A Trip Across the Pond - Part 1

I've battled with how to lay out what I'm hereby going to refer as "the best trip of my entire life" in the blawg world. Sure, I could focus strictly on the public transportation aspect, or on the activities, or people we met...but I thought it would be best done by day (given, there were only 3 of them, but they were mighty packed). I hope this gives you the best summary of our trip. If you don't know how this trip happened in the first place, please catch up.

If you don't know already, I am pretty terrified of flying. For someone who flies as much as I do, this shouldn't be a problem, but I decided that nothing could cure this better than a 9.5 then 10.5 hour flight. I'm happy to report that I handled it just fine! (sleeping pills also help). So, on to day 1, which will hereby be referred to as "the longest day(s) ever"

After a 9.5 hour flight, 4 hours of sleep, and losing 7 hours, we arrived at Heathrow (planes!). We took the Heathrow Connect (trains!) to Paddington Station, where we then took the Tube (subways!) to Victoria Station and then another train to Clapham. Phew. I'm already exhausted. After we changed we headed out to the Stamford Bridge (note, if you ask where the "stadium" is in Chelsea, they will look at you like you have 8 heads) for the Chelsea Football Match. We somehow stumbled upon this place, which turned out to be a gold mine as it was full of drunken old English blokes who loved that 4 Texas girls came to London for a football match.

We were escorted to the "stadium" for the game by a local, and after visiting the gift shop to purchase proper Chelsea gear, found our seats. Turns out they stop serving beer 45 minutes before the match as the fans get a little out of hand. True story. We found our seats in the Hooligan section, got a pint during halftime, met some true fans (one bloke drove from Berlin just for this game) and returned to the seats. 

 

After a really fun game, Chelsea won 2-nill! We made our way back to the pub. 

Although it was members only, one of the guys we met gave us his members card so we could get back in. They are very strict after the match. Also, we were 4 of 6 women in the entire bar. I won't bore you with details, but I somehow was given some man's heirloom Chelsea "TRUE BLUE" scarf, we didn't pay for a single pint, we almost managed to get kicked out of the pub for the ruckus we were causing, and we left by 6pm, just to give you an idea. This is basically how the night went: 

We had dinner plans, so we then took about 4 tubes back to Clapham, somehow we met some Aussie's, Austrians, Italians, and people who like to share their whiskey on the train. And you ask why I am in love with this city??

That night we went to a fancy dinner, drinks at an after bar, and dancing at a club, none of which I have photos of. I convinced the DJ to play a few of my favorite songs, and we wound up in bed at 4:30 a.m. that day. 

Lessons learned day 1: 
*Use proper terms when describing their beloved sport (zero=nill, game=match, soccer=football, pissed=drunk)
*Brits think American accents are cute
*Brits really DO have bad teeth
*If you are a Texan in the UK, you will be hit on at least 7813 times
*French fries are chips, chips are crisps

That was only day 1, and I really had to condense it. Stay tuned for day 2, which includes lots more tubes, sight seeing and terminology lessons!