We have only been in the UK a few days and have had a blast. We have seen some sites and met some people. Some will be remembered and some already forgotten. After checking into The Green Man, our hostel, we downed a few pints and hit the streets in search of London’s finest cuisine. Fish and chips were on the mind of most but no luck. We settled into a random Indian restaurant and find delicious food with horrible service. Everyone being frugal with their pounds order on the cheap end except As Cities Burn CFO, Aaron Lunsford. In the back of his mind he knew this meal was going to be a company expense and didn’t share with the rest of the board. We headed back to the hostel for a quick power nap so we could be sharp for the hostel social event which happened to be poker. The little sneaky Italian, Mikael, beat Cody in the last hand of the night. As the night winds down we all mark day one in London a success and head to our bunks.
The next two days were just as exciting. We soaked up some culture at the Tate Modern art museum and tried street food with the locals. We shopped at second hand stores and thought about all buying leather jackets from a merchant who kept saying, “Don’t worry about the price. I will take care of you.” After offering him 40 pounds for a 300 pound jacket, I think he realized we were not serious. But seeing Cody in a full on biker jacket was worth the pit stop. Chris, Stephen and myself got caught in conversation with a guy from New Zealand and missed our rendezvous with Aaron at the hostel. We disrespected Aaron’s time and wanted to make a public apology for it. That night we went out for pizza with a crew from our hostel. We had Esther the Spanish girl who is working hard to learn the English language. She has a way to go. My favorite line from her was, “Penelope Cruz does not like me.” After finding out she does not know Penelope Cruz she really meant to say, “I do not like Penelope Cruz.” We had Thomas the Frenchman who the night before had found love at the hostel pub and wasn’t shy of his public display of that. Karen the twenty-one year old world traveler from Poland/Jersey Shore who documents her journeys and was kind enough to take some photos of us. You can check that out here. We also had Dabi a guy from Basque Country who is very quirky and Bruna the quiet girl from Brazil. A wonderful group of misfits to have dinner with. Except in my case if you are the tour manager and have to try to split the check with 5 people who barely understand you. I think Dabi stiffed me a pound or two but we will call it even. After dinner our crew headed to London’s CroBar and tried to fit in with the underground rock and roll scene. We did not fit in so we headed back to the Green Man for their midnight happy hour. We met a crazy Australian who only wanted to shoot jager and try to freestyle. He only had one line and kept repeating it. He was like a drunk Australian version of Andy Milonakis. The Green Man could not have been a better place for us to stay. We were sad to leave but excited tour has finally started. We played an awesome show last night at the Bang Bar. I will give more updates later. -Brian
