Tebow Time

I went to the Buffalo Vs. Denver game to see Tim Tebow take on the Bills Christmas Eve (Just seemed right). I have been trying to go to a game all year but it kept falling through. I found  friend to go with and went for it. I got seats five rows from the field. It was nice because it has been unseasonably warm for western New York.

When I got to Ralph Wilson Stadium I was surprised to see what I saw. The Stadium looked like a minor league baseball stadium not a NFL stadium. Even the "nose bleeds" where not bad. I was very happy to see my seat had been so close.

The game started off awesome. I got to see Tim score a rushing touchdown (I started him for my Fantasy Football team to add a little excitement). It seemed like through out the game most of the touchdowns had been scored in the end zone I was next to. All four of Tebow touchdowns had been scored in our endzone (the two to his team and the 2 pick sixes) and a punt return for a TD by the Bills.

We sat on the Bills side of the Stadium. When the game first kicked off the stadium was fairly empty. The  bills fans next to us where funny. They heckled the Bills players every time they messed up. One guy said man this guy is going to miss this field goal because it is to easy of a kick. Well the kick was no good. The Bills' kicker missed another field goal after that also. The center kept messing up the snap and the guys kept screaming at the center. It was pretty funny. By this time the Stadium had filled up some.

However, things got nasty with some other Bills' fans when they saw a Broncos' fan in the row in front of them. At first it was funny. Chanting White cargo pants (the guy was wearing white snowboarding pants- it was cold). The Bronco fan didn't pay much attention to them. It got nasty once they wouldn't stop. hey also started calling the kid names and attacking hi directly. The usher asked them to stop once but they continued. Other Bills fans in the area felt bad and stuck up for him to no avail. I ended up texting security. A few of them had left before security got down to the area (to use the restroom). The ones that had been around got kicked out when they came down. When the other fans came back the (around the time TIm through his first pick six) they continued to go in on the kid and took his friends hat.

I snapped and told them to "SHUT THE FUCK UP". The girls looked at me and "oh what is your deal". THey started to talk trash to me but they stopped quickly (maybe they noticed I wasn't going to take that crap). I also showed them my Falcons jersey. I felt bad because my friend with me had to see all that. They calmed down a little. THe guy who had got the most of the shit turned around to them and said Merry Christmas & Have a safe drive home to them. They called him a fag and said you to. That kid is a champ because I wouldn't have been able to say quite. A some of the Bills fans next to us left (the ones heckling the kicker) thanked me for texting Security and wished a Merry Christmas.

Although the fans, who I think may have been mildly retarded, put a damper on the end of the game I still enjoyed it. It was a little cold and Tim Tebow didn't come through at the end. It was still a nice game to see. It was nice going to the game with a Tebow/Football fan. I would definatly go to another game at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

S/n: The Bills GM, Buddy Nix, coached at my high school.

Tebow Rushing TD 

Oxford and London

Here is my post for my last two stops. I hope you guys enjoyed my posts from the UK. I have one last one after this one of random things and pictures. 

Oxford

 

LONDON

Manchester: another day of walking

After we finally got on our way after the bus delay, the ride went smooth. It was about 1 1/2 hours. The delay worked in our favor because things didn't start opening until 9a-10a. We ended up getting in a little after 8:30. We had originally planned on visiting Manchester the day before but decided on an extra day in Liverpool. Once we talked about it, Manchester was just to close not to go. Even if it was just a day trip or stop on our way to Oxford. After finding out the tickets from Liverpool to Manchester was only 4£ ( about $6) for the both of us it was a no brainer.

We had been hoping the bus stop had lockers for us to store our bags while we wondered Manchester. No such luck. We headed over to Arndale shopping centre across the road. We sat at the food court and had our breakfast while figuring out what places to go.

Mark had to deal with a bs situation with the local bank before anything could be done. As he was getting off the phone we walked out of the centre. Right in front of us was the Manchester Cathedral. We figured it was a good time to visit and take a moment to relax and reflect.

I am always amazed by the detail work in detailed work in these older buildings especially the cathedrals. After talking a few minutes and touring the cathedral we headed to our first destination on our agenda, an old library.

It is an old library that stored, ready for this, old books. The library is owned by a local university and has a study areas on one of the floors. Again this building had so much detailed moldings throughout.

Once we left the library with luggage in hand, we walked by the courthouse. Soon to be the home of Mark's finest work. We headed a few blocks to the People's History Museum.

The museum was about the UK history of workers and unions. We only spent about 20 minutes at that museum. We didn't like it much, clearly.

Next we walked to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Luckily this place had lockers for us to store our luggage. This museum was really unique. It was composed of 5 historic buildings hosting different parts of the museum. Some of the museums themes were power, computers, textiles, trains, recycling, cameras, planes and bikes. Kodak had a display which is neat because Kodak is out of Rochester. I liked the train and airplane displays. I also really enjoyed the model of the first computer they had on display.This museum also had a few groups of students visiting at the same time.

Right when we decided to go, it started to pour down rain. Mark had just said how he was surprised we hadn't really seen any rain. Go figure.

We ran back over to building one. Once we walked in they said everyone had to leave because of a fire alarm going on. We both looked at each other and said o'well. We ran through the rain and found a place to eat some lunch, hoping we will be able to get our stuff once we finish.

We ended up at a pub called The White Lion Manchester. We ordered a beer to start. For lunch I ordered Ox tail and Mark decided to be English and get Fish w/chips (fries). The food took a while to come but was well worth it.

After collecting our stuff from the museum we headed back to the bus stop. On our walk back we saw a road was blocked with a car at the end of the road. It looked funny because they had little evidence tags on the road. Kind of like you would expect from bullet casings (thank you first 48 for that visual). We had to walk by the car and it was a mess. I felt a moment of sadness over what I was looking at. No bullet holes but just a bad crash. I will leave it at that.

Our bus was running late due to traffic partially caused by that same accident. At this point Mark and I were about ready to pass out from lack of sleep. We also had walked an average of about 4 miles a day (my estimates). Our next bus ride was a long one to Oxford. Of course this was the bus ride that was the worst. It was bumpy, loud, and uncomfortable. The guys in front of us decided to drink on the bus. One got sick (bumpy ride) and threw up in the toilet. I fell asleep and woke up I don't even know how many times. Not to mention I am sure I was that annoying guy snoring. I was so tired I didn't even care......Next stop Oxford.

Most of my pictures for Manchester are on my other phone. Here is what I got for know.

Liverpool

I was going to do a video post for this but I am riding on a bus to London right now. I am sure no one wants to hear me.

Liverpool was just as fun. I rented an apartment in the city center for this part of the trip. We caught the bus to Liverpool from the place we stayed in Birmingham. The trip was a little over a 2 hour ride. The bus stop was in sketchy area. We found a map and started walking to the hotel and got a little lost thanks to my great. Aviation skills. After asking a nice lady how the hell we get to this road we continued our walk to the hotel. The area was deserted. Mark and I talked how disappointing what we had been seeing was.

We finally found our hotel. We went to check in and the lady was like you are at the wrong location (jaw dropped). She gave us a nice map (not the little bs I got a the bus stop). It was another 5 minute walk away. She also gave a good idea of all the good locations for entertainment in the city. which happened to be closer tithe place we where staying not the place we showed up. We also found out that a soccer match was on (explanation to deserted streets).

We got to the hotel and the journey was well worth it because the place was really nice and literally across the street from everything. We settled in and made out our plans: eat dinner, go to a bar, wake up and go sightseeing ( Sunday and everything had already closed).

We drank bottle of wine and talked a while before getting out the door. We walked around a few block area and decided an Italian place for diner. It was like a family restaurant. We just chatted mostly about Fantasy football . It was about 8pm uk making it 3 Us. About the time the early games are entering the 4th quarter.

We headed two blocks over to the bar club area and settled on a restaurant bar called Lloyd's for our destination. We got a couple bottles of wine and went up stairs. It was a sunday night and didn't expect much. Drank and people watched. The people were drunk and dancing accordingly. It was just a chill evening. We decided to call it an early night at around 1am.

As we walked out the bar we ran into a few girls and started to talk to them. We all ended up heading to a club across the square. We talked and had a few drinks and enjoyed some decent music. After that we headed to grab some food. While waiting for someone food we ended up at another club for a few dances. We finally made it back to the hotel around 5 am w/ plans of getting up a 8a. We had plans to check out go sightseeing and head to Manchester.

As you can guess that didn't happen. We got up at 10. About 1 hour before check out. After a few minutes I decided we should stay another day. I went to Tesco (grocery store) and picked up some food. I made some breakfast, got dressed and headed out.

Our first stop was the Walker art Gallery. Along the way we stop at a memorial park and ran into Occupy Liverpool. The art galley was amazing. I loved the gallery with of the work from recipients of the Walker Gallery award. Mark & I went off on our own (as we did in all the museums/galleries).

We headed over to the Museum of Liverpool. It was a four story museum. I enjoyed the Egyptian and cultures of the work exhibits. I missed out on the Jungle and Dinosaur that Mark said was nice.

We walked through the shopping centre to the Echo wheel area. Took pictures of some of the buildings before taking a ride on the echo wheel. It had a nice view of the city lights. It was getting real cold do we headed back to the hotel.

After relaxing and goofing off for a little while. I cooked up some pizza and chicken. We ate dinner like true bosses. After eating dinner we decide we couldn't leave Manchester out of our plans and had to go.

Next on the agenda was another night out. We ended up at this place called camel club. It had a nice vibe. A good crowd. All the people seemed to be coupled up. So we just chilled out and had a drink. The DJ played some nice tunes but they just don't know how to mix songs or transition out here. We ended up talking to a few girls but they had come with someone. We called it an early night at 1. We had to get up at 530a for our next stop to Manchester. Mark went to sleep around 2a. I Stayed up booked our travel tickets, packed and looked at things to do in Manchester.

I made breakfast to go while Mark packed. After saying goodbye to our lovely apartment we headed to the bus stop. We found it a lot easier then anticipated. after we boarded it turned out our bus driver got played and his relief never showed up at his last stop so he had to take a break. After sitting around for 40 minutes we took off to Manchester.

Liverpool was another great destination. Deciding to stay an extra day was well worth the good time. Sorry for any errors I don't have time to edit this :)