spring broke - all of it

Some Blasts from the Past
So I knew my friends Adam and Sarah were going to be in London for spring break, but I did not realize they were going to be on the same plane on me. That was a pleasant surprise. We sat together and talked the entire trip.

When we finally did get to London, it wasn’t raining. But it was snowing. We parted ways, and when I got off the underground, I was reunited with Chad.

London is much cooler than I remember... perhaps because parts of it remind me of Chicago? And all the landmarks I remember from ten years ago are still here and just as impressive.

Since it was Easter, Chad and I went to Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Then after walking around (The Gerkin, The Eye, London Bridge, Big Ben) we got some “pub grub” at Old Shades. (Yes, what they say is true. When you go to London, “eat ethnic.” But pub food really is the best English food. It’s meat and potatoes. Basic and to the point. And I do like Yorkshire Pudding.)

We did a little barhopping and then wound up at an Irish pub called O’Neill’s, which is near Chad’s apartment building. His friend Alison, who went to Harvard, and two visiting friends were there too. And one of her friends was Paul Hamm. Paul Hamm is one of my classmates and good friends from Gonzaga. He went to Harvard. Small world! We spent about an hour talking about high school, catching up on each other lives, and probably boring everyone else at the table to death. He was leaving the city the next morning, so our timing was perfect.

Back at Chad’s, we made drunk food. Pan-roasted chicken, turkey escalope, and vegetable risotto. We cooked this while watching Beauty & The Beast because we’re children stuck in men’s bodies. Well, children who drink regularly, smoke once in a while, and gamble too often.

London Calling
Monday morning we slept in until Chad left for work. I spent the day walking around his neighborhood, Covent Garden, before meeting up with him when his shift at Pontefract Castle ended. We got some more beer and some more pub food. We played a few quick hands of blackjack at Grovenor casino before going to The Prince of Wales. (A pub, not a person. Next door to his apartment.) Frankie and Theodora, who are a couple and two of Chad’s other friends, were waiting for us there.

When we closed out the pub, we were talking about free-range and organic food versus food with hormones and preservatives. So Chad and I made more drunk food. Penne with ground beef and aurora sauce. And we watched another movie, Atonement, which is decidedly less light-hearted than Beauty & The Beast, but still a beautiful and complex love story.

Mind the Gap
Tuesday we started the day with lunch at Nando’s and then made our way to the National Gallery to see some classic works by the likes of Manet, Monet, Degas, Rafael, Picasso, Michaelangelo, and Da Vinci. From there we walked through Trafalgar Square and St. James Park to get to Buckingham. We grabbed dinner (“eat ethnic”) at Masala Zone and then did some more barhopping with Alison. O’Neill’s, Porterhouse, Walkabout, and White Hart. When it was closing time, the three of us watched Bad Boys instead of Coyote Ugly – Thank God – with a little Patron on the side.

Walkabout
Wednesday we started the day with McDonalds, which was definitely the best non-ethnic food I ate in Britain. I never realized how much I loved a Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal. They also had the Monopoly Game, and Chad won a McFlurry. They had a special Cadbury Crème Egg McFlurry for Easter. Good stuff. By the way, if you want to go abroad, but not really, go to London. It’s basically “America light.” From Heinz ketchup to Jif peanut butter, I think almost everything I missed was available. (Except Cajun food, which I miss everywhere but Louisiana.)

Chad gave me a tour of LSE’s campus and then we went to Harrod’s. I got my only souvenir there, a bottle of Trufett and Hill shaving cream. I didn’t know what other practical thing I could bring back. I don’t need tea or a scarf. But I am out of shaving cream. Anyway, from there we took “the tube” to the Victoria & Albert museum which is devoted to priceless treasures Britain rescued stole from around the world. It was a nice complement to all the paintings we saw the other day.

We had “eat ethnic” dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown called “Kintaro,” which if I recall correctly is also the name of the four-armed tiger monster boss from Mortal Kombat II. They offered a duck teriyaki, which I’d never had before and was pretty good.

We went to a bar in Soho called… Bar Soho and met up with Chad’s friend Giacamo who’s from a small town in Tuscany. Luckily he didn’t test my Italian after asking if I’ve been learning much in Florence. We went to Cambridge Pub for some snacks. (We waited for Giacamo a long time because he lives further out of London and because he’s Italian. We didn’t mind though.) I had Fish and Chips, as good as I remember it. I also intended to have (besides a Sunday Roast and Toad-in-the-Hole) Bubble & Squeak. But since we never actually woke up in time for breakfast, the B&S never happened.

Giacamo left soon after that, and Chad and I spent several hours drinking and dancing at a salsa bar… called Bar Salsa. (Real creative, these Brits.) We missed his Latinas, so we had to make new friends to dance the night away with. And we got a little friendly with some of the girls and subsequently lost track of time. It was lots of fun. After that, pretty much the only thing still open was the Gold Nugget Casino, that closed at 6AM. And I was completely right in my pre-London assumption that Chad and I would get drunk, stay out late, and wind up at a casino playing Blackjack. Lady Luck was not on our side as much as at Harrah’s New Orleans, but we still had fun and stayed there a few hours. We also missed the free drinks that Harrah’s give their patrons. Come to think of it, we’ve spent a lot of the visit reminiscing on how New Orleans is the most fun and most unique city in the world. (And Chad’s been to maybe more than twice the international cities that I’ve been to.)

Champagne Supernova
Thursday morning afternoon it took us forever to get up, which isn’t surprising given our Wednesday. I made the chicken and risotto thing from the other day again, but I made it sober. It was still pretty good, which surprised me.

We spent the little remainder of the afternoon walking around the British museum, looking at mummies and exploring the Parthenon relics that Britain “rescued” from Greece during the war.

We met up with Alan, one of my father’s friends and old classmates, at Kettner’s for “champagne and pizza.” (I thought a glass and a slice each; it was more like a bottle and a pie each.) Kettner’s is a champagne bar (as in, only the authentic stuff from vineyards in France), so we drank a lot of Ayala and Pol Roger, which Alan told us was Winston Churchill’s favorite. They even have bottles of it named after him.

This was kind of funny because since Chad had work for twelve hours on Friday and I left that morning. We had designated the previous night as “get pissed” night. But we got pissed again. Que sera, sera. We decided to skip the pubs for the night and just get a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black and watch American television.

Back to Italy
Friday I got home in the evening, so I went out with the girls to Moyo for a little bit. Fun times. Saturday I got up and went to lunch with Aneet, Jess, and Mindy. It was wonderful to have food both good and cheap so easily accessible again – spaghetti with tomatoes and clams. After we made a quick grocery trip, I hung out with the Girls Next Block at their apartment until dinnertime. Aneet, Jess, and I went and got pizza (apple and gorgonzola) and tiramisu at a place near our apartment. From there, a bunch of us went to the cultural association – I was meeting up with Sergio. We went to another bar, closed it out, then back to the CA, and closed that out as well. Went to bed around six in the morning. Great night.

Today was a great day. I got up at what I thought was nine a.m. but due to a combination of lack of sleep, late bedtimes, and “spring forward,” was actually two p.m. I woke up to Henk and Juan returning from their break in France. We got gyros and hiked to a tower across the river to drink yerba mate. After that, we got a few drinks at Moyo then went to Piazza Santa Croce to sit in the sun and enjoy daylight savings time. There it felt like a big family reunion. We had run into Liz and Aneet at Moyo, and in the Piazza we were eventually joined by them, Alison, Jess Mindy, Anna, and Lianne. We went to a nearby Spanish restaurant to get some sangria, and Ross and Joe walked by. And when we all parted ways, I ran into those two again and Nick. So basically, I saw pretty much every apartment I know except for the interNazionale girls, John, and Anton. Great day.