hackney

Some guy named Cid. What a great way to start a story.

Since I’m all about correct time keeping on this blog, I thought I’d jump right into the middle of my most recent trip to London with my family.

One of the very few places that was on my Dad’s “must-do” list was to visit a little pub named “The Eagle” on City Road in the borough of Hackney.

Wait, wait…did I just say “Hackney”? As in, the Hackney where my attempt to locate the Burberry outlet store went terribly, terribly wrong and I swore to never, ever, ever frequent that neighborhood ever again?

First of all, yes. Second of all, *insert whatever noise is made when sticking your tongue out at others*.

I was going to title this post “Never say Never” but then Justin Bieber called me and threatened to sue…so we’re back to much more creative titles that leave you wondering who Cid is…right?

Of course you are! (don’t you DARE close this window!)

The Eagle is a pub that, legend has it, is where the nursery rhyme “Pop! Goes the Weasel” originated…or at least was set here. I know right? Those crazy Brits use pubs to inspire nursery rhymes. What do we use? Creepy illustrations of tree limbs holding cradles while crashing to the ground.

But I digress…

So we venture out to Hackney with much less chaos than my previous trip and easily locate the pub. We grab some seats outdoors just as an old timer stands up to ensure that we’ve taken photos of the exterior of the building.

This comes right after we stood on the other side of the street for several minutes snapping pictures…so this elderly gentleman, in hindsight, had given us plenty of warning of how much snark we were about to encounter.

He has a cane, is appropriately dressed for a Sunday, and has a killer set of sunglasses. I’m already thinking: This. This is what I want to be like when I’m 70+…well, minus the whole ‘being a man’ thing…

After grabbing a beer he strikes up what would end up being a two hour conversation about everything. The Queen, El Cid of the movies, the nursery rhyme, the youth of today, the American usage of the word “what”, fist-bumps and a comparison of British to American words.

Long story short (so hilarious, I know) Cid was a wealth of information, whether it was all true is up for speculation, but it made for a highly entertaining afternoon.

The first bit was a discussion on seeing the Queen change the tyre of a lorry during the war. We know this happened, but Cid claimed to have been there.

The second was a rousing chorus of all of us singing Pop goes the weasel, and Cid explaining that the rhyme actually referred to the drunks who would pawn off things in order to frequent the pub (hence: “Up and down city road, in and out of The Eagle, that’s the way the money goes, POP goes the weasel”). So Pop means to pawn, weasel was what you were pawning and going in and out of the pub every time your pawn amount was up. Wikipedia correlates some of this, but leaves it ultimately up to speculation.

My favorite of the afternoon was when he gave us a lesson in English language and proper speaking habits. This occurred when, throughout conversation, the word “What” was used when one of us didn’t hear or misunderstood any particular part of the conversation. After a bit Cid shouts “WHAT?!!” as if he were a parrot. He then goes on to deplore American’s usage of that word instead of “pardon” because “What” ultimately makes you sound…well, like a parrot. We had to agree after he repeated the word incessantly to prove his point.

Thanks Cid.

The afternoon came to a nice close after Cid impressed us with his knowledge of the 6 PM flight paths of various airplanes crossing over the patch of sky above the Eagle (if they cross to the left, they are heading to Heathrow Terminal 1, if to the right, it’s terminal 3) and his equally impressive use of the words “Knackered” and “Pissed” – both of which he used to describe his increasingly inebriated state – all with the good humor and geniality one expects to find in the local old timer who, according to the bartenders, sits at his specific table every Saturday and Sunday.

So, cheers to you Cid! Since you told us that you don’t own a computer, cell phone or vehicle I’m doubtful you’ll ever read this entry, but maybe over the years you’ll send us that letter you promised (the only civil way to communicate, after all) and we can all become pen pals.

It was an awesome afternoon.

Tagged as: hackney, London, Pubs, Travel

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Tuesday ended up being a very busy day for us here in London-town. We got a fairly late start to the day (oh well, we needed the sleep!) making it to Westminster Abbey by around noon. We took the tube to our stop, got out and bustled along with other crowds and finally got out into the sun…our first sight was a close up of The Eye – London’s “ferris wheel” observatory. Adam and I oooed and aahhed for about five minutes, snapping pictures etc. We finally decide to turn around and head to our site only to be confronted with the huge sight of Big Ben! I even think I jumped back a bit when we first saw it, it was such a surprise! Well, of course, we continued our picture snapping for a few more minutes before heading toward the entry way for Westminster Abbey.

The Abbey is gorgeous, well worth the small fortune (Adam may be missing an arm…) to get in. It was remarkable seeing the place where so much history happened – coronations, weddings, and funerals. The height of the space was something to marvel at, much like Notre Dame, leaving us wondering if we ‘modern humans’ would be capable of such things today without modern machinery. The surrounding gardens and cloisters were also beautiful, the sky was a bit overcast but it made for pretty pictures – in my mind at least – because the green seemed that much more colorful. We were quite lucky at the end of our tour because we were among the last few let in to the nave where Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are entombed. Everyone else was left out due to a rehearsal taking place, we made sure to stick our tongues out at them and talk about how awesome the nave was upon exiting.

After Westminster Abbey we walked over to Buckingham Palace which, I hate to say, was not that awesome! Even though I have seen pictures of Buckingham, I thought it would be much nicer and more “queenly” in person but really it was just a big big house with gilded gates, huge fountain in front and, of course, a ton of people. We decided to not take the tour through the Palace and, instead, walked through St. James park stopping to eat in a quiet spot surrounded by beautiful trees and greenery.

After St. James we continued our walk into Hyde Park intending to walk around to Kensington Gardens…this however is a huge undertaking (thank goodness for the map at the entrance!) and we decided to hold off for another time.

Feeling adventurous and having plenty of time (or so we thought…ooh foreshadowing…) we decided to find a Burberry outlet store in Hackney. Well, we grabbed a tube to the nearest neighborhood on our maps (that’s right, the factory outlet was not even on our maps!) called Bethnel Green. Exiting the underground we quickly discover that the so called “New York Meat packing district of London” is a rough and shady place to be. Luckily for us our need for adventure had not been quashed (yet…) so we continued on, walking under graffiti (urban-art) covered overpasses, into the city of Hackney (emphasis “hack”). We ended up on a small street filled with houses and finally had to stop a nice looking 11 year old school girl (probably a drug dealer in disguise) to ask for directions which she, thankfully, was able to give.

Long story short (Adam is cutting in here…) Burberry = Fail. Do not attempt to recreate our journey. You will be tired, cranky, and in desperate need of a pint.

*Side note: Hackney is an up and coming area which, in Adam’s adventurous words “isn’t that bad”. (Mandy’s note – it was voted worst place to live in the UK in 2006)

This entire journey left us about 20 minutes to get back to the hotel, grab a quick bite from the free canapes hour, and head out to meet our Pub Walk Tour. This ended up being a great time despite how tired we were, and we met some great folks during the excursion. Our tour-guide was fun and entertaining regaling us with tales of London’s famous “Fleet Street” (think Sweeney Todd) and the various pubs in the immediate area. The ones we visited for a pint were: The Devereux, “The Bank” (we can’t remember the actual name, but it was inside an old bank), and ended the night at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese where the likes of Dickens, Twain, Tennyson frequented.

That about sums up our Tuesday…we’ve been having a wonderful Wednesday and are saving all the details (The Tower! The London Eye!) for another post. Cheers!