Roller Disco, I rule

Hey Family,

I'm going to start making a point to making this blog more faithful to my whole European experience, so that means I should start including my nights in London and not just the ones out of town.

On a recent note, I went to a roller disco last night. It was wild. Like kind of weird. But I had a killer time. Rollering is not really my forte but I tried to hang with the big dogs. A bunch of us went, and i would say that about 85% of the people there are there just to have a way fun time and boogie oogie oogie on skates to some sweet sounds of funk. But the other 15% of people are definitely there every night. If it was an olympic sport to Roller Disco, this place would have definitely been the London venue in 2012, based solely on the caliber of the skaters there. I might try and come back and bring the craze to America. But that would mean I would have to learn how to skate without falling down... a lot. I am a little bit sore right now. But that bike ride in Wales definitely put a buffer layer around my whole body, so I was well prepared.

Oh and as you'll see in the pictures, I tried to dress with the retro theme. Hence the mustache, don't worry it's not a serious thing.

After we went rollering, we went to an Irish pub called O'Neill's where they had live music. No it wasn't the Three Toms, but it was fun.

Every night here is a new experience and there's so much going on, that you'll have to wait till I get back to hear the whole thing, but I hope you guys are feeling somewhat updated on my life out here!

Short post, but more to come.

Rollering

Uh, no explanation needed

Pictures From Wales

Along the River Taff just outside of Downtown Cardiff

Fixing a Flat Time atop a mountain where Castle Coch Is

Lost in the Rain and Mountains of Wales

Before the Flat Tire outside of Castle Coch

Right Before our journey began, we look so happy and optimistic

New News

Hey So it's been a while since I've updated this blog. Sorry, just so busy doing things and being a big deal. But I'll try and recap the high lights since I've last posted.

The furthest thing back was my trip to Dover. It was so cool. I went up for a day with my two roommates Steve and Jesse. We took the train to Dover which was beautiful because it comes out of a tunnel beside the sea and on the other side are the breathtaking White Cliffs. But the main highlight (which I didn't even know was a part of Dover) was the castle. The castle is a blend between the Medieval History and the WWII history. There's the beautiful and ancient castle above grounds, but during WWII, Dover was a main post and there was a whole system of underground hospitals, dorms, and tunnels for the Army. The tour of the underground tunnels was pretty intense. They try and recreate the setting, so everything is preserved. The lights go in and out, there are holograms of British Soldiers, and there is the sound of bombs in the distance. Pretty intense. From the castle, you get a real nice view of the White Cliffs. And they constantly have this song playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdGX_FcvVoE. Vera Lynn is like a goddess to them. Needless to say the whole day was gorgeous and we topped it off with a nice meal of fish and chips.

This Last weekend I went to Wonderful Wales.

It was kind of a last minute trip. My roommate Steve and my Friend Kurt were going and they told me their plans and on Thursday I just jumped on board.

Here was the original Plan:

Friday: Arrive in Cardiff by bus and stay the night... maybe go to a couple of pubs and get the local night life

Saturday: Wake up, visit the castle, then bike 50 miles to Brecon Beacon National Park, camp there for the night.

Sunday: Bike 50 miles back and take the bus back to London.

'

It seemed reasonable to us. We checked out the map and the weather and we figured we could do the ride in 6 hours there and 6 back. Perfect.

Nothing went as planned, and everything was awesome still.

We didn't know that Brecon Beacon was a national park basically at the top of a mountian. So the whole 50 miles there is a gradual uphill slope. Then it was also raining. Needless to say, we didn't make it all the way there. We had to stop at a town called Merthyr which is 30 miles along the trail. The only lodging was a Travel Lodge, but we were more than happy to have a roof over our head no matter what it was. We were so pooped that we fell asleep immediately. The next morning we woke up with my boman sorer than you can imagine. It was an awesome morning though: Sunny with some clouds, 65 degrees, and a gradual DOWNHILL slope through the forest back. All the toil and torture we went through was a thousand times worth the ride home. It was beautiful. The landscape was reminiscent of the Appalachian region, minus the crazies.... well there are some crazies we met in Wales. The weekend was awesome though. Everyone in Wales was so nice to us, and they treated us like we were the biggest thing to come through there since Princess Diana. But who can blame them.