I spent two weeks in England. (Which obviously makes me a complete expert.) The best part was the pub culture. We have places that call themselves "pubs" in the U.S., but they aren't. They're just restaurants or bars. Typically, American restaurants have giant pieces of garbage (old bikes, telephone boxes, toys,) strapped to the wall above your head, and I, having grown up in California, am perpetually worried about them falling on me in a freak earthquake. Not so in England. The pubs in London are unpretentious places to eat and drink. Solid meals are served there. People are friendly and at the same time mind their own business. I could live in English pubs.
I probably looked like such a moron while I was there, always drinking just one too many and looking around saying something like, "Wow! This is great!" about a place that was just 100% average.
But, you know, it was great.
Scot Frazier and his girlfriend are on the cusp of moving to London -- he just got a passport for their cat. He works for Wes Biggs now, doing sysadmin stuff for a service that puts advertisements on cell phones. It's all an excuse to be able to move to England and live in pubs.
ReplyDeleteI could see doing that.
ReplyDeleteI suppose our pubs are a bit of a draw. They probably don't sell pork scratchings, prawn cocktail flavoured chips and real ale in bars. Or do they? Not on telly.
ReplyDeleteThere are places one can go here for the real ale, but the rest is lacking, yes. It's the all in one place idea that's so appealing, I think. You can go to a brewery for good beer, but I don't know. It's just the taken for granted normalcy of it all that I liked in England. If only we had a good pub with pork scratchings (?!) and good ale for every McDonald's here- that would be nice.
ReplyDeleteYou touched on the exact reason I refuse to step foot in a TGI Fridays.
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