Beer trip to Wroclaw, Poland

So I went with five lads to Wroclaw in Poland on Friday and got back Sunday night. After spending some brief time admiring the architecture and Polish culture, we proceeded to check out the Polish beer and bars. At < £1 a pint, we got through a fair few! I lost count of the amount of bars by the time we got into a club. A little scary as I don’t think the local blokes took to kindly to having English guys on their territory :-/

The food was excellent too… chicken liver, wild boar steaks, chicken kebabs, and a McDonalds burger for good measure (not me though, i’m more sophisticated).

The following day saw a much slower start for the lads. I was up and out (hence the photos) at 09:00, whereas those lightweights didn’t surface ‘til almost 13:00! To make matters worse, all by myself and Craig went home the previous night at 02:00, leaving us to dance\drink the night away til getting on for 05:00! Yet again, last man standing!

Had one hell of a good time though, and luckily Wroclaw is as yet untainted by hordes of English stag\hen parties. We only encountered one other English group, thankfully.

One very notable point was the extremely high quality of Polish women!! I must say that I have never in my life seen such stunningly beautiful women, in such large numbers! …and this was BEFORE the beer goggles went on!!

A Tour around China

Well I could write pages and pages about the trip to China. Needless to say it’s an amazing place and I loved every second! Here’s a rundown of the locations we packed into the two-and-a-bit weeks anyway (check out some of the photos in my China album on Facebook):

Day 1 - Bejing: The Temple of Heaven, visit through the old town (Hutong) on a rickshaw, “Food Street” (urgh!)

Day 2 - Bejing: Tian’an Men Square, The Forbidden City (incl. Chu Xiu Gong Palace), The Summer Palace, checked out a Martial Arts play at night

Day 3 - The Great Wall (wow!)

Day 4 - Bejing: The Lama Temple. Then flew to...Nanjing: No time for much else other than drinking at night ;-)

Day 5 - Nanjing: The Purple Mountain, Dr Sun Yat Sen’s Mausoleum, Boat trip down the Yangtze (on Mao’s old boat, no less), Yangtze River Bridge.

Day 6 - Took the train to Wuxi (WOO-SHE) - The Jichang garden. Boat trip along the Grand Canal to...Suzhou (SOO-JOE).

Day 7 - Suzhou: Master of Nets Garden and The Lingering Garden (both beautiful Chinese rock gardens). A heavy drinking night this night (Boiling 100 club was amazing!)

Day 8 - Took the train to...Shanghai: visited Pudong area and up the Jin Mao Tower (88 floors!) - stunning!

Day 9 - Shanghai: visited The Bund, boat trip along the Huang Pu River. Yu Yuan (the old city), Shanghai Museum, Planning Centre (huge model of Shanghai!), shopping down Nanjing Road, through the “sightseeing tunnel” under the river and back again to Jin Mao (Cloud 9 bar) for cocktails. Then got a taxi to a restaurant before going to see a stunning acrobat show. Finished off in a bar at night.

Day 10 - Took the Maglev train from Shanghai to the airport (7 mins @ 431kph!) and flew to Xi’an (SHE-ANN). Dumpling banquet at night.

Day 11 - Xi’an: Wild Goose Pagada and temple, Terracotta Warriors (whoah!)

Day 12 - Xi’an: City walls and gatehouses, Han Yangling Tombs. Then to the airport to fly to… Guilin (GWAY-LIN). Sun and Moon Pagado at night.

Day 13 - Guilin: cruise most of the day down the Li River (stunning scenery of Karst formations) to Yangshou. Cormorant fishing at night.

Day 14 - Guilin: Shopping in the town. Reed Flute Caves. Back to the airport to fly to...Hong Kong. Too many drinks at night.

Day 15 - Hong Kong: Took the tram to Victoria Peak, overlooking Hong Kong. Stanley Market then Aberdeen (old fishing village area) for a trip on a Sampan boat. Took the underground to “Hollywood Road” area, Man Mo Temple. Dinner at night at the revolving restaurant - stunning views again. Temple Street Market afterwards. Boat trip around the harbour. Drinks at night in the bar again!

Day 16 - Hong Kong: Noon-Day Gun ceremony. Took the Star Ferry to Kowloon. Times Square for shopping. Off to Airport at night to fly home :-(

What a holiday!!! Highly recommended. Fantastic food too ;-)

A Pissed Geek!

Well Saturday Night I ended up over at the Royal Oak for the beer festival with Jim and T. Intending to “pop in and show my face for a couple”, I ended up arriving at 19:45 and leaving at 02:00 :-/ Some damn fine ales on though! Met old Jim Gargan with Andy and Deb, and “old Tim” too. Ray turned up later on to see the delights (and get pestered by yet another letch). Lo and behold, Rich (T’s cousin) is already there, having been drinkin like a fish in Kimberly. Can’t understand a word he was saying but i’ve somehow managed to commit myself to a weekend drinking in Poland in December :-/

It wasn’t ‘til I was walking back home in the early hours that I remembered I needed to be up at 06:00 the next day to head to Birmingham!

....and woke as fresh as a daisy too! Headed to NEC with Jim for Games Day (run by Games Workshop for a day of Warhammer\40,000 activities). One hell of a day from start to finish. Picked up some amazing gear and we both had one hell of a time. Was a bit pissed off that Andy Hoare didn’t bother to make an appearance for his signing slot. As always, the Forge World stand was mind-blowing, and with the focus on the new Apocalypse expansion, I was in my element.