Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The London Holiday Blog

It's a couple of days of late. I've been back in the United States since late Saturday night.
I've just been in a funky kind of mood, and didn't feel like blogging about the fact that I was home earlier than I wanted to be. In my "real vacation" I would be sitting in Philadelphia right now, waiting for my 6:05pm flight to come back to Indy. Instead, I caught that flight on Saturday night.

It was a huge disappointment when the Chunnel Fire happened. I was VERY interested to find out how few people in the United States knew about the fire. Most people I talked to this week had no idea what happened. Someone on the French side of the Chunnel brought an illegal substance into the Chunnel, and during the trip some brakes caught on fire, which caught a tire on fire, which in turn caused this illegal substance to start a big fire. It was a freak accident, something that hasn't happened in 12 years - but it randomly HAD TO HAPPEN when I was in the city. Trains were cancelled on Friday, and thousands of people were "camping" in the train station during my three hours there. From some of the people I talked to that morning, I was told that Ferries from Dover were selling out hours in advance. Sadly, I went into a panic - I was travelling by myself, and on a somewhat limited budget. I took the underground out to Heathrow, and spent a couple of hours out there, trying to get thing straightened out for a trip home from Heathrow. On Friday, Eurorail was saying that there would be no service Saturday or Sunday - and all of the flights I was looking into in Heathrow were more expensive than just flying home. I made a paniced and frustrated decision to just pack it in, and come home early.

Despite that decision, my vacation was AWESOME. And I wish my refunds from my Paris and Germany hotels were instantly applied back to my checking account - because I would spent a few more days in London. (This is what I don't understand, it takes them 30 seconds to remove the money from my bank account, but when I ask for the refund - it's going to take 2 to 4 weeks for me to see my money back into my account... Makes no sense to me. When I go to Wal-Mart or somewhere and ask for a refund, it usually posts the next day. They have my account information, there is NO REASON it shouldn't be reversed and back in my account in 48 hours. It's kind of frustrating...)

London was awesome. It was beautiful. I loved the architecture, and I loved the older feeling of the city. Walking around was awesome. Picidilly Circus and Leicester Square felt like a mini-Times Square. Not as crowded, not as many LED Boards, but just as cool feeling. Lots of theatres and restaurants all around, and a nice park in the middle of Leicester Square. Then there was Trafalgar Square, where I chilled for a good hour on my first day of walking. Just watching people. The traffic threw me for a loop for a long time, so I would just look both ways before crossing any street. The Underground was intimidating the first day - but once I studied a map of the city, and started to recognize east and west areas of town, it made the second day much easier. Had I never visited New York City it probably would have been a lot worse, but once I figured out how to read the Underground signs and knew when I wanted to go east or west - I had no trouble with it for the last few days.

My hotel was really nice. Small, but exactly what I wanted. I got a number of TV channels, and actually watched a fair amount of American TV. Trivia-Style Game Shows are HUGE over there, and I watched a number of them. I watched a comedy/trivia show called "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" which was pretty entertaining. I think I watched two episodes on the same night. I also watched two quiz-shows called "Eggheads" and "Wogan's Perfect Recall" - both were pretty interesting. The channels made available to me were pretty simple:
BBC1
BBC2
Sky News 1
Sky News 2
Sky News 3
Sky Sports 1
Sky Sports 2
Sky Sports 3
ITV1
(Channel) 4
E4
(Channel) Five
(Channel) Five US

Pretty basic and simple naming of their channels. The coolest thing was the each day, Sky Sports 2 would air NFL Today around 4pm, so I was still able to get updates on the NFL each day. I also watched a good amount of Rugby while I was in London, and I finally believe I understand the sport - despite years of Zach trying to explain it to me. I'm just a visual person, and I needed to see it all happening. It was pretty cool. I also watched some Snooker, and that was a pretty cool billiards game.

Most days, I would wake up early (8am-ish) and start out for the day. Then, I would return to my hotel around 4pm, after walking around and taking the Underground all over, so that I could drop off anything that I purchased, and I was usually pretty tired. I would watch some TV, and usually take a nap until about 8pm. At that time, I would head out looking for somewhere to eat dinner. The sad part about London is that during the week, it basically shuts down at 11pm. All the restaurants, corner markets, and bars are pretty much done at 11pm. On one night's walk "home", I did find an overnight market, and was able to pick up some snacks. Usually, I would grab a bag of chips and a soda to drink in my room, before I went to sleep for the night. I tried a number of different sodas that we don't have here in the United States. Most were not very good - specifically one called Tango. I tried their Cherry Soda, and it was horrible. They also offer an apple version that I wanted to try, but Cherry was so bad, I never did. Mt. Dew was nowhere to be found, I can only guess they don't make it available there. I drank Pepsi or Sprite most of the time. Also, Blue Moon was nowhere to be found, so when I had a beer it was always a Stella Artois. Both Doritos and Pringles offer a number of different flavors over there. Or, some of their flavors have different names. "Cool Ranch" was not the name of their Ranch flavor - it was "Cool Original" - which blows my mind, because I consider "Nacho Cheese" to be the original flavor of Doritos, instead that's known as "Tangy Cheese". I tried some "Chili Heatwave" and really liked them, they were very similar to the new "Spicy Chili" that we have here in the States. I also tried some Paparika Pringles - they weren't really as good as I expected them to be, not horrible, and I ate half the can in one night - but they weren't as spicy or tangy as I was hoping for.

Staying in the Victoria area was really cool, I was close to a lot of things, and walked to about half of the places I went. I was around the corner from Buckingham Palace, but only walked past it once - I wasn't really there to do tourist stuff, I just wanted to chill out and relax. It took a while, but one night I took the Underground up to Picidilly Circus and then walked through Leicester Square, then to Trafalgar Sqaure, and then all the way down to the waterfront, where I walked across the Millennium Bridge and over to the London Eye. I then spent a good twenty minutes sitting on a bench, looking directly across the River Thames at Big Ben and Parliament - I also gave my parents a call at this time, to see if they had heard about the Chunnel fire. It was 11pm my time, and 6pm their time.

My "extra" night in the city, I basically just did more hanging out and walking around in the Picidilly Circus/Soho area of town. Letha gave me the phone number of one of her friends that was in London, but I had trouble figuring out how to get my phone to dial her number, and eventually gave up. Half the time I tried to call back to the States, I couldn't get it to work. International calling is confusing, and country codes were problematic. When I was in Heathrow, I was trying to call my Paris Hotel, and could never get it to connect. Oh well, I just spent that last night walking around, observing more people, and taking in the city. It was a Friday night, so places stayed open much past 11pm.

No matter how my holiday turned out, I was able to get out of Indianapolis for a couple of days, I got to see a different culture and was able to get a small taste of Europe. I will begin planning a Spring Holiday to Germany - and ONLY Germany. I've decided I will NEVER attempt to travel across water via the Chunnel (on purpose, because hopefully one day I will get to ride on the Chunnel...) without having another plan. I do hope that I can make it back to London soon. If that's my only destination, then I should have a lot less stress and be able to enjoy it even more than I did this time. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to going back. It would be a little more fun if I had someone to go with me, and share everything with, but I don't really know anyone who has the same interest as me in going over there just to hang out. It was a GREAT holiday, and I look forward to many more trips to Europe in the near future.

From Heathrow, I rode the Underground to Picidilly Circus - this was the first thing I saw when I came up from the Underground Station.

I walked to Trafalgar Square, which was a cool place to hang out.

From Trafalgar Square, you could look south and see Big Ben.

A closer look at Big Ben.

My first 500ml Pepsi!

My hotel room, nice and small and quaint.

The Hard Rock London, where I are dinner my first night in town.

The first thing I ever spend a Pound on was a West Ham United Scarf. I bought it at a street vendor near Leicester Square. It was £5.00, which is roughly ten bucks.

Kinder Surprises were everywhere - yippy! And I also tried a Bounty drink, which was basically chocolate milk with 5% Coconut Milk. It was really good, but really rich! I regularly buy Bounty Candy Bars in the international aisle at Meijer. Basically, a better version of Mounds.

My waitress at The Hard Rock sat down with me at took the time to write me up a list of some of the best bars and clubs in both London and Paris. It was pretty nice of her.

Grand Victoria Station - the upstairs train portion.

The stadium for West Ham United Football Club in Upton Park.

The Tower Bridge, with some cool war ship in front of it.

The London Bridge.

Picidilly Circus at night.

These pictures can't even begin to explain how much fun I had, and sadly a number of places I went to were at night, so the pictures didn't turn out very well. It was an amazing time, I really felt comfortable there. Everyone I talked to was really nice, and really cool. The Underground Attendants were helpful and friendly I hope to make it back sooner than later. Cheers, Mate!

Monday, September 08, 2008

Day of Double Disappointment

Woke up early yesterday and drove over to Cincinnati with a couple of friends to catch the Cubs/Reds Game at Great American Ballpark. It was a really good time, and I thought we had pretty good seats.

The Cubs were winning 3-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. An error at second base ended up loading the bases, and two batter later, the Cubs lost 4-3. It was a pretty depressing afternoon, and sad to see the large number of Cubs fans end up leaving as losers. I should try to get to more baseball games next year, even if it is just the Indians. I had a good time.

Following the Cubs loss, I felt that I still had the evening to look forward to, since I was coming back to Indy and heading to Lucas Oil Stadium for the first game of the 2008 NFL Season. My hopes were high, and I had no concerns for the Colts to pull off a win.

I went from being a Pro-Chicago fan, rooting for the Cubbies to an anti-Chicago person, rooting against the Bears.

Our seats at the Lucas Oil Stadium were pretty good.

The Giant American Flag that covered the field for the National Anthem.

There was a fly over by a number of helicopters.
It was pretty cool.

Sadly, the game proved that I can be disappointed twice in one day, in two different cities, by two different teams in two different sports.

Am I upset? Yes. But, am I crazy-pissed-off? No. I am okay with the lose. It was kind of a humbling experience for us.

In 2005, we started 13-0.
In 2006, we started 9-0, before losing to the Cowboys.
In 2007, we started 7-0, before losing to the Patriots.

I think there was just a little too much pressure each season, as the season went on. I'm hoping that all of the pressure is now gone. Now, we can just go out and play football for the remainder of the season. I also hope that we end the season somewhere around 12-4, and third in the AFC. I don't want a Bye in the Opening Round of the playoffs. I want to play. Every post-season that we've had a bye, has resulted in a lose in the second round. The year we won the Super Bowl was the year we were 3rd in the AFC, and had to play each week.

There was obvious rust on Peyton Manning's part. But, it wasn't like he played like Rex Grossman, or anything. He played well. 30/49 and 257 yards is a pretty normal game. Maybe a few too many incompletes than normal, but no interceptions. We went 5/11 on Third Downs for 45%, a little lower than normal.

Jamey Richard, a rookie, took Jeff Saturday's place at Center. I am sure that Peyton and Jamey worked a lot together during the week, but it just didn't look right in the game. Also, at the same time, I don't think Richard did a good job of calling out protections for Peyton, like Saturday is so known for doing. It seemed that Peyton was rushed a little too much, aslo I think the Offensive Line needed some work. Only two of the 5 guys are even the same as last season - Ugoh and Diem. The pocket seemed to collapse really quickly, and this forced Peyton to through a little quicker and faster than he normally would want to, and I feel that resulted in some of his slow passes and some of his low passes. For last night being Peyton's only game play in 8 months, I don't think he performed that badly. I think he showed some good things, but also showed that he's going to need a little work to get back to where he is supposed to be, and where he wants to be - and where all fans want him to be.

And I have to give the Bears Defense credit. I feel that they played really well. They shut down Joseph Addai like I have never seen before. 44 yards of our 53 rushing yards are Addai. Both numbers are pathetic. Again, I don't think the offensive line did a good job of creating holes and gaps for Addai.

And our defense SUCKED. Plain and simple. We had some good hits, and it was good to see Bob Sanders running and hitting like a maniac - but it just wasn't enough. The Bears just ran too well for us to stop. Matt Forte just went off, and was impossible for our guys to stop. They executed their game plan perfectly, and it was effective against us.

Leaving the game, I learned justhow annoying the Bears fans were. There were too many in the stadium, in my opinion, and they were just obnoxious and annoying. I don't include my friends Jae or Stacy in this group - they weren't part of the drunken morons I had to deal with last night.

It was a disappointing day, and a really bummer for the Colts. I'm really scared about next weekend and Adrian Peterson. If Matt Forte can run like that against us, I can't even imagine what Peterson can do against us. I'm going to have to figure out something to make sure I can watch the game. Since the 2003 season, I have not missed watching a Colts game live on television. I hope to find a place in Munich to watch the game. Worst case scenerio, I will find an internet cafe and watch the gamecast of the game. Hopefully, with another week of practice, more and more of the rust and cobwebs can be shaken off, and everyone can work at getting back into a nice flow together. I believe things are going to get better, and at least the early loss teaches us to never take our wins for granted, and to make it back to the Super Bowl this season, we have a lot of work that we are going to have to do.

The AFC really changed yesterday.
The Colts lost.
The Chargers lost.
And the Patriots have lost their quarterback, mostly likely for the reast of the season.

The Steelers looked good.
The Jets looked good.
The Bills looked good.

It's going to be an interesting season to watch...

Finally, as we were walking back to the car, I overheard someone make this moronic comment:
"This is what happens when we change arenas. The Pacers leave Market Square Arena, and now they suck - the Colts leave the Dome, and now they are going to suck."

IDIOT. I can't believe someone would say something like that. First, because its one Colts game. Second, because they are WRONG.

Conseco Fieldhouse opened in 1999. It was the 1999-2000 season that the Pacers FINALLY made it to the NBA Finals. NEVER did they make it there while playing in Market Square Arena, and they only made it to the ABA Finals when playing in the Pepsi Coliseum. So, to say that they Pacers sucked after moving to Conseco is idiotic. Now, if he doesn't like the Pacers, and doesn't remember the season we won 61 games in the 2003-04 season. That doesn't sound like a team that sucks to me. Have the always under-performed? Sure, maybe you can say that. And we have had some bad seasons, but I would never claim that they have sucked since moving into Conseco Fieldhouse. Sorry, I needed to vent about that moronic statement.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

RIP - Mr. Melendez

Bill Melendez, a friend and counterpart to Charles Schulz has passed away.

Melendez animated all of the Peanuts Classics, and was a part of the trio of men who brought Charlie Brown and the gang to television.

It's kind of a bummer. He was a good man, Bill Melendez...


Also, the film world has taken a hit with the death of Don LaFontaine. Bummer. Too many deaths in 2008.