Old York and New Friends

Day 13-15: Sunday-Tuesday, October 23rd to 25th, 2011
Sorry for the delay in posting. I’ve been busy. This is a long one, so be wary.
I checked out of my hostel, randomly met Jimmy at the train station (random meetings between us is a pattern, in case you can’t tell), and then waited for the train to York. I was heading to York for a couple days to stay with Toby, my sister’s best friend’s boyfriend. I had never met him and had only swapped a few facebook messages. I didn’t even know what he looked like aside from him being white with brown hair (narrows it down a bit), and wasn’t sure if he knew when I was coming into York, or how he would find me. Yeah, I needed a cell phone and internet.

I get to York, the birthplace of Judi Dench, a little early and wait for Toby, choosing to stay in one spot outside the station. Basically for twenty minutes I’m staring at every car and person that passes by while also trying to maintain a friendly countenance. Eventually, I see a tall, gangly young man headed toward me, and we have a “Andy?” “Toby?” moment, then shake hands, and that’s that, we head to his car, new friends (we were already facebook official after all).

Here’s what you need to know about Toby: he’s my age (I think a year younger), a talented musician (peep his website at http://soundcloud.com/toby-domoney) and loves Dr. Pepper, Bulmer’s (Irish hard cider), Blink-182 and Tesco (the Wal-Mart like cheap store in the UK and Ireland I mentioned previously). The guy does about 4 Dr. Pepper’s a day. I’d judge, but my vices are much worse.
We stop at Tesco en route to his house to pick up food and drink for the night. In Tesco I have one of the most momentous occasions of my life. In the beer section I discover BRAHMA, a Brazilian beer that Ben, Ryan, Emily, Brett and I discovered at a hookah bar in New York City a few years back. Maybe it was the booze, the hookah or the general atmosphere, but if you had asked any of us after that night, we all would have agreed that Brahma was the best beer we had ever tasted in our life (except Ryan, he was elsewhere). The beer is only available in NYC and Toronto in North America, so despite several searches, I’ve been unable to have one since that fateful night.

Until today. I buy a 4 pack, showing a level of restraint I didn’t know I had, excited to have them when cold. I also buy apples and strawberries, the first fresh fruit I had gotten since leaving the states.

We arrive at Toby’s apartment, a nice, renovated farmhouse turned flat (one of a few) fifteen minutes outside of the York city centre. That afternoon the air around his place didn’t smell of shit, but apparently that’s a rarity.

At 4:37 pm I crack open an ice cold Brahma and take a gulp. And, it tastes like shit. Basically Corona. The bottle says it was made in the UK, not Brazil. I half suspect that it’s the wrong Brahma, half suspect it is one and the same, and that Brahma was just overrated based on a far inferior beer palette several years ago. [Spoiler alert: I would confirm that it was almost certainly the same Brahma I had in NY, when I saw the exact same bottle at a Brazilian restaurant in Dublin] Shattered, I turn to an old friend: the interwebs. I basically have an internet orgy, catching up on news, sports, with friends and all that. I spend the entire day and night doing that, as Toby sometimes works nights at Premier Inn (a hotel). This is also when I first started writing my blog with Die Hard in the background, historic times indeed.

We had a pesto pasta dinner that was quite tasty, and had eat n’ mess (I think that’s how it’s spelled, I didn’t want to ask after asking Toby how it was pronounced several times). Eat n’ mess is a delicious and easy dessert you can enjoy today: buy meringue cakes, strawberries, cream/whipped cream, strawberry syrup and basically mix and go nuts. Kudos to Toby.

The next day Toby and I explored York, a very old, cool town. Much of it is still surrounded by its medieval wall, which we walked around, and also checked out the York Minster, the largest medieval cathedral in Northern Europe. Even on a random Monday York was bustling. It’s apparently a big tourist town for its history, shopping and ruins.

With the help of Toby I also picked out a shit UK phone through Orange (a big UK provider, apparently). Finally. Yay new alarm clock!

Ate at Frank ‘n Danny’s, a NY-Italian place with great bruschetta and a lame chicken wrap, then played Madden 12 for the first time against someone who didn’t know the rules of football. So I did okay.

We did dinner at a chinese place with a name that I cannot decipher in my notes, where Toby one-upped my spicy szechuan beef by ordering chicken cooked in a paper bag. Seriously. Also, Toby is one of the few people who can not only eat more than me, but can eat faster than me. Except when spice is involved, then I win.

I also discovered UK TV programming, which is just as bad and hilarious as the U.S. During the day we watched Top Gear, one of the UK’s most popular “reality” shows about old Brits that do crazy shit with cars around the world. It’s awesome. The U.S. version is apparently shit, which doesn’t surprise me. At night we watched Young, Foreign & Over Here, about travellers (like me but Eastern European) trying to make it big in London. London is seen as kind of the America of the early 20th century by these people, and they are rewarded with this view by getting bed bugs, losing their life savings (showing up to job interviews wearing baseball hats doesn’t help), learning they aren’t as good at English as they think, crying a lot, and blaming everyone except themselves. It’s the saddest, funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It also affirms my belief that London sucks.
The next day, because I had seen many cool eateries/stands around York, I told Toby I’d treat him to a random food orgy. We each had crepes (banana, chocolate sauce, cream, nuts on mine), a cream doughnut at Thomas the Baker (a famous Yorkshire bakery), a 1 pound sandwich (I had some weird salami mix with BAH-sil mayo, and its 1 pound money wise not weight) and finished at the York hogroast for a leg of pork, cooked apples and stuffing on a roll which we ate in a beautiful park outside the Museum with the sun shining. That was when Toby and I got to second base. It was a good day.

Then, we went shopping and I bought a Acer Aspire netbook. The guy also threw in a sleeve for free. It was a pretty big purchase. The UK keyboard is a wee bit different than the U.S. one, but not as bad as some obviously. Still QWERTY and all that. And I didn’t think about it at the time, but my universal adaptor was tailored for American outlets, not UK one’s, so when I got to the continent (and I do, really), I had to buy a pricey one. Whoops. I considered buying a netbook or a IPAD before I left, and I really wish I did, but I’m so happy with my Acer thus far.

Anyways, at night we met Toby’s friend Dan for drinks at Yates’, a cheap pub to watch Manchester United (their team) play Aldershot. Had John Smith’s, a fairly local beer. The pint was 2.27, and the Coke I got for Toby: 1.50. And no refills. It’s tough on soda lovers in Europe. Poor Toby.

That night we got a massive bag of Indian food at Tesco to share, as well as my first Scotch egg (a egg wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs that is actually not bad). Very cheap and surprisingly tasty, and a good coda for my trip to York, a much appreciated break from partying, striking out with girls and moving/stressing around, all thanks to Toby. The guy was a great host, had a comfy couch to sleep on, and didn’t freak me out driving on the wrong side of the road too much. And considering I’m the 5th highest paid player on his fictional franchise in FIFA, I think he kinda liked me too. Watch out Jessica, I’m going for him.

Next: Meeting my Mom’s old college buddy

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