We're in Newcastle

Our Internet was free in London. Well, at the hotel you had to pay for it but we were able to find free Wi-Fi so we never paid for it. Here we are paying for it. So there may not be as many updates. 

Anyway, we took the train from London to Newcastle yesterday morning. The train ride went well. I enjoy riding trains. We got into Newcastle about noon. Our hotel is right across from the train station. We dropped off our bags and went for lunch. We found a place called the Big Mussel and had lunch. I had a delicious pasta dish and Curt had a bowl of mussels. I tasted a couple. They were really yummy. After that we found a bar with a million TVs playing a football match. We stopped in for a pint and watched some football. We noticed Poncho's Stag Party while we were there. All the guys had on T-shirts and names on the back. My favorite was Tito's Love Child. We started noticing a lot of stag and hen parties. I mean, they were everywhere. And man, they start partying early.

After the football match we came back to our hotel to check in. I took a nap and Curt did some wandering around. He went to the stadium to pick up our football tickets for the game tomorrow. He said in line in front of him were about 3 guys who tried to buy tickets. The woman at the counter told them they were sold out. Curt gets our tickets. Then behind him is a mom and a little boy. The little boy is all dressed up in Newcastle gear. The mom asks if there are any tickets for sale. Nope. Curt said that almost killed him and he was close to giving them away. Awwww. Curt said the mom told the boy, Well, your Uncle William is a Newcastle season ticket holder so you will have to ask him to take you to a game. 

Curt and I did some more wandering. Seeing all kinds of stag and hen parties. Most people were dressed up. Very interesting. I had a pint of Newcastle at a place called The Strawberry. The bartender actually told us Newcastle in the bottle is better than on draft. Can you believe that? I still had it on draft. I mean, I can get a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale in the States. After that more wandering. We ended up eating at a place called The Slug and Lettuce. Nothing special. But man, that place got crowded. We asked our waitress about all the stag parties. She said she has no idea why they all come to Newcastle. 

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We have never had coffee that strong before. Bleh. But the food was good. I got cleaned up. I have to say the hairdryer was annoying. You have to hold down a button with your thumb to keep it on. It is a very awkward spot and my thumbs got tired. So my hair is still damp. And now we are using the Internet.

Shortly we are going to take a tour of the Newcastle football stadium. We get in free for being members. Then likely pub crawling after that. There are pubs around here everywhere. And a lot of the buildings are super old.

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention ... no smoking in England. Well, outside there is. But I was worried about all the smoke. But it has been fine. And apparently Ireland is the same way. Woo-hoo! A couple of years ago my friend and co-worker Alex went to Spain for two weeks. She came home with a smoker's cough and she isn't a smoker.