Thursday, July 30, 2009

England Isn't That Bad...

28/7/09

1032 (local time)

Well, I've had an awesome sleep, because I'm in no rush to do anything! I'm currently staying at Ash’s mums house.

Ash is one of the blokes that I met over in Vassiliki, he was the food and beverages manager over in Vass but came home early because he was totally over the work. So he’s been really kind in helping me out whilest I've been over here.

I arrived in Lewes on Saterday at about 900 am in the morning. The whole trip was quite easy. A plane from Athens to London Gatwick (which was delayed 3 hours) then get off at London Gatwick, wait for my bags to arrive. I accidently fell asleep waiting for my bags, so I stressed when I woke up and realised that my bag was the only bag in the middle of the whole entire airport. But... give me a break it was about 3 am in the morning and I hadn’t sleep much in the past few days.

Anyway, so I slept in the airport that night, on some really uncomfortable seats. Not the best sleep I have ever had,. I think I slept from about 3 in the morning till about 6 in the morning! So there wasn’t much sleep involved. But we will carry on!

I eventually found myself on the train on my way to a little town called Lewes (near Brighton) this was after I slagged a bloke about cheating in the Ashes.

On the train I was, I was reading my book for a bit (that Jamie the chef gave me... cheers big fella) but quickly glanced outside and noticed what once was booring outside was beautiful England countryside.

I arrived in Lewes and asked the train bloke where I needed to be, he asked his mate who directed me up the road... no worries.

After walking up a massive hill I made it too the Elephant and Castle. Elephant and Castle is owned by one of Ash’s good mate called Dec! I have now renamed him Deks. When I arrived, it was all closed up, so I sat out the front, waiting until it opened.

I ended up tapping on the window and having my first good sleep in a while in the Wii room on the couch.

Dek’s treated me too the famous Elle Burger! That sorted me right out. I then also tried the local beer called Harvey’s, but ill get onto that later on ron!

That night, after a few beers, I met Oli, who is another one of Ash’s good mates, who took me out to Brighton to meet some of his mates! Wow... was it a big night! We ended up getting home at about 5 o clock in the morning, with the sun rising! Good times!!!

The next day involved a lot of sleeping and relaxing!.. I don't really remember what occurred that day, to be honest. I think I drank some more Harvey’s beer...

Anyway, then it was Sunday. I had a lovely little sleep in, on the couch in the Wii room. I woke at about 11 o clock (solid sleep in). Did a bit of a internet sesh and then Deks took me too went to Tesco’s which is the MASSIVE supermarket that own everything... You can buy a 6 pack of Fosters (as if ya would), and then get some home insurance... its properly amazing.

Then headed off to the Brass in the Park. In typical England weather (from what I've been told) it was grey overcast and showery. Unfortunately the band only played for 30 minutes due to the poor weather, but it was good listening to a proper English band in the park, I felt very cultured...

I walked back to the Elephant and Castle (Elle) to find Ash back home! It was cool seeing ‘old mate’ again. We had a few too many beers and slept in the Elle and had another good sleep in.

So that brings us too Monday... Monday was relaxed, because Ash was back home after 3 months so I was introduced to a bunch of his mates. I saw my first Argus shop... it was amazing. Get this guys, its this place where you go through this MASSIVE book to find something you want, you then look up the number of the thing you want in the little computer to see if they have stock, and then you write it on a card and take it up to the people at the counter who get it for ya... its properly awesome.

ANYWAY... that takes us too today... pretty big day actually...

Started off pretty late, but we eventually got cracking. We c\aught the bus from Ash’s house in a lovely little place called Newick to Lewes to explore the Downs, which are pretty much a bunch of big mountains, goofed around up there, and then set off to the Harvey’s Brewery Tour that I scored for myself and Ash.

Harvey’s is a beer that is brewed in Lewes, its a family beer that has been brewing since 1790. Everybody knows about Harvey’s in Lewes and around the area, which makes it quite a famous beer. We later found out, that it is so famous in fact that there is a 2 year waiting list just to get on the tour... who knows how we got on, I'm assumeing its because of my good looks and so forth.

I didn’t really understand what the tour guide (Peter) was going on about, purely because I have NO IDEA how beer is brewed, but I did my best to try and learn.

Anyway, we did a whole tour of the building, and then it came to the best bit... the sample session. This is where Ash and myself just went to town. We tried all the beers, peter said that we wernt allowed to sit in the room, but we found some cosy chairs in the sample room and just tried all the beers... and ill be honest, got quite drunk in the process, it didn’t help that we had no food in our stomachs!

We wandered off home, had some fish and chips and prepared ourselves for tomorrow... it was going to be a big day. We were off to London to see the big clock, that bridge meet the queen and see that river “Thames” aka Tems!

Peace Out!!!

3 comments:

  1. ha ha "I'm assumeing its because of my good looks and so forth." love it. Sounds like you're having a blast Steve! Keep powering on! Kate xox

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can almost start up a beer drinkers guide through greece, Turkey and now England!!!

    Good blog and a great read - well done!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. keep goin Fig , u r on fire mate , gr8 to hear your news, glad u enjoyed Pommy land ,, Go nuts in Dahab !!!!!!!!!!! Talk soon EB

    ReplyDelete