And I thought Stampede was crazy!
Barry took me to the big annual Army vs. Navy rubgy game at Twickenham Stadium the Saturday before last. As you can imagine, it's quite the grudge match! What a fantastic day and a cultural experience!
We went to the army base where he works (Defense School of Languages) for breakfast. I met the RSM, who is in charge of the base. His name is Adam and he was organizing the trip. Super nice guy! So we had breakfast in the Sergeant's mess. Barry is civilian, but is a member of the mess. Then we all piled into a minibus and headed out to Twickenham. We passed tons of other coaches and minibuses on the way, all heading to the same place.
The minibus dropped us outside a fairly famous local pub called the Cabbage Patch. It was absolutely packed - you seriously could barely move. There was a big beer garden part as well, which was only marginally less crowded! We managed to get some pints, though. There was a decided dearth of toilets, and a few of us had to go, so we jumped over the stone wall enclosing the beer garden to go to the portable toilet on the street (yes, there are that many people wandering around that there are public portable toilets). When we got there, we discovered that it was only a men's loo - meaning it was just a couple of troughs. There was myself and one other girl, so after the guys with us were finished, we made them stand guard while we went in and improvised! That's a first for me!!
We had access to the Adjuta
nt General's bar, which is the most prestigious bar you can get into for the ArmyvNavy game, so we left the Cabbage patch and went there for a bit before the game started. The walk from the Cabbage Patch to the stadium was quite an experience. The sidewalks were full of people, and they spilled out onto the street in places. Everyone was in a party mood - yelling and waving flags for their side, mocking the other side. You know the drill!! There were portable toilets everywhere and lineups at them. Cars and buses full of people trying to find parking or just a spot to drop off their occupants. It was amazing! There were houses along the way, and where they could they were selling parking at obscene prices, just like in Calgary. However, some of the occupants of the houses had set up tables in their front yards and were selling food to the hungry rugby fans walking by! Sandwiches and baked goods and stuff. There were also a lot of food trucks and kiosks set up selling hamburgers, pasties, curries, etc.
The game was great - our seats weren't fantastic, but I could see everything (and it was small!) I was amazed to see that the stadium wasn't even 3/4 full - I can't imagine what the streets would be like with a full house! Army won; apparently they've won every year since 2001 or something. Afterwards we went back to the Adjutant General's bar for another drink and then headed out to meet the minibus that would take us back to the base. Once on base, we went to the Sergeant's mess again, and decided to order Chinese food as we were all hungry. So Barry went to pick it up and we all had a good feed, which made everyone tired and broke the party up.
It was a great day - lots of fun and very interesting.
Barry took me to the big annual Army vs. Navy rubgy game at Twickenham Stadium the Saturday before last. As you can imagine, it's quite the grudge match! What a fantastic day and a cultural experience!
We went to the army base where he works (Defense School of Languages) for breakfast. I met the RSM, who is in charge of the base. His name is Adam and he was organizing the trip. Super nice guy! So we had breakfast in the Sergeant's mess. Barry is civilian, but is a member of the mess. Then we all piled into a minibus and headed out to Twickenham. We passed tons of other coaches and minibuses on the way, all heading to the same place.
The minibus dropped us outside a fairly famous local pub called the Cabbage Patch. It was absolutely packed - you seriously could barely move. There was a big beer garden part as well, which was only marginally less crowded! We managed to get some pints, though. There was a decided dearth of toilets, and a few of us had to go, so we jumped over the stone wall enclosing the beer garden to go to the portable toilet on the street (yes, there are that many people wandering around that there are public portable toilets). When we got there, we discovered that it was only a men's loo - meaning it was just a couple of troughs. There was myself and one other girl, so after the guys with us were finished, we made them stand guard while we went in and improvised! That's a first for me!!
We had access to the Adjuta
nt General's bar, which is the most prestigious bar you can get into for the ArmyvNavy game, so we left the Cabbage patch and went there for a bit before the game started. The walk from the Cabbage Patch to the stadium was quite an experience. The sidewalks were full of people, and they spilled out onto the street in places. Everyone was in a party mood - yelling and waving flags for their side, mocking the other side. You know the drill!! There were portable toilets everywhere and lineups at them. Cars and buses full of people trying to find parking or just a spot to drop off their occupants. It was amazing! There were houses along the way, and where they could they were selling parking at obscene prices, just like in Calgary. However, some of the occupants of the houses had set up tables in their front yards and were selling food to the hungry rugby fans walking by! Sandwiches and baked goods and stuff. There were also a lot of food trucks and kiosks set up selling hamburgers, pasties, curries, etc.The game was great - our seats weren't fantastic, but I could see everything (and it was small!) I was amazed to see that the stadium wasn't even 3/4 full - I can't imagine what the streets would be like with a full house! Army won; apparently they've won every year since 2001 or something. Afterwards we went back to the Adjutant General's bar for another drink and then headed out to meet the minibus that would take us back to the base. Once on base, we went to the Sergeant's mess again, and decided to order Chinese food as we were all hungry. So Barry went to pick it up and we all had a good feed, which made everyone tired and broke the party up.
It was a great day - lots of fun and very interesting.
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