Its all a myth

No seriously, most of what you heard about England is probably a myth.  Granted I haven't left London so things might be different in the small towns or other cities.

First the beer is cold. You can get it either cold or super cold.  I haven't tried super cold beer yet, but if I do I will make sure you all know that it is probably just a little colder than cold beer.  The biggest beers are Fosters and Guinness, every pub will sell both.  Budweiser is also huge over here, its the liking crappy lagers apparently.

Second, you can't just have one pub.  I went to this place called McGoverns down the street, its owned by an Irishman and I must have been the only non Irish person in the place.  I started talking to the owner, not sure how, and he tells me it is considered a privilege to serve you but he expects you to go to all the other local pubs.  I understand that just to go to one pub would be absurd, but the myth goes you only have one pub in your neighborhood.  He names off the other pubs I should start going to, of course this was over about 4 hours and as the night wore on it was more and more difficult for me to understand what he was saying. I thought an Irishman was hard to understand, but a drunk Irishman, now that is difficult.

Okay so just about everyone does drink a beer with lunch and they all stop at a pub on the way home, but most of them don't get drunk.  I'm learning that very few people drink at home.  They just have a couple at the pub then go home and have dinner, prefunking for a long night is also done at the pubs.  The only time they really drink at home is for social functions. 

You also need to pay in cash at most neighborhood pubs.  Some do take cards but most expect cash when you order and that is that.  Also not all pubs serve food.  In Washington you are required to serve some warm food if you are serving alcohol, nope, not here.

Hooligans. Yeah I haven't heard of any and seen any.  My first game was pretty tame with both supporters talking before and after the game.  It was just good fun.

So I have just been running around London trying to learn everything. I have started acting like a tourist and seeing all the sites, I will start posting on those shortly.  My fun with the Tube as well as going to the Tottenham Hotspurs Europa League game at WHL also to follow.

Hope all is well where you are!