up with the band (who was happy to see me for the first time in a month AND that I'd brought pizza). This is where I discovered that we were missing cymbals, distortion pedals, a drum rug, and guitar cables due to a mix up with the first rental company. Thanks to the magic of Skype I was able to get the owner on the phone and got the issue fixed (via delivery) with 5 minutes to spare before our sound check. Since part of the mistake was my fault I really have to credit them for going above and beyond. Once we could breathe again we took a moment to examine our surroundings. It was good to be in the presence of Video Games Live again and after our sound check I sat in the audience, still in genuine awe watching the orchestra work their magic on some of my favorite songs of all time. Just like with the last time I'd been with VGL I got super nostalgic and teary eyed, and enjoyed what felt like a performance made just for me.

I'm the guy in the middle (JDP)

Our green room was three stories up and my knee really wasn't doing well the second or third time I had to go up and down those stairs. My limp got more prominent (the less I bent my knee, the less it hurt) and I started to wonder how badly I had damaged my knee. In an effort to recover I slept under the table in our green room from the end of sound check through when the house doors were being opened. I hobbled down the stairs with Moose and was shocked to see a person in a Random Encounter shirt! I did a double and triple take at this, sure that my eyes were deceiving me. It seemed that somehow, all the way across the Atlantic ocean, in ENGLAND someone had heard of us! His name was Liam and he'd driven over 200 miles with his father from Scotland to see us! Moose and I got a photo with him (the pleasure was genuinely ours), chatted for awhile, and got backstage before the show started. 

The only sleep I got in Manchester was under a table of guitar cases

The show itself went well. Being our first show of the tour, playing on foreign instruments, having not actually practiced as a band in about a month, having a bum knee, and with the others being generally insecure about playing in front of a huge audience in a different country we did fairly well. We gave it our best and I don't think we could have asked for a better audience. One unexpected treat of the tour was the addition of the extremely talented Riva Taylor to the show, a world class singer who I found to be extremely approachable. She contributed her considerable talents to a few songs throughout each night of the tour (Journey, Assassin's Creed, and Still Alive) showing a level of mastery over her voice that I have only seen one or two other people reach. She also had a really good sense of fashion, rocking a different outfit for each song. It was really neat getting to chat and hear about her life growing up as a professional singer. Another pleasant surprise was Austin Wintory, the composer of Journey, who conducted Journey for half of the shows that we played with VGL. I found Austin to be a pretty personable guy and while I didn't get to talk with him nearly as much as I wanted to, it was really neat to meet him!

Riva Taylor singing Journey
(photo stolen from this website)

Never a dull moment with Video Games Live (JDP)

After the show we quickly discovered that the rental company was not going to pick up our gear. In fact they were under the impression that we were going to transport it to London, which we were utterly unable to do. Fortunately the stage manager (who we became very good friends with over the course of the tour) was amazing and said she could fit the gear into the truck with the other VGL gear. This single act of kindness saved us from missing the London show.

Liam, our #1 fan in Scotland!

At the meet and greet we met with locals, Liam, and a couple from Madrid (who bought tickets to see VGL in Manchester before the announcement of the VGL Madrid show). We also saw the two gents who fixed my accordion and thoroughly thanked them. One of the accordion repairsmen we'll arbitrarily call "Josh" asked what we were up to and when we told him we intended to walk to the bus station and wait until our 6am bus, he informed us that the bus station was extremely cold and offered to take us pub hopping in the only parts of town that would still be open after 10pm. So we packed up our bags and went on a walk around Manchester with Josh and his friend in the one place that was open, the gay bars.

A walk with friends is rarely too long

In the dark and quiet walk from the venue to our destination we only saw one other soul, who happened to be a regular (a clarinet or sax player) at the shop Josh worked at. They chatted for a bit and we continued our journey. Josh was fairly chatty and enthusiastic around us, which kept our spirits high. Manchester was no longer a place of silent mystery and frigged wet cold, it was now a dark playground for five tired but enthusiastic Americans and our local friends.

All of the nightlife in Manchester

By stark contrast to the rest of Manchester, the area around the gay bars was colorful, bright, and full of life! There were so many amazing costumes (it was Halloween weekend) and friendly people. We literally couldn't fit ourselves inside of the overcrowded bars we passed. After nearly getting hit by a train (trains in Manchester don't slow down when passing through town as we quickly discovered) we came to a quiet pub just past the bustle. Literally the moment we walked inside and order drinks a fo-American cover band took to the stage and started playing any rock song with lyrics pertaining to America, including Born in the USA, Sweet Home Alabama, and many others. It was pretty surreal, drinking "domestic" English beer from the tap that would normally have cost significantly more, and listening to a fake American band at midnight in England.

"Don't Blink. Don't even blink!"... or they'll throw you out of the bus station...

After an hour or two of the warmth of the pub we were forced to depart for the frigged bus station. The station was seemingly run by Severus Snape himself in the temporary form of a curt, balding, humorless muggle attendant who was offended by our very existence. He charged us 30p (~$0.55) each time we wanted to use the bathroom, insisted that we wouldn't be admitted onto the bus without a physically printed ticket (he was trying to encourage us to leave the station to seek a printer), threatened to throw us out if one of us fell asleep, and outright walked away from us any time we wanted to pay him to use the bathroom. Josh and his friend stayed with us until about 4am, after which point our time in Manchester became less enjoyable. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning we wound up chatting with a local man who gave us our quote of the day: "When I met my wife, it was supposed to be a one night thing, but it sort of became a forever thing." Somehow we managed to stave sleep off until our bus arrived at 6am and we slept through the 4 hour ride to London.

Travel Journal: Oxford, UK

This reminds me of a puzzle...

When I was younger I used to dream about visiting England. My sister used to tell me stories about the country, the time she visited, and how different it was. A land steeped in history where you practically can’t step 1000 paces without bumping into something historical. A place where antique shops sell things older than the United States. A place that culturally views violence with more disdain than nudity. I never thought I’d wind up living there.

Adventures ahoy!

A few months ago when my girlfriend was accepted to the University of Oxford, and got a rather prestigious scholarship that allowed her accept the position without any reservations, my world was changed. Suddenly I was an immigrant, a word which has a fairly negative connotation in America. The process for applying for a VISA was supposed to be simple and friendly, but the website (which is admittedly in Beta) had a few bugs that made the process fairly stressful. This was combined with the fact that their email attendants (who are supposed to answer questions) didn’t really read my questions before answering, and there was literally no phone number available to get answers on the questions I had, save an official pay service that charged something like $2.00 a minute and was only “fairly sure” of the answers they gave me but insisted that I don't accept their word as being 100% correct. Applying for a VISA took about a week of my free time, about $600 (the application fee), and a full day to get through my “scheduled vitals appointment” where I had to sit in line for hours waiting for my number to be called. The ultimate result of my effort was a rejection because the person looking at my application saw that I used two addresses (a mailing and physical address), and thought it was suspicious. The annoying thing here was that they didn't ask any questions, just denied me, and I had no option to refute the decision… This outcome ultimately reduced my time in England from ten months to six.

The cake of a true patriot (we ran out of stripes)

It took until the day before we were planning to leave before I packed, largely because I use much of the things I’d be taking with me. The fact that we were leaving for England still hadn’t really hit me until well after we follow the traditional departure rituals of stepping on another’s feet, standing in the doorframe for a moment of silence, and driving north to the Villages, one of the largest elderly communities in the world.

We stayed at the Villages with Kaitlin’s grandparents for a day, as we had things to drop off and we were hoping to see them one more time before leaving the country. We ate, we chatted, we watched Golden Girls, Wheel of Fortune, Ellen, and got a full tour of the Villages before it was 3pm the following afternoon. As we stood at the bus stop, located next to a pretty awesome looking water lock, it started storming. We said our goodbyes and boarded the bus for an hour and a half journey. It finally felt like we were leaving for England.

We breezed through security (I expected a lot more hassle with my accordion backpack and nearly expired passport), waited awhile, and finally got on Aer Lingus to Dublin, our stop on the way to London. The flight was a lot more enjoyable than I’d expected. Food was given out, there were in-flight movies (we tried watching Cleopatra but gave up exactly 2.5 hours into the 4 hour film), and it was fairly roomy but it still didn’t compare to Korean Air… Nothing will. I worked on music until my laptop died and the following morning we woke to see the mist roll across the terrain of Ireland below us. The beauty we saw cannot be described in words by me. We were literally moved to tears just looking at it.

The Dublin airport was much like any other airport, except that there were signs telling Irish citizens to encourage their friends to promote international work/trade with Ireland, which I found kind of different when compared to the equivalent ads in America that would be anti-terrorism or fast food inspired. Our terminal changed no less than 4 times in the hour we were in Dublin without any warning whatsoever but we eventually found ourselves on the right flight to London. An hour later we arrived.

The last time we arrived in London Heathrow Airport it was vastly unpleasant but for some reason this trip through was not such. We got to avoid many of the queues from the previous journey (probably because it was not a holiday season, partly because we flew in from Dublin) and were picked up shortly by Kaitlin’s parents, who drove us back to Camberley. Once again the traffic signs, lights, and traffic driving on the other side of the road disoriented me, but I was able to stay awake for the rest of the day this time around. We had tea, chatted, opened up a bank account at Gringotts-er… Barkclays and prepared for our journey to Oxford. Did I mention that Oxford is where they filmed many of the Hogwarts parts of the Harry Potter films?

Quidditch anyone?

The next morning we departed for Oxford! It was a shorter drive than expected and the weather remained pleasant. I was told the following week that it was the driest September England has seen in 50 years! It was also fairly warm, averaging around 25 degrees C. My first impressions of Oxford were of its ancient buildings, its bustling foot traffic, and its lack of parking. It was almost exactly how I’d imagined Diagon Alley (no, really… There are candy shops, broomsticks, and Harry Potter merch in some of the store windows because its apparently visited by Harry Potter enthusiasts with regularity). We checked in with the property manager, found a parking spot (a feat in itself), and loaded the first round of boxes into our new flat. Just to clarify, it’s not that we had a lot of stuff, it’s more that we had a fairly small car (by American standards) to transport it all. After we got the basic tour of the flat we decided to go for a walk around the city of Oxford itself to accomplish a few tasks and also acquaint ourselves with the surrounding area.

A very interesting boat goes through the lock system

We passed a boat lock system, the historic Thames River, and dozens of long boats that seem optimal for river travel, all of which seem to have been greatly customized by their owners in terms of paint despite the fact that all boats seem to be the same identical shape. We passed a bunch of graffiti by some hooligans named “zuz” and “realm”, which was later scrubbed away by a community organized cleaning brigade about a month later. We passed a mix of ancient buildings, new ones, and quaint cottages. We ate lunch at a pub that J.R.R. Tolkien frequented, which is said to be the oldest in Oxford. We saw castle-like structures, old churches, the place where Harry Potter got quiddich lessons, the great New College Hall (also from the Harry Potter films), archways, and multi-century old pubs. It was exactly how I’d envisioned England to be.

First impressions of Oxford

Walking through crowds took a few days to get used to. Since driving in the UK is on the other side of the road, most of the people have a natural tendency to ‘keep left’ whereas in the US people have a natural tendency to ‘keep right’… However, even after mastering the art of keeping left we soon learned that Oxford has so many tourists from around the world that utterly disregard this tendency, throwing off the entire process of not bumping into people while walking. You more or less have to read the body language of the person you're walking past very carefully, which can be difficult as most tourists are not looking where they’re going in the first place.

Similarly to the Blair Witch, a shadowy knitting society has left mysterious markers around the city of Oxford

It was evening before we knew it and we departed for Camberley. We spent a day there, got some work accomplished, packed more, and returned to Oxford the following day. We found the same parking space by some miracle, loaded in the second (and final) set of boxes, unpacked, bought the basic necessities, and walked to dinner, a nice pub I can’t quite remember the name of. Then, just like that Kaitlin’s parents departed and we were living on our own in England.

The most visually impressive graffiti in Oxford...
Thankfully removed recently.

We walked to town the following morning (Sunday) to check out the Ashmolean Museum’s King Tut display, which was impressive. That took up most of our morning, and we also said hi to a manikin wearing Lawrence of Arabia's clothing. We walked around Oxford a bit more, bought a few more key items (a microphone stand, more pillows, a UK 3DS charger) and got a cup of tea at a local coffee shop. Despite the fact that we speak English in both countries, I quickly discovered that words have different meanings in England. When I bumped into people I said “pardon”, which I later discovered (after using the phrase for half a day) implies that you’ve farted. This was figured out after a nearby woman broke up into laughter. Other English words for things like q-tips, coupons, trucks, and various produce items were less embarrassing to learn, but made communication slightly more difficult. As with Belize, many words like ‘jailer’ are also spelled in a way utterly unlike their American counterparts. It’s taking time but I’m slowly catching on.

A nature trail just past the train station

Since Sunday I’ve begun life in Oxford, which in itself really doesn’t warrant much to blog about. Little nuances like checking the voltage and amperage on everything before plugging it into a power converter, or remembering to switch off the plugs after use, the fact that the water pressure in the shower here could skin a cat, and that the hot water (if applied past the first setting) could probably liquefy pewter. We try to go for a walk just about every day in the morning, before the US is awake. It's peaceful, and I still feel like i'm accomplishing much the business world I interact with is even awake (though some of my friends still haven't gone to sleep). We walk through town, through the nearby open fields and harbors, through the nature trails just outside of town, through a land very much steeped in legend and history, at least to me. This is my home now, on an off for 6 months out of the next year, and I’m very much excited at the prospect of this lifestyle.

Travel Journal: Southern England, 2013

England: Expansive countryside and small towns steeped in history
(View overlooking Avbury)

Sunday, 12/15/13

The beginning of my journey to England felt more like a surprise than countless less-important events I’ve spent hours planning for. Working hard from 8-5 daily, pulled thinly across dozens of small projects from 5pm-11 or later, I hardly noticed as the trip I’d known about for months and dreamed about for years was happening! I half-heartedly packed the night before, finished packing the day of, and was suddenly at the airport with my girlfriend Kaitlin, and her brothers Avery and Keegan at 1pm. In a flash we were in Atlanta, purchasing extremely expensive food ($9 burrito?!), exchanging dollars for pounds (the currency), and getting on the plane for London by around 4:30pm.

The flight was uncomfortable and memorable for all the wrong reasons. We tried to sleep during the flight but general discomfort prevented me from getting more than a few minutes in. I watched Despicable Me 2 (Thanks for the recommendation Sergey!), RIPD (basically MIB 4), and Kick Ass 2 in sync with Kaitlin for most of the 8 hour flight, until at last I thought sheer exhaustion would help me sleep… But the moment I fell asleep someone who will remain nameless woke me up to inform me that I needed to buckle up while the flight was in motion. I was not surprised to see Keegan, Kaitlin, and Avery also having an equally difficult time falling asleep as the people in front of them decided to lean back just enough to be a nuisance. There were small amenities on the flight, like two meals, but flying with Korean Air has spoiled me.

When we landed and got off the airplane in London (now 6:15am on Monday) the hallways we walked through immediately reminded me of an ethnically diverse Death Star corridor. Basically picture women in burkas, Indian men, and the occasional Caucasian British family trudging silently through long windowless white hallways complete with warnings of “CCTV” (the government actually monitors the daily activities of England through 100,000’s of cameras!), posters of people with fancy titles welcoming us to London (like the "Beefeater”), and giant circular discs overhead that dampened sound. It took us about an hour to get through the checkpoints and by 7:30 we were with Keegan, Kaitlin, and Avery’s father in the parking lot, heading towards our home for the next two weeks, somewhere south of London. It only took me moments to catch my first glimpse of the local wildlife.

The elusive London Pigeon

As the sun lazily rose higher and higher, the sleep deprivation started to leave us; I was able to form complete sentences again and make observations on our environment. The first bit, the really disorienting part, was the fact that we were driving on the opposite side of the road than I’m used to. Other changes I did not expect to see were the plethora  of lights at each intersection indicating which lanes can operate, the number of roundabouts, the fact that lights turn red to yellow to green to let you know you’re about to move, the smaller size of the cars and trucks in England compared to the US, the fact that gas is measured in pounds per liter (as opposed to dollars per gallon), that red phone booths still exist, that the red post office boxes featured in Mr. Bean exist, that police boxes still exist, that restrooms are called toilets, light switches face the opposite direction to indicate being on and off, there are switches to turn power outlets on and off, and the spelling on just about everything is a letter or two different than how it’d be in the states. The buildings we passed were a fair mix of very modern, 20-50 years old, or incredibly old by American standards (150+yrs). There were also lots of random patches of forest and grazing land for sheep or horses that are dominant throughout the areas of the country we visited throughout our journey.

First impressions of England

When we arrived in Camberley roughly an hour later, checked in, and took naps for a few hours. It took me about 20 minutes after the nap to regain control over my cognitive functions again, and we decided to go for a walk in the woods nearby. It was beautiful but very cold. I think it was around 1 or 2pm but the sun was far obscured behind the clouds and not offering much more light than a stormy day in Florida. I quickly learned over the next few days that the sun in England never gets very high in the sky, or very bright, and it sets by about 3:30pm in December, giving the constant illusion of the hours before sunset, or a perpetually rainy day. Still, it was a very beautiful walk through a forest of brightly colored leaves. We passed a few statues, cannons of historical significance, the royal academy, and returned in under an hour for some tea.

Walk in the woods near Camberley

The rest of the evening was relaxed. We walked into town, walked around town, and had dinner with a drink at a pub called The Carpenter’s Arms. The downtown areas we walked through (and subsequent mall) were really pleasant because of the prominence of unique shops, as opposed to corporate chains. That made a lot of the downtown area I'd normally have avoided worth walking through. For instance, they had a gaming store that was selling the new God of War for 4 pounds! For someone who’s grown accustomed to their “local branch” of Gamestop (generally identical to every other branch) this is kind of a weird that they’d sell a used AAA title for anything less than $20-$50, despite being used. Heck, a used copy of the new Batman game was 20 pounds (easily $40-$50 at Gamestop)!  I felt like I was actually getting a good deal here… Good prices weren't limited to video games though as the clothing stores offered 5 pound belts. The rest of the evening was spent walking by one-off restaurants and other specialty stores like the “Holiday Card” store we passed! We went to sleep early that night because we had big plans for the following day.

Both pictures above taken within a mile of each other

The next day we woke up early to drive to Avbury and Silbury Hill. It took us two or so hours of driving through the beautiful English countryside (which actually looks nothing like southern California, despite what Austin Powers would have you believe) to reach our first stop, a pub called “Who’d A Thought It” in Wadworth. The pub was bought by a couple a few years ago and in addition to friendly service their food was phenomenal. They were generous in food portions, vegan-friendly when asked, and had an active fireplace in the room that kept us warm! I’ve never had pomegranate seeds added to a SIDE before, and really I can’t stress how good everything tasted, even the chips (what we call French Fries in the US)!

The Who'd a Thought It,
Great food! Great times!

Silbury Hill

Awhile later we visited the mole-hills and sheep that guard Silbury Hill. Silbury Hill, which many dismiss as simply a giant mound of dirt, was the largest man-made structure in all of Europe until the Industrial Revolution, which is really interesting when you learn that it was made well before the Bronze Age! It took over 2 million man-hours to make and was constructed in about 2 years. Think about that for a moment. Some people who predate the inventions of the shovel and bucket made a 25 acre wide mountain!  No one really knows the reasons behind why they made it but a number of hippies and new-age folk believe it has something to do with aliens. I’d personally like to believe, due to its close proximity of other burial mounds, that it has something to do with a deceased leader who was so amazing that they built it in his or her honor… But to date they’re never really found anything under Silbury Hill except the remains of other people (and a horse) that were buried there long after it was built.

Stones at Avbury...

Are kind of close to the road in places

The stones were brought here from hundreds of miles away...
without the invention of the wheel!

The Avbury Stone Circles are historically similar to Silbury Hill in that they are massive feats of the pre-bronze age man. Hundreds of giant boulders, each about 10’ in height, were dragged miles away from their origin to be arranged into a series of circles at Avbury. There’s also a giant 20’+ deep by ~1 mile diameter, man-made ditch that surrounds the site, which was made before the boulders were brought there. Many of the boulders were destroyed by the Romans to end pagan rituals (through a process of heating them up and pouring cold water on them, causing them to shatter), but it’s been restored within the last 150 years to have dragon’s teeth-like stones added to mark where the stones that were destroyed would have been. Again, many attribute the man-made work to aliens, or druids, but after looking through extensive research on the topic it seems highly unlikely and unnecessary to involve the interstellar in its construction, or a people who lived long after it was built. When we arrived I was surprised to find that the small town that was built around/within the stone circles hundreds of years ago still existed as residentially populated structures. More surprisingly still was the close proximity to well-used roads that are literally mere feet from the stones! Though passing incredibly characterful trees and giant boulders arranged in ritualistic circles was exciting in person, there’s really not much more for me to describe beyond their historical significance. There was a church, a graveyard, a gift shop (where I made my first purchase in England and learned that Pounds are not PP), and the Avbury Mansion, with each room recently modified to resemble how it would have looked over the course of its many owners. I’d have more on that topic but the sun had already set by the time we reached the mansion and it was closed.

The church at Avbury... Located just past the gift shop

After visiting both sites we went back home for dinner and watched an enjoyable movie on Netflix. The following day, for me, was a brief tour of Reading University, followed by dinner and catching up on work I’d fallen behind on.

Big Ben
Best use of my camera's Panoramic feature

The next day we woke up early and were prepared to depart for depart for London by 8:30am. We were slow leaving the house because someone forgot to shower (important on an hour-long train ride), and wound up taking the 9:30 train to London-Waterloo. We arrived at the Waterloo Station a bit before 11am, passed the Nelson Mandela statue (with hundreds of fresh flowers as he’d just died), and were suddenly overlooking one of the most breathtaking views I’ve ever seen, the London sky rise. We saw the Thames River, Big Ben, Parliament, statues of generals I’d learned about through Badassoftheweek.com, the Boudica statue, the London Dungeon (which we sadly didn’t have time to stop at), some huge churches, some very old buildings, countless pubs, China Town, the National Gallery, a giant blue rooster statue, the Cavalry Museum (guarded by the unmoving men in metal hats), and countless other things that are each worth of their own paragraph of description but that I simply can’t remember.

Boudica: One of the only people to burn down a city...
and have a statue of her likeness erected in that same city

Church with a Statue of George V

Parliament is MASSIVE

Lots of huge churches with detailed architecture

A Harry Potter-esque mark I discovered on a historical monument

Lion statues and a Giant Blue Rooster

The National Gallery

The Sherlock Holmes Pub

We stopped for lunch at the “West End's best known pub” Norman’s Coach and Horses, which had really great vegan/vegetarian food, and then went to the market. We saw the Apple store (which was built inside the shell of a much older building), and the various stalls that made up the marketplace. It was decorated for Christmas and an energetic 6 piece string band was performing stellar renditions of Mozart & the theme from Laurence of Arabia. Kaitlin, Keegan, and I backtracked to the National Gallery (which encourages donations but offers free admission), browsed the first floor, and caught up with everyone else. I don’t have much to comment on about the National Gallery, beyond that it was a beautiful building with many pieces of art I’d purchased in the game Assassin’s Creed 2 that I could recognize. We were planning to stop at the Sherlock Holmes Pub but it was at standing room only, so we instead opted to check out the stalls set up along the Thames River for Christmas and get ourselves German beer, hot dogs, and roasted chestnuts. We also picked up a few Rackham lithographs from a book salesman before heading back by train. It was long dark by this time, 5pm, and it felt like it was much later than it actually was.

The Christmas Village (picture taken earlier in the day)

When we returned home we watched some British TV (which is either really good, or really really bad depending on the show. There’s no middle ground here.), beat the game Papers, Please, and fell asleep pretty quickly. The next day was spent indoors catching up on work, finishing various projects, and briefly shopping in Camberley. This was the day I learned that no one in England accepts credit cards without an RFID chip. The day concluded with some Fallout (the original) and Munchkin, while eating German chocolates and homemade bread.

Downtown Reading

The following day we left by about noon-thirty and took a train to Reading to catch a football (soccer) game, Reading vs Wingham. It was a fairly cold and rainy day but the town of Reading was charming and did a good job of distracting us from how cold we were. We took a red double-decker bus and arrived at the stadium by about 2pm, an hour before the game. We hit up the “official gift shop”, the food court (which wasn’t too expensive), and found our seats (in the second row!). We watched the teams warm up while lazily nursing hot chocolate and tea, eating pizza and hot dogs, and by the time the game started it was still raining lightly like it had been for most of the day.

My first Football Match!

It was incredibly enjoyable to watch a professional football game. I could see during the practice how much control the players seemed to have over the ball in fair conditions, and as the weather worsened and rain fell in a sort of spiral pattern due to strong winds (hitting players and spectators from three or four directions at once), even these talented individuals had a difficult time directing the ball once it left the ground. I seem to enjoy soccer/football because it’s a continuous game, one that I personally enjoy playing, and because the rules are easy to follow. I also really enjoyed how energetic the crowd was with their chanting, yelling, booing, loud cursing, and general enthusiasm.

The weather turned on us...

Wingham won the game, and we quickly shuffled through the busy streets back to the bus. It was cold, windy, and raining. We spent a few more hours in the Reading downtown area picking up last minute Christmas gifts, exploring the mall, and trying to find a place to eat. We were declined admission to a pub because one of the large men outside insisted that “no Reading fans” would be admitted to pub that night (he’d seen an Official Reading scarf one of us had bought), and everywhere we walked seemed to be closing or unfairly expensive, like the 5 pound Five Guys Burgers and Fries burgers. While making purchases at the mall I almost avoided making a fool of myself with English coins, a talent I’d acquired the moment I had two coins that were the same color but of different value. We finally got burritos and took the train back home to play more Munchkin until the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, 12/22/13

The next day was another work day for the most part, despite being a Sunday. I learned that purchasing goods before 10:30am on a Sunday is illegal in at least some parts of England, particularly where we were. We caught tea with old family friends in the early afternoon and went for a walk on a public footpath, the walk my host family used to take to get to school when they’d lived in England. It wound through some woods, a rugby field, and also bordered a few back yards. We passed some berries that one of us verified were poisonous, some mushrooms, and the old school, which everyone insisted had been bigger in years past. I took a moment to introspectively wonder when walking half a mile to school started to seem unsafe, or when parents started to fear letting their kids walk distances through woods like that on their own. Probably somewhere in the late 90’s… I spent awhile longer pondering how the first humans had to manually test which berries were poisonous and which were not and how much fun that probably wasn't... We spent the evening working, playing games, and watching a silly action film that wasn’t intended to be silly, Olympus Has Fallen.

The Royal Academy

The following day we walked to the movie theater and saw the Desolation of Smaug, which was very enjoyable. I learned that English movie theaters have assigned seating, which was interesting, and that they have more commercials than American theaters, which I didn’t think was possible. Their movie theater also offered free Wi-Fi, which seemed odd to me.
We had dinner at home and enjoyed Christmas Eve day, Christmas, and Boxing Day at the house. We took a few walks through the woods and trails nearby during those days and got a lot accomplished. I also beat Fallout while Keegan beat The Last of Us. The weather wasn’t particularly good outside most of the time and strong winds upwards of 80 or 90mph knocked out power for much of southern England (not us though), and caused destruction we would see the effects of for the following few days. In the back yard of the house an old apple tree had toppled from strong winds on Boxing Day eve. I was very amused to see that the British weathermen didn’t seem to care all that much and dismissed what Florida would be in terror of with the dismissive comment “it’ll be rainy with winds of up to 90 miles an hour. Probably a good day to stay indoors if you can help it.”

The road to Stonehenge...

Was very cold and windy...

But certainly worth the journey!

After Boxing Day we took a trip to Stonehenge. Apparently located next to a highway (which always has a traffic jam due to people slowing down to take pictures), even on a cold windy day it took us awhile to traverse the traffic and get to the tourist center. The museum they have on site is really phenomenal, offering insight into Stonehenge’s construction, use, significance, and into the lives of the people who built it. It also explains how various misconceptions came into being, starting with the false belief that Romans built it, later delving into another false belief that Druids built it, and explaining how modern cults suddenly renamed themselves to be “druids” after druids were again given credit to its construction so they’d be allowed to hold ceremonies there (involving fake beards apparently). It’s a pretty interesting story. They also dispelled the myth that Stonehenge was perfectly aligned with the stars or setting sun, because at some point in history a “historian” manipulated his data to try to make this claim. Because the line for the buses to Stonehenge (located about a mile from the tourist center) was long, we opted to walk to Stonehenge, trekking through the beautiful countryside of England. Notably we saw sheep, crows, other birds, and ancient stone markers indicating how far London was.

My best photo of Stonehenge...
I want to use this as album art or something.

Stonehenge itself was phenomenal. Again, a huge site created from massive stones before the invention of the crane or trebuchet, constructed using a rope system and series of niches carved into the rocks. Braving winds almost powerful enough to knock us over as we walked around Stonehenge, taking dozens of pictures, and dodging the photos of other tourists. You can’t get within Stonehenge anymore (without reservation, after hours) but we were able to see it pretty well from the distance we were at. Avery was constantly asked to take photos of people, using their cameras, seemingly because he looked respectable in his Army jacket. It was so windy that we watched a bird give up on flying to walk to its destination because s/he couldn’t fly against the wind. 

The view overlooking Salisbury 

Old Sarum

After Stonehenge, we went to see Old Sarum, an Iron Age hill fort. Old Sarum still has a few walls intact, and it’s clearly visible where the old church used to stand, but what I found most enjoyable about the site (as the sun began to set at around 3pm) was the sunset view overlooking Salisbury. Walking the footpaths located next to a steep hill was the one of the best views I've seen. I think this was one of my favorite moments of the entire trip to England, in part due to the visual effects the setting sun had, but as cold as it was I’m not sure we could have remained on the site much longer than we did. I should mention here that almost everyone at the site seemed to have a dog or two. We also noticed that the bathrooms at old Sarum are built into the ground like hobbit holes with multi-colored glass ceilings. 

The London Skyline and the Thames River

The following day Kaitlin and I decided that we wanted to go back to London. We planned our journey using the train timetables and Google Maps, and departed to catch the 8:18am train to Ascot. From Ascot, at 8:40am, we departed to Waterloo and arrived in London by 9:30am, passing a gigantic building boasting the logo of the sister company to the one I work for. Spiffy. We walked across the Waterloo bridge towards our destination and passed a number of unique shops, including a bookstore that boasted an antiquities section (books over 100 years old). The most interesting book there, an journal outlining an expedition to one of the remote corners of the Earth featured in a Lovecraft novel, was also the most expensive and I couldn’t afford it. Later, we tried to get a picture next to a phone booth, but a number of pornographic stickers placed on the insides of all of them prevented us from doing so. We also passed an “obscure” book shop across from the British Museum, then opted to check out the impressive looking British Museum, which was also free to the public (though donations of 5 pounds are encouraged).

The British Museum is phenomenal

The British Museum is massive. Each room contains at least one piece I'd travel a great distance to a remote museum to see... I could probably write a series of blog posts just about the things I saw there, but instead I’ll just post pictures with an explanation of why certain things are significant. If you ever go there, I recommend eating before you get to the museum, bringing more food, bringing water, and never having to go to the bathroom ever, because the lines are huge and things are a bit pricey. I think my favorite parts of the museum were the Greek buildings they reconstructed, the Mesopotamian tablets and structures, and the Egyptian sections. I also greatly enjoyed seeing reconstructions of the Korean Traditional building, which resembled the Traditional Korea House I’d visitedduring the summer, and being able to say “I’ve been there!” That's actually something I didn't expect, that one of the most comical things for me while going through the British Museum was being able to recognize many historical pieces that belonged to sites I’ve visited over the years THAT WEREN'T AT THE SITES THEY WERE FOUND AT WHICH I WAS VISITING! For instance, when I was in Egypt they told us that an obelisk, some mummies, and some statues were at the British Museum, and when I was in Greece and Italy they told me that many statues I wanted to see were at the British Museum. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing them...  I suppose it was a very real reminder that England was a world-conquering empire throughout history. The best indication of this was a book in a gift shop I saw titled Countries We’ve Conquered.

The Crystal Skull!

An Easter Island Statue!

I childishly laughed when I read this and looked up to see...

Something that didn't meet my childish expectations... 

"Dragon Discovers Wasabi"
My title is fake but it's hundred year old china from China.

Emaciated Buddha... It not as happy as well-fed Buddha

Chapter 100 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead!

Mummies!

A depiction of Ramses II winning a battle I'm pretty sure he historically lost...
Ramses II: Master of Propaganda!

In a 30' room, there are wall to wall depictions
of King Sargon hunting lions

Clay Tablets of things like Gilgamesh's Flood Story, a list of Synonyms,
Treaties, the Meaning of certain Names, etc. 

A "World Map"

Better Picture of the above "World Map"

An early instrument

Another Instrument found in a room with a bunch of
dead people who were probably murdered...

A colorful pillar that in theory matched a temple

This clearly inspired a level in God of War II

A Citole
The most beautiful instrument I've ever seen

A ceremonial shield

The Cyrus Scroll...
Largely important because Cyrus The Great was pretty awesome

A Map of the Palace of Minos.
The place the Minotaur was supposed to be beneath! 

After the British Museum we stopped for Indian food, took the half-hour walk back to the other side of the Thames, passed a Mr. Bean impersonator, and got in line for the London Dungeon. For those who have never heard of the London Dungeon, located next to the London Eye (a giant Ferris wheel constructed for the year 2000 special event, that the loved so much, they kept running), is kind of like Halloween Horror Nights, or Hallowscream, or any other haunted house event but better. It’s one part ride, one part play, historically accurate, and very educational. There are actors who guide you through jumps, scares, mazes, boat rides, rats, odd smells, and a bunch of other things I don’t want to spoil for you.  It’s not for the weak of heart or small children, but it’s a lot of fun and well put together. Even the restrooms offer amusement, as the urinals in the men’s room all have bloody guillotines in front of them. My only possible complaint would be the lines to get into the lines to get into the lines to get into the London Dungeon. Still, it was an hour long series of lines in exchange for a good 90 minutes of non-stop fun, and when compared to the hour-long waits at Disney or Universal for a mere 3 minute ride I really can’t complain that much.

We got in line for the Dungeon as the sun was setting, at about 3:00pm, and left at about 5:30pm, just in time to catch the 5:50pm train to Ascot, and the subsequent train to Camberley. We watched some more British TV, ate dinner at home, and checked out how many 3DS Street Passed we’d acquired. It was a good day.

Sunday, 12/29/13

Saville Garden

We spent part of the next day with friends, walking through the nearby Botanical Gardens, polo fields, and public footpaths. It was muddy, windy, cold, but very pleasant. It was a true experience of the fall/winter season that doesn’t exist in Florida. Kaitlin and I were still pretty tired from all the standing and walking from the day before but still found the walk enjoyable. Getting to and from the gardens was a bit of a hassle because the roads leading there were effectively one and a half lane wide, with people parked on the side of the road at various points. After the day’s walk we were pretty hungry and went through three taverns in search of food, all of which either didn’t serve food or only served food earlier in the day. The final tavern we ate at, a chain pub, had okay food and a very uninformed/rude wait staff. The quote of the evening was something like “Yeah, the mac and cheese is vegan.” We got back early, worked more, and woke up the next morning in time for the 10am Monday siren.

The 10am Monday siren is sort of like an air-raid siren, but softer, and belongs to the local mad-house to inform the inmates that it’s time to get inside. If that’s not creepy enough the siren is almost melodic, just quiet enough for you to question if you’ve really heard it to begin with, and muted by the strong rain and winds. This weekly event is to creepy for me to make up and is a real thing in Camberley. We stayed indoors for the day, did more work, and prepared for the journey home on New Year’s Eve. The trip home was uneventful, so I’ll simply say it was mediocre, filled with crying babies and more in-flight movies.

Old Sarum

My first trip to England was everything I’d hoped it would be and more.  It was quite surprising at times, too. For instance, I’ve heard that people in England are not the most friendly and was happy to see that it's not true. I also didn’t expect us to pass as many manors, castles, and giant green fields as we did while driving, or for the sun to be as absent as it was. England was full of pleasant surprises like the Who’d A Thought It pub, the London Eye, Old Sarum, the Avbury Stone Circles, or the experience of a Reading football game. If I lived closer I'd try to be a regular and maybe even a legit sports fan for the team. We only really got to see the south side of England and I feel that there’s much more to be explored! I will certainly go back to England to explore more of its wonders, and will remember this trip for the rest of my life.