London, Day 3

My friend Richard, who I met while traveling in Argentina in January, took the train from York to visit me in London on Saturday! It was so great to see him again, we had a blast together in Buenos Aires and a day in London with him more than exceeded my expectations. We took the Tube to Picadilly Center to find a pub to watch the day's football match in. Chelsea was playing Manchester, and I was informed more than once that the game was the equivalent of our Super Bowl. Tickets were going to 2,000 pounds on Ebay...that's almost $4,000! We settled on the pub Moon Under the Water, and were promptly accosted by three English men who were having a debate on who had the nicer shirt. One thing led to another and we ended up watching the entire game with them. The guys were hilarious! Raucous, raunchy, un-PC, and pissed (very drunk for all you non-Brits out there).

Richard and I:

I got to see some of the finest drinkers in the UK in action. Pint after pint was poured, I lost track but I know that each one had upwards of 15 pints! I knew I couldn't keep up, so I just took sips of Richard's pint(s) every once in a while. The guys had been drinking since noon, so after the game we decided to go to Chinatown to get some cheap-but-delicious grub. The meal was served with these delicious-but-strange looking....crackers:


After dinner, there was no talking of taking it easy or relaxing.....the boozing had to go on! We headed to Soho...the so -called "gay district" of London. We stopped in a couple of pubs there. The thing about our new friends was they had no problem talking to anyone! One of them sat down at a table with three gay gentlemen and started telling them raunchy jokes. Luckily, they found him hilarious:


Our pub crawl continued when someone mentioned an Irish pub somewhere nearby that had a tree growing in it! Because we have one of the same in Madison, I demanded to see it. Just like the one in Madison, the original tree had to be cut out and replaced with a replica due to safety issues, but I still gave it some love:


We also managed to end up in a pub that The Streets, a fantastic British band, often drinks in. They even mention it in their lyrics!


It was so fun to experience London from a non-touristy point of view. It was so great to see Richard again, even if it was only for a day, and meeting Tom, Tommy, and Callum will probably be one of the best memories from my trip!


And, as a public service announcement, drinking can cloud your judgement and make you less inhibited. This could lead to bad decisions, such as embarrassing tattoos:


Always know your limits!