As part of my Scottish road trip I mentioned on the Now page, I headed to Dundee as my partner had one thing she wanted to do (The V&A Museum) and I had one thing I wanted to do.
The Lemmings Statue is a statue in a park close to the site of the home of DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and depicts three Lemmings climbing up one of the columns on the entry to the park.
Lemmings was probably the first computer game I ever really loved. I yearned for the Cartoon Classics Commodore Amiga box set, and I used to draw them on all my school notebooks. I even fancy dressed as one for a school Summer Fate.
Sadly the Commodore 64 version came rather late on, so I never got to play it much growing up, but eventually when my Grandparents inherited a Atari ST, one of the games was Lemmings – the box you see in the photos.
DMA Design – the programmers of Lemmings – eventually became Rockstar North and launched the whole Grand Theft Auto series. The rest is history.
Anyway, it is a very cool art installation in Dundee if you are ever in the area. We also had an amazing meal in Eastfield so recommend booking there if you go.
I love Krakow. I’ve been there four times in the last 10 years, granted it’s a bit biased as I talked about before – my brother got married there in 2016 and having that knowledge on where to go, where to avoid and how to have a good time really helps. But sometimes you just discover a place that sets your soul into a warm embracing self hug.
I went to Krakow last weekend for WordCamp Europe. You’ve probably read a few dozen blog posts about it, mine is coming next week. At these events there are fringe events. One of those was after the first day of the conference – the Bluehost/Yoast Glow Party. A pride party in all but name.
Anyway, in a colossal senior moment, I travelled to the party a bit early and then realised I wasn’t 100% sure I locked the front door, so I double backed to the hotel. I’d hoped to go to a relatively uninspiring burger bar that I couldn’t find before the event, but on the tram on the way back to the distinctly average AirBNB-masquerading-as-a-hotel, I did some Googling and found a place next to the railway bridge I was staying by.
It had a few reviews, and looked interesting. A communism-era van serving Kielbasa – the Polish sausage cooked over an open flame next to the train and tram I have to get. That will do, I’m already running late and wanted to get in and out of the party before an early night before the Krakow parkrun1.
I checked the AirBNB/hotel, and walked to the van, and was greeted with a glorious sight:-
They must be onto something, right? Poland knows their sausage, and it’s a good queue of 20/30 people at least waiting for it. As the queue shortened (in a process that took about 20 minutes), I was greeted with a well oiled machine of cooking sausages over an open flame, like in those movies about New York in the 1980’s.
There was one thing on the menu – sausage, and a limited supply of drinks. Cash only. Very simple, but seemed to be a staple for a few Krakowians (Krakowites?) on a Friday evening. Their fish and chip Friday, I took the bread roll and my meal (which took about 20 minutes just to get), and stood at the table listening into conversations I didn’t understand. I felt like a fat, Welsh, bearded Anthony Bourdain.
Was it the best meal I ate in Krakow? No. The steak I had in Pimento was incredible. But the meal at Kiełbaski z Niebieskiej Nyski2, is a meal I’ll remember for a very long time.
It didn’t end up that early, but was fine the next day. ↩︎
Sausages from the blue Nysa – which actually from a bit of research in thinking it was a reference to a river in Poland, but is actually a literal name for the van it’s served out of↩︎
Anyway, this post is another of those, as I went to Budapest last weekend, and had two amazing meals.
Ramazuri was in the “Buda” side of the city, and I had an amazing 3 course meal of Goulash, Duck and a cheesecake. The wonderful thing about it was that the accompaniments on each course was just as nice, if not nicer, than the main item. They were also super friendly, knowledgeable and accommodated our request to package the cheesecake as we were knackered after a busy week so just wanted to go home and watch a bad movie in our PJs1.
The second was even better. We discovered Galamb purely by chance – Fern saw it on our tour and “liked the look of it and dropped a pin”, and it didn’t disappoint. A Hungarian inspired tapas that each course delivered. I can’t remember what I had, but if you’re in Budapest, go there. The anchovy dip was fabulous. It says a lot that I didn’t take a single photo when I went!
So, forgive the self indulgent blog post, but this post will be for me when I return to Hungary in like 10 years or so. But go there if you are in the area.
It was “The People We Meet on Vacation“. With the exception of one line in the film that was brilliantly delivered, it was godawful. ↩︎
I’ve been spending the last 2 weeks at the T20 Cricket World Cup.
I saw three matches in this year’s tournament – Namibia vs Oman in Barbados, USA vs Pakistan in Dallas, and South Africa vs Netherlands in New York.
Since getting really into cricket in my mid life crisis, I’d been wanting to watch a match in the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. It looked good fun: drinking, pools by the ground, people eating mangos and fruit in the stands. Just a chilled vibe that I – a fat pasty white guy – wanted in.
Sure, the game I got in Bridgetown wasn’t the best on paper, but sure enough it was exciting, a couple of chances of a hat trick, and after a cracking final over which saw Oman bowl beautifully, the game went to a Super Over – think of it like a penalty shootout. Eventually Namibia – through David Wiese – got enough runs to win. Bucket list ticked. The game finished past midnight so towards the end I was flagging and ready to head back (not least because I was up at 8am to go for a tour of Barbados), but it was excellent.
So if you’re keeping score, there have been 4 super overs in the Cricket World Cup history.
I’ve seen 2 of them.
The final game – South Africa vs Netherlands – was probably the weakest. Netherlands did okay, but South Africa was too strong. As you read it the Nassau Cricket Stadium is once again a parkland in Long Island. Nothing on New York itself which was a great host with travel and everything being so well organised, but I would have liked to have seen a legacy. Plus my goodness the outfield was slow.
I’m not sure what the legacy post T20 World Cup is for Cricket in the USA is. I feel it may have something there, but for me, I ticked off one item from my list of 50 before I’m 50, and had a cracking holiday. A genuine holiday of a lifetime.
So I have been embarking on a trip to see as many football teams play in as many stadiums as possible. I had hoped to reach 100 by the end of the season, and I did! I thought I’d did it on a Tuesday in mid April when I went through the turnstiles at Deepdale (home of Preston North End), ticking off my 100th ground.
Or so I thought.
Turns out, like all brilliant minds do every now and again, I had miscalculated. I had seen 100 different teams playing at various stadiums. However, I’d actually ticked off a fair few already.
Let me explain using my beloved Wales.
Ask me if I seen Wales play at home, then I would say “Yes”. I had. However I’d seen them play in two different venues that they call “Home”: The Millenium Stadium & Cardiff City Stadium. Same applies to England (Old Trafford & Wembley) and Worcester City (St George’s Lane & Aggborough). Like Phileas Fogg, I’d well and truly screwed up my calculations and actually achieved more than I thought.
So in actual fact, my 100th ground – Ramsbottom United vs Colwyn Bay – was completed on a cold Spring evening in Late March, making Preston, Blackpool,and my trip to bloody Genoa rather redundant.
Oh well.
All in all, I feel a weird sense of pride with my achievement. It’s means nothing, didn’t make me healthier, didn’t raise money for a charity or even do something for somebody. It was selfish, it was selfish bloody minded stubbornness for something that impressed only me and a few other people. I don’t think I’d even put it on my Tinder bio.
But I don’t care, as for this journey, there has been a weird solace for me within a WhatsApp group. Two of my friends from university heard about the challenge and decided to go for their own challenge related to it. One of which was to hit 100, another was to hit 50. If absolutely nothing else, as I hurtle to my mid 30’s, I’m glad that I’ve managed to reclaim and spend some quality time with two great friends. That has been what has made the last 6 or so month’s special.
I’ve not decided if I’m continuing to 200, or 250, or whatever. This isn’t swimming: the next 100 will probably be harder, but I’ve paired with one of my friends and we’ve started a little instagram account for groundhopping. You can see it here at @ystbah. Please give us a follow!
Anyway, now onto some stats!
Most Northerly ground – Firhill, Glasgow (Partick Thistle)
Most Easterly & Southerly ground – GSP Stadium, Nicosia (Cyprus)
Most Westerly ground – Giants Stadium, New York (New York Red Bulls)
I’ve watched football matches in 13 different countries: Andorra, Belgium, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, United States and Wales.
I’ve watched football at 59% of the teams in the Evostik Divison 1 North, my most populous league.
I’ve seen football played in 23 competitions: European Championships, World Cup Qualifications, European Championship Qualifications, Champions League, Europa League, Premier League, Championship, League 1, League 2, Conference North, Evostik Premiership, Evostik Division 1 North, Evostik Division 1 South, North West Counties Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, FA Trophy, League of Wales, Cymru Alliance, League of Ireland, Scottish Premiership, Bundesliga & Serie A.
Anyway, here’s a map!
Anyway, if you have any questions or anything, I’m opening the comments up to an unofficial AMA, if you have any questions for my escapades, leave them in the comments!
