A day at the market

This past weekend was the first in over a month that I have actually been in London and I have to say it was glorious. On Friday, I with two of my friends ventured off to Borough Market. The best way to describe Borough is an open air, huge Whole Foods, which means it is awesome! Once in the market everywhere you look is row after row of delicious food. And what makes matters better is that nearly every stand offers free samples. Now I must admit I have always been a little hesitant about taking free samples when I know I am not going to buy anything, thankfully my friend Kelly who I went to the market with has no such qualms. What this meant for me was that I could mooch off her bold nature and become stuffed off free food.

Following our trip to Borough Market on Friday afternoon, Andrew and I decided why not have a weekend full of markets. So off Andrew, Sean and I went Saturday morning to Portobello Road Market. We arrived at the market not entirely sure what to expect, but all we knew was that if Portobello was half as good as Borough then we would have a great time. But as we began roaming around Portobello we became a little weary if this market was all it was hyped up to be. We simply saw rows and rows of crap. It appeared to be one big garage sale. But then we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and reached the food section of the market. This part made wading through loads of junk well worth it because we got some genuine, delicious burritos. After the food section was the antique and clothing parts of the market. Now I am not normally one to enjoy antiques and shopping for clothes but this part of the markets was quite enjoyable, mainly because Andrew and I were able to find some pretty cool vintage band t-shirts.

Once we reached the flats Saturday afternoon after a great day at Portobello, we decided why not try out another one of London's great markets on Sunday. So on Sunday morning we ventured off to Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane, and accidentally to Spitalfield Market. Brick Lane was excellent. It was a mix of Borough and Portobello. We were able to find some excellent food for lunch and the girls we went with had a great time looking at all the cheap dresses. Petticoat Lane was very anti-climatic. It was literally a street full of crappy clothing. So a little bummed we decided to roam around and randomly ran into Spitalfield. This was a great treat. Spitafield much like Borough but smaller reminded me of an open air organic food store.

Don't Call me Irish

As I am sure all my readers are aware last Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day. Seeing as I am a student at a university thats mascot is the FIGHTING IRISH, I can assure you that every student in the program was in full celebratory form on the 17th. Now I realize I am studying in England and not Ireland, but come on the countries are separated by one small little channel! In reality more than just a channel separates these two countries. As my friends and I walked to class (a 30 minute walk) decked out in our St. Paddy's day green, we in best spirits said "Happy St. Patrick's Day" to nearly every Brit we walked by. Over the entire walk, I think about 5 people recognized that we existed. I was able to shrug such reactions off by rationalizing that we were in a metropolitan city and maybe people were so excited about getting to work that they unintentionally ignored our remarks. However, after hearing what my professor said upon entering the classroom Wednesday morning, I was no longer able to rationalize that the Brits cared about this glorious holiday. Our professor walks in, takes a look around and says, "Why is everyone wearing green?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! The man only teaches at Notre Dame! After this remark, I quickly realized that professors in London were not going to be as jovial on St. Patty's as professors at ND.

Despite my professor's Scrooge-like remarks, we did not despair and sought out an authentic Irish Pub so that we could celebrate with our fellow Catholics by drinking none other than Irish's best: Guinness.

Spring Break

After spring break I was fully set on sitting down and writing a nice long blog about my adventures. But laziness caught up with my and here I having been back from spring break for over a week and no blog. So in the spirit of compromise I decided I would write a brief synopsis of my experiences in Budapest, Vienna and Prague.

If anyone asks me the queston, "What did you do last week?" I am pretty sure my answer will trump whatever they say. Last week for my spring break I went to Budapest then Vienna and then Prague. Yes, these are three totally random cities, but yes I had a great time. Plus, each of the cities I went to is close enough to one another that it was easy to travel to one another via trains.

Budapest

Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been! The side east of the river Danube is Pest and to the west is the city of Buda. For the cities to be twin cities it is shocking how different they are. Pest is very flat, while just across the river Buda is filled with hills. What is really neat about this is that you can get spectacular views of the city from atop the hills of Buda. The first day there we roamed around and eventually made our way to the castle district of Budapest. Here he some buildings that where hundreds of years old which definitely puts in perspective how old anything you might see in America is. For the rest of our time in Budapest we did the traditional touristy things for instance we went to the famous Matyas Church. What was really cool about this church and many of the other churches in Hungary was their architecture, how it is influenced by both classical Western architecture as well as the East. It makes for some beautiful buildings that you do not get any where else in the world. Another one of the high points of Budapest was St. Stephen's Basilica. St. Stephen is the patron saint of Hungary and was the Catholic King that united the country. During our stay in the country, we made it to St. Stephen's for mass on Sunday and I must say that Hungarian is one crazy language. It sounds nothing like I have ever heard before.

Vienna

After Budapest, we traveled to Vienna, Austria. One cool facet of Vienna was that it like Budapest is separated by the Danube. While Vienna was pretty it did not hold a candle to the beauty of Budapest. In Vienna, one of the coolest things we saw was the Habsburg's Summer Palace. It reminded me alot like Versailles except not quite as opulent.

Prague

While I loved my entire time on spring break, I must say I am no fan of Prague or the Czech Republic for that matter. And after having spent time in the country, I can certainly tell why Slovakia let the Czechs split. They are by far the least friendly people I have ever experienced. Some of my friends joked that the best way to not look like a tourist while there is to never smile. And I have to say that is great advice. Setting aside the negative aspects of the country and city, Prague is a pretty city. It has a castle that sits atop the city and from there you can get some great pictures of the entire city.

I realize this was a super short, sparknote version of my spring break but I knew if I didn't write it tonight I would probably never get around to it so hopefully you enjoy what I wrote. Plus, by saving time writing about spring break I can update yall on my great weekend in London!

...an interesting place

Every time before I travel I have asked friends who have gone there the question, "What should I know about the city?" For each location my friends recommendations and advice has been helpful. Before I went to Amsterdam this weekend, I sent out the normal question to a friend of mine who had been to Amsterdam. His response,"yeah it is... an interesting place." He then reassured me that he had a good time and that there was a ton to do in the city. Well after having spent the weekend in the city, I know exactly what my friend meant. The city has alot of offer from great art museums to history about how the Dutch were once one of the richest nations in the world.

Friday morning we awoke and ventured to Vondelpark. It was cold and misty but little did we know Friday's light mist would be the best weather we experienced the whole weekend. The park was....a park in the rain. Without any famous Dutch tulips in bloom and raining soaking through my peacoat we made our stop here a quick one. After lunch we visited the Rembrandt museum and roamed around. For those who have never been to Amsterdam, I would describe it as a poor man's Venice in that there is water everywhere it is just that the buildings are not nearly as opulent. Nearly every street in Amterdam is off a canal which gives each street the look of a seaside boardwalk.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Heineken Experience. And I have to add this was not the Heineken Brewery, oh no apparently the people at Heineken feel that the tour of the brewery goes above and beyond the ordinary thus it must be deemed an Experience. That aside it was a good tour and was very cost effective. The tour was 15 Euro but for that price you get not only a tour but 3 beers and 3 beers in Amsterdam at most bars would have cost you 15 euro anyways. After drinking all my "free" beers at the tour, I concluded Heineken is the most overrated beer in the world. It is expensive in the states and frankly I'd rather drink a PBR.

After our Experience, we decided to see what other beers the Dutch have to offer at local watering holes and I must say the Dutch do not hold a candle in beer making to either the Brits or Germans.

Sunday was by far our busiest day. We woke up and went to mass at a church named St. Nicholas. The service was nice and after being to masses in France, Germany, England and now the Netherlands I have begun to notice some odd things Europeans do. For one during communion there is no set order as to when to proceed. Whereas in America you simply follow your pew to the altar...nope not here. It is more as a come up when you like communion service. Some other interesting things I've noticed is that none of the churches (minus Notre Dame in Paris for obvious reasons) have been remotely filled and the average attendant is probably pushing 80.

Anyways I digress, after mass we went to the Van Gogh museum and I must say for 15 euro I was substantially unimpressed. Most of Van Gogh's most famous prints are owned by other museums. Before I went to the museum I thought for the most part that I was a fan of Van Gogh. I like starry night and find some of his landscapes fascinating to look at. I always knew he was a little crazy and some of his work was a little odd but didn't think too much of that. Well I was in for a rude awakening. First of all the man was absolutely nuts and aside from that many of his pictures are down right weird.

After Van Gogh, we made our way to the Anne Frank House, the house in which Anne Frank hid and wrote her internationally famous Diary. The house was certainly a sobering experience. Having read her diaries numerous times in school, it was cool to see the rooms she was describing. One of the more somber aspects of the exhibit are where they play clips from her father describing their captivity and Anne after she has died (he was the only family member who survived internment). Once we finished with the Anne Frank House we had enough time for lunch before we had to make our way to the train station and then airport.

Hey...so I'm in Munich

MASCULINITY. If I had to define Germany in one word that's it. They love beer, meat and fast cars. What more could you ask for?

Munich was one of the first trips I planned and the trip was centered around one thing: seeing Dave Matthews Band in Europe. My roommates Andrew, Brian and I all wanted to see Dave this semester so we sat down and found a time and place which fit all of our schedules. Originally, one of Brian's friends from ND studying in Toledo, Spain was going to join us but due to exigent circumstances he had to back out at the last minute. So here we are with an extra ticket to DMB the Thursday before we leave the next day. So at our weekly flat dinner Thursday night, Andrew, Brian and I are discussing the probabilities of being able to sell the ticket in Munich and that's when spontaneity at its finest struck one of our other roommates Sean. Sean gets up quickly checks his computer and then says, "Guys I'm coming to Munich!" Yep it was that simple, we had an extra ticket, Sean wanted to see Dave.

So off we went Friday afternoon to Deutschland. Saturday morning rolls around and we get up and discuss what we want to do before Dave. It didn't take long before the unanimous consensus was let's go to Hofbrauhaus, Munich (and possibly the world's) most famous beer house. Ignore the fact that it was still 10 AM, we didn't want any Wheaties, we wanted a man's breakfast. We wanted an array of delicious German meats, pretzels, potatoes, and of course German beer.

After having our fill of food and beverages, we decided we wanted to continue our manly streak so we headed to the BMW Museum. Now I must say I am more of a Mercedes man myself but BMW is no slouch. The museum was awesome! Around every corner was a car worth more than most people's homes.

After several hours of drooling over cars, we walked around the Munich Olympic Park, now it's no Centennial Olympic Park but it was still quite nice nonetheless.

Now I'll discuss the highlight of the trip: DAVE! We arrived at the venue early and realized that it was general admission, which meant since we got there early we got extremely close to the stage. The concert was as to be expected...EXCELLENT! He played a fair amount of songs from his newest CD Big Whiskey but still did a great job of mixing in some classics. The highlight of the concert was definitely when Dave came out for his second encore and played one of my favorite songs All Along the Watchtower.

Sunday more we made our way to one of Munich's more famous Catholic Churches for mass, St. Peter's. The mass was entirely in German which made for a beautiful experience (sarcasm included, you'll know what I mean if you've ever heard German spoken). After mass we visited the Deutches Museum which is Germany's science and technology. I would liken it to the Smithsonian except for while the Smithsonian has an entire museum for Airplanes and etc. The Deutches Museum conmbines all these fields in one big museum. After seeing some cool planes and what not we made our way to another German beer house for our last meal and then we were off to the airport and back to London.

Drink and Ye Shall be Rewarded

Unless you live under a rock, you know what a pub crawl is. Until this past weekend, I always figured that the pub crawls of London were a way to see several of the city's finer watering holes. Little did I know London had 6 official Ale Trails ranging from 3 pubs in a night to one pub crawl which isn't for the feint of heart seeing as it includes 10 pubs. The best part of these official Ale Trials (aside from tasting all the amazing beers local pubs have to offer) is that upon completion of an Ale Trial you get a free t-shirt. That's right London rewards those who can pound back several pints in one night by bestowing upon them a cool t-shirt worth 10 pounds. Needless to say when my friends and I learned that we could drink and get rewarded with a shirt we were ready to go.

We decided to attempt the Historic Blackfriars Ale Trial, which includes 5 pubs that are all within a mile of our flats. So off we went on Saturday around 8 in the evening ready to tackle the task before us. However, to our dismay 2 of the 5 pubs on the list were already closed for the day! Rest assured though, our quest for a t-shirt and some beer would not be thwarted that easily. We made a pact that come Monday we would make our second attempt.

We began the night in good spirits and set off for Doggett's Coat & Badge pub, a 4 story pub with an amazing view of the Thames River. Here we enjoyed a tasty ale called Doom Bar.

Next we ventured to The Black Friar. While all the pubs on the trail were great, this was by far my favorite. The bar has amazing engravings all along the top of the pub and just as importantly the beer I had at Black Friars was my favorite of the evening, a Timothy Taylor Landlord... delicious!

After Blackfriars we simply crossed the street and went to The Old Bell. Another quaint pub; however, they ran out of their tasty IPA right before I ordered!

The walk from The Old Bell tower to the next pub on the list, Ye Olde Watling, was slightly longer than I would have wished, but sore feet and cold weather would not stop me from my goal. At Ye Olde Watling, I had yet another good beer. This beer was a seasonal brew called the Polar Beer.

Thankfully, the final stop on our list was within 100 feet of Ye Olde Watling. We had finally made it. We reached Williamson's Tavern with looks of triumph across each of our faces. We ordered our last pint of the evening and proclaimed to the bartender that we were triumphant ale trailers and wanted our free t-shirt. The response we were greeted with, "Sorry but we're out of t-shirts." Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the evening's frivolities but goshdangit I wanted my t-shirt. So after sampling one of Williamson's Tavern's finest beverages we went back to Ye Olde Watling and requested a t-shirt. Thankfully, this pub had what we were after. The bar tender opened a chest and there they were our shirts!

Just some ribs

For all those who think that football players are the toughest athletes, I now have first hand knowledge of how such thinking is false. I went to a semi-professional rugby match earlier today (London Welsh vs. Bedford Blues) and hands down the towering men I saw on the pitch were the toughest athletes I've ever seen! At one point during the match, a player for London got annihilated and as he was walking off the field a fan asked how badly he was hurt. The players response, "Just some ribs." And he was being serious! This guy literally broke some ribs moments earlier and thought nothing of it! It was at this moment that I knew I would have never made a very good rugby player because I actually care about my bones and internal organs.

I had never watched a rugby match before today so I don't understand any of the intricacies of the game, but my general understanding of the game is essentially one big game of keep away. The best analogy I can think of for rugby is comparing it to a kickoff in football where the receiving team must score. Essentially for two 40 minute halves 30 huge guys (15 per team) are trying to get a ball into the endzone. While this sounds alot like football, there are several significant differences. One being there are no forward passes and another being you are not supposed block in the same manner that football players block. All and all watching the game was a great experience; however, with that said I'm not sure how into rugby I could ever get. Mainly because the game seems much more hectic and disorganized than any of the major sports back home.