Back to the States - In Food

I decided to document my trip back to the states with food so here it goes.


Early the morning of the 28th I found myself in the Birmingham Aiport settling for BK.


On my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin I chose the Beef and Pasta over the Chicken and Veg option.


My first meal back in the states was a moderate half-rack of ribs and loaded mashed potatoes from Chilis. (Oh yeah and a Coors Light)


Back at the house on the 29th I enjoyed some Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing and an ice cold Pabst Blue Ribbon.

And later that day I attended a feast and pretty much enjoyed the best that the USA has to offer. I have missed the food here. Go Mountaineers.

Adios England

After returning to England I spent some time in and around London with my friend Bex that I met while traveling in Argentina. Sadly I was all pictured out and didn't get any real pictures except for this one from the train station in Chorleywood (quite a happening locale).

Other than that I have spent my time here saying goodbye to my friends


I will miss that even on a Monday things can be busy (now back to WV) where things are barely busy on the weekend.


I am not sure what to type about this photo but I thought I'd throw it into the mix anyway.

I fly out tomorrow at 8am into Dublin and then from there to Washington DC.

Back to England

I have now made my way back to Birmingham after a couple of great nights in London. I will be here until the 28th when I fly back to the states. I am sure I will post some pics sometime soon but right now I am just recovering and eating a lot.

To Prague and Up to the Polish Border

So here is the beginning of my trip to parts of Eastern Europe. On the morning of the 31st I finalized my move from the flat in Birmingham and took off for Prague.


One last look at the flat as I headed to my flight...


Then in no time I found myself in Prague and instantly on a train (This just shows bad planning on my part)


The train was one of 3 that got me to the border Czech Rep. Town of Nachod. Looking back on it I should have just got a room here but I saw that there was a 10:30pm bus that crossed the border into Poland so I took it.


The bus randomly dropped me off on a street in the next town and there I was at 11 o'clock in a relatively quiet (resort/spa/family) town and in search of a place to stay. (Note: that this would definitely be the kind of town that had a lot of hotels but also the kind of town that was quiet enough that staff were not kept on for late check-ins.)

Leaving Birmingham

Knowing that my lease is ending and that I have booked a flight to Prague for the 31st of July I went out and had a few drinks with some friends. Not really sure what the motivation for the photos were but I think Dani (top left) started the trend. Here is the rundown from top left to right the whole way down. Dani, Amy, Ben, This Guy, Ben, Luke, Emma, Hayley.

All in all it was a pretty good night... for a Sunday.

TEFL Complete

After 20 hours in class spread over 2 days my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class decided to celebrate our escape from the classroom. We are all one step closer to teaching abroad. Goodbye England....I fly out on Friday to tour Eastern Europe.

Packing my life up... Leaving the UK

On July 31st I officially move out of my flat in Birmingham and leave the country on a European tour before ultimately (if all goes to plan) ending up back in the USA sometime in September.

I have to consolidate everything between my 2 bags and leave one here while I travel and pick it up on my way back to the US.


Now I just need some scales to make certain I don't exceed the weight limits on the way home (I exceeded them on the way here but managed to sneak it in free of charge).

Amy is in on the pack as well seeing as how the lease is up so it will be a busy week or so here in Birmingham.

Escaping Swine Flu

A recent report here in England has put out this warning for the future.

"Swine flu: 100,000 UK cases a day by August

Health secretary Andy Burnham announces that the disease can no longer be contained

Thursday, 02 July 2009

More than 100,000 people could be diagnosed with swine flu every day by the end of August, the government said, announcing that the disease can no longer be contained in the UK."

(This could be how it is spreading)

It is nice to know that to escape this rapidly spreading illness I will be retreating to the continent of Africa... wow.... that just doesn't seem right. By the end of July I move out of England and hopefully escape the more than 1 million cases every 2 weeks. It was also noted that Birmingham is a hotbed for the activity.

(Time to get my vitamins in Morocco)

I fly to Morocco on the 6th of July.

PUB GOLF in Moseley

To celebrate Amy's birthday we had a pub golf night. It requires that you dress up like a golfer, do a pub crawl, and score your drinks based on how many pulls you down it in with a different drink at each pub.

Running around Birmingham

In my attempt to get back in shape I have started to frequent the local parks on foot. In Moseley there is only one main park and it requires residents to pay for a key so I just run to the other parks. Granted, they serve as more of the end of my run in one direction than a place to run around inside, but it is nice to get away from the city for a bit.

Here are some shots around Cannon Hill Park.

Summer is trying to start in England

The sun has been making some appearances here in Birmingham England but it just doesn't stay around long enough. It peeks out from behind the clouds just long enough to get you to head out of the house then vanishes behind dark clouds that bring cold wind.

With any luck this guy will manage to soak in a little bit of the sunshine before it hides again. I am off to try now.

Breakin Convention - Birmingham 09

Here is a rather long vid of some break dancing here in Birmingham put on at the Hippodrome.

Riding the bus.... because it's fun!

It is rumored that the 50 bus route is the busiest in all of Europe. It runs up to once every 4 minutes. (Warning this is a boring video because it is just sitting on a bus)

Still Traveling.

I was in Birmingham the other night but haven't got any pictures up as of yet. I now find myself in Wales for a long weekend. Maybe some posts tomorrow.... we'll see.

Baddesley Clinton

The second house I visited over the weekend was Baddesley Clinton. It was a more traditional Tudor that was Catholic based during the time of the Henry VIII so the Church of England became the main church because he wanted to divorce his wife.

This house included priest hides that were built into the house in case priest hunters came to seek out Catholic priests that were not to be in England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddesley_Clinton


The house also has a moat which is a great idea for any house.

It has a lake as well and my historical team joined me as well.
In an attempt to find history, Amy tried to take a new perspective.
I just laid outside and took "artsy" photos because it was a nice day.

History around Birmingham - Packwood House

This weekend I was taken to see some Tudors around Birmingham. The first one was Packwood House and is located to the south of Birmingham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packwood_House



I gathered my team of historical experts and headed out (OK so Amy really isn't into history, but the other to were).
The garden around the house serves as a picnic area for families daily.
Sadly Packwood was heavily remodeled by its last owner so it lacks a little in the history department, but is still a beautiful house.


It does provide views like this and a lake that apparently has Pike in it so swimming was out which is sad because I brought my birthday suit with me.

Brummy Life (AKA Back in Birmingham)

Now that I am back in Brum I have been meeting up with old friends and sleeping for days at a time. If anybody actually checked back on here far enough they would see the three of us together back when I was in Argentina.


Since I have returned there has also been some celebration that left my mouth tasting of tequila the next day.

The other day I also went out to do some shopping at the Bull Ring here in Birmingham and noted the famous skyline.


I have also noted the innate ability of the Brits to name companies in English.... check out the name on the right.

Back in Moseley

Now that my European adventure has been over for some time and the Easter Holiday has passed I find myself being quite lazy. I haven't posted in quite a few days and to be honest because I am now recovering from the restlessness of travel. Now that the return and holiday are out of the way I am sleeping until noon and doing nothing with my days. I did go out to the Bull's Head here in Moseley on Easter Sunday because Monday was a Bank Holiday here so everyone was out on the town.

As of now there are no set plans to do any traveling in the immediate future, but I am sure that I will find somewhere to end up before too long.

Aston Villa v Tottenham

Yesterday I went to see the local football club Aston Villa play here in Aston. The game got going at 4 so a group met up before the game to get in a few pints.

It seemed like a short time later we were sitting in Row H and watching the match.


The seats were very close to the pitch... Granted upon adding it up with some renovations the stadium will eventually hold 51,000 fans in comparison to West Virginia University's Milan Puskar Stadium that currently holds 60,000.


In the end the home club came up short despite some late heroics from Mr. Carew.

Market in Birmingham City Centre

Saturday I went down to the center of the city here to hit up the market for some cheap produce. The market is full of discount deals on fresh food and the occasional loudly yelling merchant trying to draw attention to their products.