The Pats vs. The Mohammeds

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s day! We were in London this weekend and my cousin Alex came to visit us. Alex and I spent Thursday and Friday sightseeing, but the main event for him was the Arsenal match on Saturday. Alex left Sunday and Pat & I went to the St. Patrick’s Day celebration and parade (yes, they do celebrate the Irish holiday here).

I was teasing Alex that he should be nervous about what I might write about him on this blog (that his mom, aunts, and grandma would read). Being the second year law student, he immediately retorted that he would file a misrepresentation charge against me! So, I guess what I am saying is that this post might be a little bland, but it is not my fault!

Alex arrived late Thursday morning and we set out to get lunch and do something, but with no definite plan (except not a museum). We ended up walking through Harrods (which is insane by the way. I felt like I was in Vegas!) then grabbing lunch at a pub nearby. Alex started to feel a bit jet lagged and the cold rainy weather did not help. We ended up getting on a city bus and just staying on it. It was our own little tour of London! For dinner we went to The Pig’s Ear, a “gastropub” I had read about. It was the first time we went to a British restaurant and it was actually really good!

Friday Alex was my guinea pig for a plan for visitors. We took the tube towards the city and crossed the Millennium Foot Bridge to the Tate Modern museum to get a view of the London skyline from the café on the 7th floor. It was great, so great that I saw a photo of the exact same view in this week’s Economist (in the London vs. Paris article). Then we walked over to Borough Market for lunch (yum!), crossed the Tower Bridge, and then walked around the Tower of London. It worked really well! For those of you coming to visit us, I will probably suggest the same plan. Everyone here raves about Borough Market, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It is a fresh food market combined with food stands. I got a very good falafel wrap and Alex got a Thanksgiving Day sandwich (turkey, stuffing & cranberry sauce on a baguette). Who said the food in the UK is bad? We were 2 for 2 on the weekend!

The main event was Saturday – the Arsenal match! Arsenal is a Football Club (soccer) and Alex has been a huge fan for several years, but never had the opportunity to see them play in person. Saturday was like Christmas morning! We headed to the area near the stadium to find a pub to pre-game. We ended up at The Arsenal Tavern and met some real live Arsenal fans, who loved to make fun of my accent and tried to get me to speak with a cockney accent. Never fear, I am still Chicago through & through! Here is a picture of Alex and Pat before they headed into the stadium:



We only had 2 tickets, so I went to a movie while they went to the match. Unfortunately, Arsenal did not win, but they didn’t lose either – it was a 1-1 draw.

Sunday we said good-bye to Alex and headed to Trafalgar Square to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day and to attempt to break a world record. Yep, you read that correctly. Pat participated in a campaign to break a world record for having the most people with the same first name gathered in one place. The previous record was set in 2005 by 1,096 Mohammeds in Dubai. It was another cold & rainy day here so we were nervous about the turnout, but they did it! GO PATS! One small step for mankind . . . Click here to read about the campaign that organized the event. Look at this smile, he is so proud to be Patrick! Here is a picture of Pat with his souvenir green thumb: