Monday, September 28, 2009
London!
My new friends and I visited London for the weekend, and we had a blast. We took the bus there, which was a four hour bus ride. After taking a couple buses within the last couple weeks I have realized it is impossible to sleep on a bus. Anyways when we got into London we took the "tube" aka the subway to get on another bus to get to the bed and breakfast we were staying in. From what I observed we were staying in a West Ham supporting bar. For those of you who don't know... West Ham is a soccer (football) team in the English Premier League. I'll be honest... we weren't staying in the best part of town but it was the cheapest place we could find. We woke up very early both days to catch a lovely breakfast provided by the nicest old woman we had ever seen. On Saturday we took the train back into London and we did bus tours. We saw pretty much all the major parts of London in which when we get wifi at our apartment I will be posting over 200 photos. When evening came we decided to take a ghost tour of London, in which our tour guide Phil took us around to famous places in London and Westminster where ghosts have been seen, and also to his favorite pubs. The pubs were not included in the tour guidelines but I think Phil just likes to drink on the job. None the less we had a great time listening to his ghost stories and grabbing beers with him. He took us to a Sherlock Holmes pub where I had a Sherlock Holmes ale... which was delicious by the way. After getting a couple more beers and dinner we headed back to our place and crashed. On Sunday we did a very long Beatles walk which was guided by a slightly hung over Phil. We saw many monumental places in Beatles as well as rock history. We saw places the Beatles played, where the Stones were discovered by record labels, the venue where Jimmy Hendrix did his last live performance 2 days before his death with the singer from The Animals, which is ironically the same place where The Clash members Joe Strummer and Mick Jones started The Clash waiting in line to see Tom Waits... and the same place where Genesis signed their first record contract. We saw the old Apple studios where The Beatles played their last live performance, and the studio where amazing bands such as Queen, Elton John, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and many others recorded some of their most popular hits. If you couldn't tell... I really enjoyed this tour. We also went on the London Eye, which is pretty much a very large Ferris wheel that you can overlook all of London on. That was pretty neat. Overall I had an amazing time. It couldn't have been better in my opinion. In other news I start classes tomorrow at the crack of 1 p.m. which is nice. My other two classes will start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday which is quite early considering I have to catch an hour long bus ride to school but oh well. It's only one class each day. On a separate subject can someone please let me know through any social networking portal how the Bengals beat the Steelers? In what crazy, upside down world did that happen in? Also even though the Bills lost, everyone knew it was going to happen so I am not that disappointed. I would also like to commend the Detroit Lions on their victory. I never lost faith. That's all for now. Ok bye.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Mullet finds a home.
I arrived in Manchester a couple days ago. It was strange because there wasn't anybody in the customs area so Cliff and I pretty much walked into the country unnoticed. After catching a cab I finally arrived at my new apartment. I mean no offense to my home in Buffalo because it is my HOME and there is no other place I would be more proud to call my home, but wow this place is much nicer (and much more expensive). I now live pretty much a duplex house with 5 other (amazing) people. It's funny how comfortable I feel around my new roommates, and I am not complaining about that. I have a feeling we are going to get on just fine as long as i'm not to much of a bother. My room is on the third floor and it is HUGE. I have a big bed about quadruple the closet space I would ever need. I even have a vanity area! I doesn't think ive looked in the mirror yet but I feel like i'll have to at some point. We live in a very nice area of town full of little shops and pound stores (kind of like a dollar store). We live in an area enriched with Muslim culture which I am very excited about. Apparently a couple of politicians live near us and apparently we live about a 5-10 minute walk from where some of the members of Oasis grew up. I don't really listen to them but it's cool none the less. As far as school goes, I am excited to start. The school is centered in downtown Manchester, about 40 minutes away from where I live. The public transportation here is amazing though so it is not a problem getting here. Downtown Manchester is... how should I put this... spectacular? Better than spectacular? I don't know... but you get the point. I talked to a guy who was helping out with orientation who used to be in a band and he informed me that the local music scene here is fantastic. I'll be taking his reccomendations on places to frequent while I'm here. Plus Regina Spektor, the Yeah Yeah, Yeahs, Phoenix, ETID, and others will be playing local venues during my stay here. Excited? You bet your ass I am! Until next time... so long.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Final hours in Ireland
Time: About 4:30 P.M. September 20th
Place: Eatery in the Shannon Airport, Ireland
Status: Bored (Hence the Blogging).
To whom it may concern,
I am spending my last hours in Ireland as I type. We have been in this airport for almost an hour and a half, and our flight does not leave for another 3 ½ hours. We had to make the choice of either arriving as early as we did or risk arriving about an hourish before our flight. In hindsight I wish we would have chosen the latter. This airport is dead and when we came into Ireland we found out the Irish customs system pretty much asks “Do you have anything with you that you think wouldn't be allowed in the country?” The correct answer was no and we were on our way.
To recap my stay in Ireland, we arrived on the 16th very early in the morning and pretty much walked from the plane to the bus. We were on the bus for about four hours until we reached the town of Westport. It was a lovely little town. We were met by Clifford's friend Donal minutes after we exited the bus and he showed us around Westport with his girlfriend Roison. Don't worry... if I saw a name typed like that I wouldn't be able to pronounce it either. The correct pronunciation is Row-Sheen. Anywho after a short stay in Westport we hopped on the ferry to the island that Donal lives on off the coast of Ireland, Clare Island. I don't really feel the need to go into detail about the scenery of the island because I think my pictures will do it justice. We met Donal's family whom were all amazing people, and incredibly hospitable. We spent our days on the island hiking around, taking pictures, and avoiding stepping in sheep droppings. Yes, this island probably had more sheep than people. Actually now that I think of it that island has tamed animals everywhere ie donkeys, dogs, obviously sheep, chickens and cats. My favorite sheep was Steven. All I can say about Steven is he is a girl, but they still called him Steven which I enjoyed very much, he/she was a fighter, and his/her sister tasted delicious yesterday. I must say the food Donal's mother Elizabeth made was delicious. Everything I ate I absolutely loved, and I'm not just saying that. We met many of Donal's friends whom were all great people, and we shared an unforgettable night (well I can't really say unforgettable, I remember most of the details but due to Guiness and Jameson some of the smaller notes get a bit fuzzy) at the local pub. We sang, Cliff danced, and Cliff made a huge impression on the Irish women. By the way, we arrived just in the nick of time to enjoy the simple pleasantries of “singles weekend”. Singles weekend is when all the singles on the island get together to enjoy the company of other singles (ages 35 and older... much older) and pretty much drink a ton. It was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. So after four fun filled days of living up to the title of “tourist” Cliff and I packed our bags and headed for the ferry, back on the bus, to there airport where I sit now.
Overall out of ten I give my stay on Clare Island an 11.4. Yeah... it was that cool. I really enjoyed spending a couple days in a very rural part of Europe before I arrive in Manchester. Although I am also very excited to arrive in Manchester, get into my new apartment, and start school. We'll see how things turn out. So until next time I get bored enough to inform everyone of what is going through my brain, so long and see ya when I see ya.
Tony Fisher
ps. Start using the word gobshite. It's a very worth while word that you may want to add into your vocabulary.
Pps. The worst thing about not being in the states (other than not being with my family and friends whom I love very much) is missing everything the entire NFL season. If the Lions don't win a game this entire season again I will blame it on my absence. Go Bills!
Place: Eatery in the Shannon Airport, Ireland
Status: Bored (Hence the Blogging).
To whom it may concern,
I am spending my last hours in Ireland as I type. We have been in this airport for almost an hour and a half, and our flight does not leave for another 3 ½ hours. We had to make the choice of either arriving as early as we did or risk arriving about an hourish before our flight. In hindsight I wish we would have chosen the latter. This airport is dead and when we came into Ireland we found out the Irish customs system pretty much asks “Do you have anything with you that you think wouldn't be allowed in the country?” The correct answer was no and we were on our way.
To recap my stay in Ireland, we arrived on the 16th very early in the morning and pretty much walked from the plane to the bus. We were on the bus for about four hours until we reached the town of Westport. It was a lovely little town. We were met by Clifford's friend Donal minutes after we exited the bus and he showed us around Westport with his girlfriend Roison. Don't worry... if I saw a name typed like that I wouldn't be able to pronounce it either. The correct pronunciation is Row-Sheen. Anywho after a short stay in Westport we hopped on the ferry to the island that Donal lives on off the coast of Ireland, Clare Island. I don't really feel the need to go into detail about the scenery of the island because I think my pictures will do it justice. We met Donal's family whom were all amazing people, and incredibly hospitable. We spent our days on the island hiking around, taking pictures, and avoiding stepping in sheep droppings. Yes, this island probably had more sheep than people. Actually now that I think of it that island has tamed animals everywhere ie donkeys, dogs, obviously sheep, chickens and cats. My favorite sheep was Steven. All I can say about Steven is he is a girl, but they still called him Steven which I enjoyed very much, he/she was a fighter, and his/her sister tasted delicious yesterday. I must say the food Donal's mother Elizabeth made was delicious. Everything I ate I absolutely loved, and I'm not just saying that. We met many of Donal's friends whom were all great people, and we shared an unforgettable night (well I can't really say unforgettable, I remember most of the details but due to Guiness and Jameson some of the smaller notes get a bit fuzzy) at the local pub. We sang, Cliff danced, and Cliff made a huge impression on the Irish women. By the way, we arrived just in the nick of time to enjoy the simple pleasantries of “singles weekend”. Singles weekend is when all the singles on the island get together to enjoy the company of other singles (ages 35 and older... much older) and pretty much drink a ton. It was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. So after four fun filled days of living up to the title of “tourist” Cliff and I packed our bags and headed for the ferry, back on the bus, to there airport where I sit now.
Overall out of ten I give my stay on Clare Island an 11.4. Yeah... it was that cool. I really enjoyed spending a couple days in a very rural part of Europe before I arrive in Manchester. Although I am also very excited to arrive in Manchester, get into my new apartment, and start school. We'll see how things turn out. So until next time I get bored enough to inform everyone of what is going through my brain, so long and see ya when I see ya.
Tony Fisher
ps. Start using the word gobshite. It's a very worth while word that you may want to add into your vocabulary.
Pps. The worst thing about not being in the states (other than not being with my family and friends whom I love very much) is missing everything the entire NFL season. If the Lions don't win a game this entire season again I will blame it on my absence. Go Bills!
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