Kickin' it in the Kingdom

Foggy ole London town!

View overlooking Trafalgar square.

London, the city of reunions.

I see in my future...a naked Grouch.

The Grouch. SO much worse in person.

A meal INSIDE a yorkshire pudding! Brilliant!

Our B$G Firm already has an astounding collection of ASBO's.

Windy ole Brighton town.

Pint of shamrock engraved Guiness.

I must apologize for the lack of blog updates. England, as most know is ridiculously expensive and internet cafes are few and far between. I believe I left off in Germany so I shall continue my tale from there.

I had two final days in Berlin, spent much like the rest of my time there, walking around, listening to music and checking out the history side of things. Following that I jumped on a quick flight over to Jolly ole foggy London town.

Within an hour of arriving I was greeted by Mister Michael Lee, a travel partner from years ago (yet somehow I'm still on the same trip...) in the faraway lands of Central America. After a joyous reunion, we hopped on the Tube and made our way to the first pub we could find to catch up on the going ons since 2005. I spent the next two nights at Mike's parent's place (stereotypically located on Robin Hood Lane in southwest London). My one full day at their Coronation Street look-a-like house, was in the company of Mike's dad Eric, a retired British naval officer, who during our morning/afternoon together, brought me up to date on his hilarious opinions regarding Canada, Britain, Vancouver, Quebec, America, Rugby, Football, Hockey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Naval Ships, Royalty, Scots, Irish, Bush, Blair, Cats, Dogs, Computers, Celebrities, Meat Pies, Bangers & Mash and Mike. That night was spent with Mike and several of his 'mates', as we wandered through the Fulham district of London getting into trouble.

The next morning saw the arrival of Randy and Steve, two buddies from back home. Thanks to an unexpected headache, I wasn't as lively as I should have been, but once the first few pints were down this soon changed. After walking around a bit, we again hit the London nightlife, this time in the Soho district and with a new set of Mike's friends. After being denied access to a few places, closing down a few more places, we ended up at a nice club which had an astounding 10 pound cover charge (actually quite normal here, but still damn expensive). I thought something was wrong after buying my drinks and wondering why the two guys next to me couldn't take their hands off one another and I knew something was wrong when the male dancer came out and performed a nearly naked lapdance on a pole in front of us. On the principle of paying 10 quid to get in, we refused to leave the place, enjoying the rest of the night while getting steamy glances from our fellow club goers and at one point interrupting two who seemed to be having some kind of 'fight' in one of the bathroom stalls. Its probably better that alcohol has blurred my memories of this one.

The next day was spent doing some sightseeing, then another night out on the town with Steve's buddy from back home. After both of these nights, we would return to our hostel on the outskirts of central London to the awful personality known as the Grouch. For whatever reasons, this 60 year old was staying in a dingy hostel dorm room, chose to sleep naked and would periodically blurt out lines through the night as he slept in what must have been some kind of continuous, horrible nightmare. Although funny at first, the whiskey slurred yells of BAH and JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY were an awful remind of the naked, Scottish entity sleeping beside me.

We headed south out of London to the city of Brighton, which is situated right on the ocean and is probably the windiest place I've ever been. Not much to report from this place, other than it was sort of an English version of White Rock. Most of our time was spent leaning into the wind, eating at the pubs or simply enjoying our unusually pleasant hostel.

From there, the three of us returned to London, where Randy and I threw on some Beatles and jumped on a bus headed north to Liverpool (Steve went much farther south to Paris and will reunite with us next week). Liverpool isn't exactly the prettiest city, but it seems to make up for it in general fun. The bar district is among England's most famous and has helped continue our pub to pub tour of England. This morning we did a tour through the Beatles museum and are now awaiting to board our bus for Manchester.

Although not what one would expect really in a trip to England, probably my favourite part of the country has been the food. The pub atmosphere has created this perfect combination of pints of ale, mixed with Yorkshire puddings, sausages, roast beast and meat pies. We do find the constant surveillance of its citizens a little odd, but for the most part, aside from the brutalness of the Pound on my bank account, it's a great country.