Danny Does the 49ers: London Edition

Seven hours in to my 10.5 hour flight back from London to LA, I figured I would use this time to write the second entry in my blog.  I am entitling this entry “Danny Does the 49ers: London Edition” in honor of a friend I met off twitter that wasn’t able to accompany me on this trip.  Of all the people I invited to London with me, I think she was the one I wanted to join me most. Now if you know me, you know I can be a little girl crazy, but it wasn’t like that at all..this time. She writes a blog on the 49ers; a very funny, creative and witty blog, and she seems like a cool person to get to know…as a friend (bet you never thought you would hear those words come out of my mouth…). A lot of my friends are afraid to get to know new people, especially meeting them off social networking. Obviously, I don’t have those same reservations being as I was going to spend a weekend (Halloween weekend at that), halfway around the world, with someone I had never met.

Overall, the trip was fun. I arrived in London Saturday AM and by the time I got to the hotel (thank you, Aisha), it was about 1pm. I grabbed a little lunch and started to hit a wall, so I went to the hotel and slept for about 2 hours. I got in touch with a friend of a friend to see what she was doing that night for Halloween, and if she wouldn’t mind if I joined her.  Halloween in London was interesting. I didn’t see many people out on the streets in costumes, but the clubs were filled with scantily clad females and creatively dressed Europeans. Some people had very elaborate costumes, such as a wounded army soldier to a couple who was dressed as though they were from the 1920’s. Other just threw on masks and went out to party. Me, I was a cow. Yes, a moo cow.  Not going to lie, I got a LOT of attention -no less than 6 different girls asked me to take a picture with them. I will undoubtedly be in multiple Facebook photo galleries, without ever being tagged. I chalk it up to my devilishly good looks but others tell me it was the funny costume.

WEMBLEY STADIUM

I finally got home at 2:00am London time and resisted the urge to go to the casino located within the hotel (sorry to disappoint, Monte).  I set my alarm for 11am knowing I had to be out at 2pm. I figured I would get up, shower, pack, grab some lunch and change hotels. Boy was I wrong – I slept until 1pm (can you say Jetlag?). After transferring hotels, I changed and waited for Juliya, the friend of a friend who was going to the game with me.  We jumped on the tube and headed to Wembley Stadium. WEMBLEY STADIUM!  The stadium was pretty cool. I believe it holds about 85,000, but I would say there were only about 75,000 there (I haven’t heard of the official attendance).

One of the most interesting aspects of the game was the fans. You had everything from hard core 49ers fans from the US from Frisco to random Europeans that just wanted to see what American Football was all about. Most everyone who was not there supporting either the Niners or the Broncos had some random NFL team jersey on.  The game was great. Troy Smith showed us why Alex Smith’s duties as starting QB are no longer needed in San Francisco.

Sunday morning in London Heathrow was interesting. Walking to the gate, guess who just happened to be at a gate near me… THE 49ERS (and their cheerleaders)!  Honestly didn’t recognize a lot of the guys, but two people I did recognize were Takeo Spikes and MIKE SINGLETARY! Yes, the head coach of the 49ers. Walked right by him. I was going to say something like “Great Game Coach!” but really, what good would it have done - everyone knows he will not be the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers next year…and that’s too bad because we all had so high hopes for him.

All in all, it was a fun weekend, but I definitely discovered some things that I don’t like.  For starters, traveling alone sucks. Eating meals alone, sightseeing alone, going to bars alone… it all doesn’t compare to traveling with a friend. Secondly, why in the world would Verizon create a network that their phones ONLY work in the US? How short sighted is that? I was able to make “calls” and “text” through my Google Voice account, but it’s a different number that people don’t know and I had to be on WiFi. CDMA is NOT where technology should be going. The entire world is GSM, but businesses in America decide to limit their customers to only being able to use their cell phone in America (iPhone and AT&T – you win there).

Anyway – this past weekend was fun. Went to Chicago, trained a few times at Valko BJJ, partied with friends and enjoyed Chicago.  This weekend I go to SF to train with Phil/Skrap Pack and go to the Niners game with Rachel, Phil, Ryan Loco and @DaisySF.