143/356: Couchsurfing Meeting Soho, London

Early on Saturday morning I headed towards London for the fourth and final (?) time this year.

Saturday was full of new things. A new soft drink, a new shop and a new hotel are the things that come right to mind but there were plenty more. But the most noteworthy was the fact that I went to my first couchsurfing meeting on the British Isles.

I went to London by myself to watch another NFL game (more on that in the next post) and decided I didn't want to spend the whole Saturday evening by myself. At Piccadilly Circus I met up with around 20 like minded people and we then headed out to a pub in china town.

It was a really friendly crowd and I had some interesting conversations. After about two hours we decided to go on to a club and since I didn't feel like that, I ended the night there. It was a good moment to do so. I had some drinks, had a good time and that was exactly what I had looked for that evening. I think I can call this a successful first couchsurfing experience in England.

116/356: Vikings vs Steelers at Wembley, London

Make no mistake, I have seen and done many great things in my life and since I started this project but being one of 86'000 at the Wembley stadium was a moment that gave me goosebumps and something that I will remember forever.

The whole reason I was in London this weekend, was to watch the NFL regular season game Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers. As a Steelers fan, I have been looking forward to this moment a long time. Considering I was expecting a lot, it says a lot that my expectations were exceeded.

The whole experience was fantastic. Starting with the walk up to the stadium with all the fans, waiting for the game to beginn, watching the pre-game show or the actual game itself. Those Americans really know how to puit on a show and get you hyped.

The game was a close affair that was only decided when the Steelers QB fumbled the ball 6 yards from the the vikings end zone with just a few seconds in the game. So if I have to have a downside, I guess it would be that the "wrong" team won the game. Still I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. It was the seventh game that has been played in London and from what we heard, it was the best so far.

But to be honest, the thing that was nearly the most fascinating, was how they managed to get 85'000+ fans away from the venue within a very short period. As you can imagine, many many people were waiting to get on the tube and we were prepared to wait for a long long time. But I was mistaking. Within 20 min we were on the tube and on our way back to Paddington. I am really impressed how they managed to do that. When you see the pictures below, you will understand where I am coming from.

Right now I am SO glad that I witnessed this great event and can't wait to be back at Wembley to see the Jaguars play the 49ers at the end of October.

Leading up to the venue.

Standing just outside the stadium, still not quite able to believe how big this thing is.

The Wembley is the second biggest stadium in Europe and oh.my.god what an atmosphere in there!

Kickoff

Panorama shot of the stadium. Just take in those dimensions. I think the biggest stadium I have ever been to had just about half of the seats of this place.

For many fans it didn't really matter which teams played the game. It was all about watching an awesome NFL game "close" to home.

See those masses wanting to get to the tube...

...maybe now you can see why I was suprised how fast we got home.

To finish this post I would like to give you a little glimpse of the action. Thanks for the person who made this video! (it wasn't me)

46/356: Pret A Manger

I had lunch at Heathrow today. To be exact at Pret A Manger. Seems to be the hot new chain thing. They are literally everywhere in London. The have some nice food and drinks there.The Sandwich/ Ice Tea I picked were good. I enjoyed the fact that the Ice Tea lacked sugar. The Sandwich was good I am sure. Trouble was that I chewed too many chewing gum at the festival yesterday and now my jaw muscles hurt. I kid you not. Hasn't happened since I quite smoking...

After yesterday's highlight, I am back to doing mundane new things. So far I only have one idea what to do the coming week so you will probably see a lot of food/drink related stuff this week.

45/356: EDC London

Eeeeeepic day! 

I went to Electric Daisy Carneval today. The whole reason why I was here this weekend. There was great music, nice people and not so good food. I had an awesome time.

So many DJ's so little time. The only problem was that some DJ's I wanted to see played at the same on different stages. So instead of going from stage to stage all the time I decided to stay at the main stage through the whole event. I saw Hardwell, Alesso, Steve Angello and Tiesto. If the do EDC again next year, I will be here too!