Delroy!

First it was Jamie Oliver. You know the young Brit chef who is kind of cute but not really. We stumbled onto his book signing in Borough Market on our last day ın London. Since the book was bigger than our backpacks, we passed on the signing, but stood around long enough to watch him flirt with his fans.

The next sighting came later that day as we sat down at a restaurant in Heathrow Airport. I looked over and saw a clean cut, middle age guy in sensible brown shoes, khaki pants, white shirt, red tie and blue blazer. Kind of looks like a politician. Hey, that`s Kucinich. Dave of course didn`t believe me, and since his back was turned he couldn`t catch a good glimpse of him. Dave taunted me to go over and talk to him, but what would I say? “Hey there Mr. Kucinich. I have a lot of respect for you, but never vote for you for Presıdent.” Or Dave`s suggestion was, “Hey there. So what`s it like to meet Hillary?” So while we sat around thinking of inappropriate things to say to him, all the while arguing if it was really him at all, I think my continous staring probably unnerved him. He took his food to go and bolted for the gate.

Our last sighting came as we were kicking back in the shade just outside the ticket gate at Petra. In the distance we saw a good looking black man talking with one of the guards from the gate – clearly getting, or trying to get, some kind of special treatment. Hmm. Not tall enough and not enough bling to be an NBA player. As he walked past us to the gate office, Dave and I both caught a good glimpse of him. Hey, I`ve seen that guy in something. He was very striking, and definitely ignoring the nosy onlookers. Somehow Dave came up with the name Delroy Lindo. I`d never heard of him, but I certainly recognized this guy. Again, it just didn`t seem right to walk up to him and say “I know I`ve seen you in movies but who are you?” Or better yet, “So what`s it like to meet Jet Li?” So we let him go in peace, but if he was looking to keep a low profile maybe he should have left his driver and SUV at the gate and taken a donkey like all the other tourists.

Say Cheese!

Truth be told we probably wouldn’t have gone to the UK at all had our One World Explorer tickets not demanded we pass through Heathrow to get from Africa to any location in North America. Okay, on second thought the trip wouldn’t really have been complete for one of us (me) had we not been able to catch a game at Anfield. But for the reasons above the UK wasn’t on our “Must See” list for this trip (plus, have you seen the exchange rates lately? Help a brother out Central Banking System).

Anyway, I’m really glad we did. It was a little bit like being back in the states for a few days (sorry if that offends any British readers, but bear with me), we got to converse in English with locals who use that as their first language, meet a long lost family member, got to see a rock show (the Polyphonic Spree at the Astoria -narrowly missed the Beastie Boys again) and attend a professional sporting event. All this and the extra bonus of being able to drink the tap water and eat all the leafy greens our hearts desired – haven’t done that since mid-March!

All in all good things, we will probably see our English Cousins sooner rather than later.

Bıg Ben

• Transport can be expensive. Buses tend to be cheaper than the train for getting around the country, but if you`re traveling mid week and buy tickets in advance, you can get a good deal on the train. Getting around Central London is pretty easy on foot. For longer journeys around town or tired feet, the Tube is pleasant but pricey. If you are planning to do a few things outside the central area, it`s best to buy a Travel Card and take advantage of all day riding. Personally, I prefer the bus. A day pass is less than a return fare and much less than the Tube and you get the pleasure of riding around town on the double decker.

• Lodging is a source of much pain. Hostels are plentiful throughout the U.K. but the prices are often more than you would pay for a decent hotel some places in the U.S and many are complete crap. In Liverpool our options were slim since much of the accomodation was already booked. We opted for the backpacker stalwart known as the Embassie. It`s the cheapest place in town, but only has dorm rooms. So we squeezed in with several others and tolerated the comings and goings of our roommates, one little shared bath and one long night of very loud snoring. You know it`s bad when Dave gets up, shakes a stranger`s bed and tells him to roll over. All this luxury cost us about $60 US a night. In London, we stayed at the massive Generator (better when pronounced with Schwarzenegger accent). The Generator is a full service mega hostel. It`s full of people, but is in a good location, clean, well serviced and provides free breakfast and good, cheap dinners, plus a free drink on arrival. A private room with bunk beds (we`ve gotten used to this), a sink and shared bath ran about $81 US a night.

• Food runs the gamut in England. You can find all types and at all prices. Many restaurants offer good lunch deals, and there are plenty of cheap and tasty ethnic restaurants around town. A budget meal for the two of us was probably about $15 US – and it doesn`t get much cheaper than that.

• Touristy Stuff is often free, though some entrance fees are a little pricey. We had considered visiting Buckingham Palace – which has additional private residences open this month – but tickets would have been around $60 per person. This was money better spent on LFC tickets – which were roughly the same price.

We`ve both been to England before, and will definitely return again, but with more cash and a paycheck waiting in the bank at home.

Big Ben - Parliament!

He certainly has a career as a tour guide to fall back on, but he seems to be doing well for himself in the UK – he qualifies for a passport next year and he seems very settled.

Welcome to Liverpool

Outside Looking In

Back in 2000 a few friends and myself did a “football” tour of the UK, we booked everything ourselves and got tickets to maybe six different games at different clubs, it was a great time and pretty easy to set up – those days are gone. Since then clubs have thrown up huge barriers to prevent scalping – you have to be a season ticket holder, a member of the “supporters” club or have a documented history of ticket purchases to get into a game – while this may prevent scalpers from getting tickets, one unfortunate consequence is that if you are a casual fan you’re last in line, and generally that means you’re locked out.

This is what happened top us. The game sold out weeks in advance, even through the opponents (Derby County) are the English soccer equivalents of the LA Clippers. We looked high and low, but there was nothing available. We went to Liverpool anyway, looking for a miracle.

When you’re looking for a miracle the best place to start is with a priest right? Enter Father Andrew Small – a former coworker of LeeAnne`s and whose hometown is Liverpool. A week or so before we arrived she mailed him to get his recommendations on what to do in town (beyond soccer). Father Andrew, knowing that I was a Liverpool fan, asked if we were going to a game. LeeAnne reported the sad news – we didn’t have tickets and it looked like we wouldn’t find any.

What happened next is what people in the movie industry call a “Reveal”: Father Andrew wrote back saying that his uncle – one Bobby Campbell – in fact use to play for Liverpool back in the day – before being the manager at Fulham and Chelsea – and he might be able to get us tickets. Not just normal tickets mind you – as a former player not only can he conjure tickets out of the air at the last minute he can also get “uber-tickets” – tickets for seats with the “Old Boys” – former Liverpool players. Well, that was unexpected.

Many hands make easy work. As we arrived ın Liverpool an ocean away in Washington Father Andrew was calling his Mum Alice in Liverpool, who was then calling her brother Bobby in London, who was calling his connections at the box office at Liverpool.

His contact at Liverpool FC turns out to be Brian Hall, (who set up the winning goal in Liverpools 1974 FA Cup win over Newcastle United). Who found a pair of seats for us and had his assistant drop off the tickets at Alice Small`s house, she was then was kind enough to meet us downtown for a cup of tea – lovely woman. All of this happened within 48 hours before the game, we (Okay, I) went from the deepest despair to the happiest glee, and I have many people to thank for it. We still aren’t sure how to repay everyone, someone suggested we name our first male child after Father Andrew, but I think he would be teased horribly if his first name was “Father” don’t you?

In the Game

Any game at Anfield would have been great – there is a terrific atmosphere there – but this game was remarkable if I do say so. Not just because of the scoreline – a 6-0 win for Liverpool – and not just because it was my first “real” Liverpool game, but with the win Liverpool went to the top of the League for the first tıme in over five years! Derby Co. has two Amerıcan players on the roster Eddie Lewis and Benny Feilhaber, and luckily they were spared the mauling that the rest of their team took. Derby never stood a chance really, but I’ll say this – their fans were great, and very vocal throughout the match. They had the whole stadium in tears with chants of “We’ll win 7-6″ in the closing moments of the match.

And the seats! Nothing to complain about here the tickets themselves said “Former Player” on them and we were sitting behind former Liverpool Captain Ron Yeats, and fellow great Geoff Strong – I was too petrified to talk to them, much less get my picture taken with them.

As we left the match everyone was deservedly excited with our team looking good and on top of the table. But an old fan who has obviously seen more that we have walked out of the stadium sighed and said to himself “Ah, delusions of grandeur again…”

The Aftermath

You know, a funny thing happened on the way home from the soccer match… Back in 2000 when we were in Liverpool we went to an FA Cup match between Everton and Tranmere, we took the bus up to the stadium, but after the match the buses were so full we ended up walking the 5km back into the city, and this time almost exactly the same thing happened – only this time I knew where I was going, no one twisted their ankle and there were no kids throwing rocks at us shouting “Go Back to Tranmere!”