London, England (Part III): The Final Countdown

The next day saw a fully refreshed and eager me ready to tackle the massive Hyde Park viewing area, a long stroll down Picadilly, beers with a friend from Paris, and finally, going to our last ticketed event of the games: USA volleyball at Earl's Court (right down the street from Mike's flat). The Hyde Park viewing area is one of two massive public viewing areas set up for the Olympics (the other in Victoria Park I think). Essentially they fenced off a massive section of the park and set up huge projection screens for viewing. There is also food, beer, games, live music, and a bunch of other stuff like free ping pong tables, etc.

After taking in some of the cycling event in the park, I made my way east along Knightsbridge to Picadilly where I would proceed through the city until arriving at my meeting point, Covent Garden. Along the way I noticed a new monument to the RAF (Royal Air Force) pilots who died during the World Wars that had just been opened by the Queen for her Diamond Jubilee. It's a really cool statue and many people had left crosses or flowers. I even noticed a few teary eyes from some of the visitors. Definitely worth spending a few minutes and checking out.

Not really sure where to go once I had reached Picadilly circus I more or less meandered in the direction I assumed Covent Garden to be located. After a few minutes... oh snap! Guess what I saw? Chinatown! Why is it that when I'm wandering around a city I always seem to find myself in Chinatown? 

As I strolled past noodle parlors and dumpling shops the thick smell of sesame oil and pork briefly transported me back to those first happy months slumming it in Chinatown in Manhattan. Pounding the pavement to work everyday past the elderly people doing tai chi, subsiding almost entirely on 5 for $1 fried dumplings, hiking up 5 flights of stairs to the un-airconditioned apartment, getting green melon frozen bubble tea. Ah, the memories.

A short way down the road I reached my destination and swung into a pub called the Nags Head for my first pint of the day while I awaited for Paradis and my friend from Paris, Sioni, to arrive. Paradis got there first and suggested we head to the Punch & Judy- coincidentally also Sioni's exact suggestion. I love it when a plan comes together. The Punch & Judy is a solid little pub on the second floor of this market area near Covent Garden. It's best feature, however, is its terrace which looks out onto the square below. On a nice, warm, sunny day in London (like the one we were having), I can't imagine a better place to enjoy a crisp refreshing lager, or if you're me, the soothing embrace of an ice cold Guinness.

Nice pink hair. In a bit Sioni arrived and we caught up on the goings on since our last meeting: the Drinkathlon in Paris. Apparently he discovered that the reason his stomach hurt when the cops came was because moments before he came to they were kicking him in the ribs! Dirty frogs! After putting back a few rounds and re-affirming our commitment to never do a drinkathlon again, it was time to part ways as I had to get back to Earl's Court for some USA v. China volleyball action!

Let me just note that Earl's Court is a very bizarre and cavernous venue. Apparently it's slated for demolition subsequent to the games and I assume it will be replaced with a similar convention center/arena facility. But who cares? Let's get to some volleyball! But before I made it to my seat, my stomach revolted in protest causing me to realize my immediate need for sustenance. A cursory inspection of the food options left me seriously concerned about the ability to find something edible at this particular venue when, suddenly, I spotted a familiar (yet strikingly unfamiliar) sight: a stand selling baked potatoes.

Technically in the UK they call them "jacket" potatoes, perhaps in reference to the aluminum foil they are wrapped in or their skins. Or maybe, albeit unlikely, they put them in tiny coats before baking. But whatever you call them, they are huge in the UK. Both literally, as in the size of the potatoes, as well as in terms of popularity. Having more or less grown up on these things it was a sight for sore eyes. And I know what you're thinking: this is a lot of typing about baked potatoes. Yes, I know, but just hang in there. And also, you're thinking: ok, no need to be a dick about it, and anyway, do these things even come with cheese and chili? And your answer dear reader. Hell, freakin, yes!

BOOM! Oh man it was heaven in a skin. My ravenous hunger sated, I was ready to enjoy some volleyball. And enjoy we did as the USA women's team absolutely throttled the Chinese team. Take that China! This is a non zoomed view from where we were sitting- check out flickr for other shots of the match.

The second match was Brazil v. South Korea but after a long day, numerous rounds at the Punch & Judy, and my massive jacket potato I was in serious nodding-off mode. So after the first set, Deana and I split for home while Mike watched the remainder of the match which stunningly South Korea won. Below is a picture of Mike and I where he is actually smiling and not giving the camera the finger, or me the finger, or making some sort of other absurd gesture. Enjoy it, these are rare.

The following day, I decided it was high time for me to make the obligatory trek out to St. Paul's cathedral and the waterfront and the business district and yatta yatta, London, yatta, goodness. So that's what I did. I was also in a bit of a rush to get through my walk as one of my good pals from the working days, James Park, was in London visiting friends and we planned to meet up to watch some of the games that night. So, in rapid low detail no explanation mode, here is Fleet St. looking toward St. Paul's.

And the dome of St. Paul's from the footbridge heading back to the southern side:

And a cool shot of the Thames looking east with the "Shard" (tallest building in Europe) on the right and the Tower Bridge way off in the distance in the middle:

And Tate Modern Art Museum from the bridge (which interestingly, I knew nothing about the building itself and upon looking at it and realizing it was the Tate Modern my first thought was "wow, the building isn't very modern at all. looks like an old power plant." Turns out it IS an old power plant- the main hall is the old turbine room.):

The rebuilt "Globe" theater where Shakespeare's plays were/are shown:

And finally, a shot of the Gherkin (giant pickle) from in the midst of one of the business districts:

My stroll being complete (I had covered ground from Russell Square to the Tate Modern and back all the way up to the East End- a nice distance), it was time to resume my regular London activities- drinking beer and cheering on Team USA! I hopped the train and met Mike and my friend James and his buddy Calvin at one of the many Starbucks close to Trafalgar and we made our way to... shockingly... the Chase Lounge! Free beer, whoo hoo!

We took in some gymnastics and indoor cycling at the Velodrome, upon the conclusion of which Mike had to get back home so James and I headed on to a sports bar nearby to watch that night's swimming events. The best part of the bar was that they had Budweiser bottles that you could get in buckets of ice. The worst part about the bar was that a bucket of five cost 17 pounds! That's like $25! So as you likely deduced, we stuck with just one bucket of beer haha.

When the night's events had concluded we decided to call it a relatively early night and save our steam for the weekend. Friday morning, even despite the early conclusion to the night, I was none-the-less gassed. I suppose it was the cumulative effect of an awesome time. I was initially supposed to meet up with some other friends at Olympic Park but those plans didn't work out. Not able to score any tickets and having seen pretty much all I wanted to see of the city except going inside certain places which was infeasible with all the crowds, I decided to spend the day doing what I usually do during the Olympics: nothing but watching the Olympics.

Also, this particular day Mike and Deana had tickets to swimming (jealous) and so while they were living it up in the Olympic Park and dodging falling flat screen TV's, I soaked up about 15 hours of extremely UK-biased BBC Olympic coverage and had a grilled cheese sandwich. It was a great day. Saturday I was initially planning to take a train down to Brighton for the night to see Dave and Adam who I met in Le Mans. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition either so I ended up with another free day. Considering the lovely weather, and everyone else besides Deana and I's moderate to severe hangover tenderness (score one for sobriety!), it was decided to do a picnic in Hyde Park.

The food was excellent and, spurned on by some Tupac and Jay-Z flowing from Mike's portable speakers, my last Saturday in London was off to a brilliant start. One of the highlights of the afternoon was watching Mike and Brad attempt to knock a kite out of a tree using my nearly full just-purchased bottle of water. They didn't get the kite, but they did manage to destroy my bottle of water. Well done. Here's a nice shot of my wonderful hosts, the happy couple:

Even though the weather had been nice the past week in London, there hadn't been too many days of consistent sun so all of our priorities became to indulge in some post-lunch basking.

Unfortunately, I could only bask for a brief period as I had made plans to meet up with James, his brother and some of his other friends to watch the nights events. Where did we meet to watch these? I'll give you three guesses and the first two won't count... If you guessed the Chase Lounge, bravo to you! 100 points. This particular night Michael Phelps and Co. won the 4 x 100M relay, Mo Farah won the 10,000M race, and S. Korea beat UK in football on the 5th and final penalty kick. That plus free beer and snacks made our crew pretty elated.

After most of the events were done we headed back to the downstairs portion of the Chase Lounge where we met a man named Alex who worked for/owned a Private Equity VC firm. We got to chatting with him and he invited us on what turned out to be a ludicrous night in London. I can only remember bits and pieces but we did end up in a restaurant in Chinatown at around 2 am, where we were subsequently thrown out of and threatened with police action because one of James' friends was "stealing" beers. As I recall it was some sort of misunderstanding whereby we wanted beers to go, they said no, and we came to some sort of impasse wherein we got beers anyway. It was a bit hazy at this point but here's a shot of us eating there which is coincidentally the last picture of the night.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur but I ended up in some part of London unbeknownst to me at around 7:30am having not slept and with an insatiable desire to get back to Mike's and crash as hard as humanly possible. Fortunately the gods smiled on me as I was blessed with the sight of an old school black London taxi heading my way down the street. It was thus that I was able to accomplish my two most important remaining goals for my visit to London at that moment: (1) riding in an old school London taxi; and (2) getting the hell out of wherever it was I had found myself and back to the comforts of Paradis' flat.

When we pulled up the driver indicated it would be 16 pounds and so I handed him a 20. He asked if I had exact change and I told him I had 10 and a few pence. Some sort of bizarre transaction ensued where he took the ten, gave me the 20, then took the change, and was then like "yes, this works good." I was too tired and out of it to really comprehend but evidently he convinced himself that 10 and change is just as good as 16. Inside the flat I was too exhausted to inflate my bed so I gingerly curled into a fetal position on the couch, pulled my towel half way over me, and passed out.

A few hours later I awoke and immediately decided that Sunday would be used as it was intended: a day of rest. I ran across the street and got the ingredients for a grilled cheese and tomato soup, the combination thereof serving to revive my mind and spirit as far as could be expected. The rest of the day we watched the Olympics and I did some laundry and shortly before dinner, Mike and I set out to accomplish the final remaining thing on my London list: try some bangers and mash.

I don't know what I really expected. I remember from Bedknobs and Broomsticks that they are basically sausages with mashed potatoes. So when sausages with mashed potatoes arrived, I was unexpectedly relieved. Somehow I had come to expect something entirely different in my subconscious. Despite my unaccountable expectations, they were really good- the sausages had a breakfast-sausage characteristic and the potatoes were smooth and creamy. The gravy is essentially the same as what you have for Thanksgiving dinner. A bit underwhelming given how much I had hyped it in my mind but very hearty, tasty, and satisfying none-the-less. And now I can say I've had a mouthful of bangers. Yes, I know that's exactly where your head was at. Come back out of the gutter.

After eating, we proceeded over to Brad's place for second dinner: homemade chicken kebabs with all the fixings. Great great culinary day- I was stuffed. We watched the dazzling 100M final and then it was time, after 10 days of London awesomeness, to close the book on my London Olympics experience. Overall- if you've been reading or even skimming you'll know it was obviously phenomenal. I have to thank Mike and Deana again so much for letting me Dupree up their flat for 10 days. I owe you guys a ton and I hope I can pay you back someday- either in NY or NC or somewhere else in the world. London, what a blast, what a show. And I had just kicked off my UK/Ireland experience. Next up: visiting more friends in a smallish English town in the middle of the country: Wakefield.

Bonus: Olympics Coverage Wrap Up with a photo of us in fancy dress. Awesome.