http://www.momandhops.ca/now-playing-straight-up-the-issue-of-alcohol-in-ontario/

I'm about to check out a video detailing the anomalous rules and regulations governing the sale of alcohol in Ontario. Perhaps afterwards I'll be able to answer the questions that inevitably arise when newcomers to the province discover the Beer Store.

Hammer City Pub Crawl

This is the Downtown Hamilton Pub Crawl that I made to pit against the Toronto one that Ashley and Danielle have said they would create. I've left out a lot of bars but hopefully nothing too critical. The route is accessible by clicking on the image above. More details on the bars themselves are available by clicking on the name of each on the list below.

• 1) The Stowaway
• 2) The Brain
• 3) The Homegrown Cafe 
• 4) The Baltimore House 
• 5) The Ship 
• 7) The Winking Judge

The 12 Pubs of Galway 2011

http://youtu.be/Ouxwb4qU5b8

Gentleman me?

This Friday I had planned to, with Fiona, accompany a friend to Oxford for a few drinks. This was the plan until Thursday when I found out that Mr. B was going to be playing at the Vaudeville Rave in Reading on the same night. Needless to say I amended my plans accordingly!

It was a really, really good evening and I plan to attend another at some point. The whole experience really reminded me of the Unfair that I went to when I lived in Halifax. The only difference that really stood out was that at this Vaudeville Rave everyone was in costume. It was an eclectic mix (trust me, this is not an exaggeration) of gypsy, burlesque, renaissance fair, chap and steam punk.

The evening unfolded along the following lines...

DJ Dubious rocked the party with his Balkan/Swing from the turntables. (I've just realized we heard him play once before at the Global Cafe! It's good to know these guys are all local!)

Our MC for the evening was Bass6 who's beat boxing was incredible!

The first half of the show was a cabaret including sword swallowing, belly dancing, light bulb eating, unicycling, magic, a very strange contest between 2 fellows who reckoned they could solve a rubics cube faster than their opponent while being distracted by volunteers from the audience, and various other acts.

Following the cabaret the chairs facing the stage were removed and the music began. The first group was Tankus the Henge followed by the main act Mr. B, The Gentleman Rhymer (you've already been introduced). I bumped into him in the clutter of people in front of the washrooms. I tapped him on the back before I realized I didn't really have anything to say to him, so I just shook his hand, said that I wanted to say hello, and then said I wouldn't keep him as I knew where he was heading. Smooth aren't I?

The next band was Sam and the Womp who blended Balkan and Dubstep with outstanding results. It was during their set that we bumped into Gentleman Jeeves who invited Fiona and I backstage for a cup of tea. We had a choice of Jasmin or Darjeeling. I chose Darjeeling but should really have chosen Jasmin as there was no milk on offer. Behind us was a 4 poster bed upon which people were jumping. It was all very surreal and only compounded by the fact that the entrance to the back of stage area was just next to a croquet field where ladies and gents were competing.

At this point it was 3ish in the morning and Fiona and I decided (in light of the fact that all of our friends had already departed) that we would head home. That meant we missed the last act Dutty Moonshine who I'm sure was excellent.

And that was our evening! Since the carnaval in Dunkerque there's been a lot of occasions for costumes! I'm going to put some serious thought into the possibility of establishing one of my own!

Colourful traditions

As promised, here are the pictures from our recent road trip to the Dunkerque Carnaval!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48141953@N02/sets/72157626147664009/

If you're inclined you can learn more about the history of the carnaval here or even visit the official site here.

Coming home from Carnaval

We heard this song as we were heading back to the Ferry to England after our weekend of cross dressing, drinking, singing and my first proper Carnaval. I'll post some pictures of the weekend here when I get to see them myself. 'Till then listen to this song and let me know what you think...

Poetry Slam

Last night I participated in a poetry slam down at the global cafe and I had a really good time. The poem I'd written and recited was okay although I wasn't completely happy with it. Despite the fact that I'd only written the poem the night before I made it into the final round! Sadly, I hadn't anticipated that and hadn't prepared a second poem, so instead I read aloud The Cremation of Sam McGee, which ran overtime, and because it wasn't my original material I was disqualified from the competition. Although in fairness I had already disqualified myself aloud to the audience when I opted to read something other than that which I had written myself.

Apparently they're going to make it a regular thing and if they do, I think I'd like to give it another whack!

Hallowe'en 2010 - National Stereotypes Party

This hallowe'en we partied with the Couchsurfing community in Reading. Danielle was the good intentioned Canadian lass who hosted the fete and imagined the concept. Said concept simply put was two fold...

1) You must have a costume to attend the party.

2) You must dress like a stereotype of your nation of origin.

As you can see we leapt at the creative opportunities these rules afforded us! Fiona donned her finest Leprechaun outfit while I sported the rugged attire of a hearty Lumberjack!

Fiona did get a bit carried away with all the jigging, but it was much to the amusement of the other party guests and especially it's host. Some of the other national stereotypes we bore witness to were...

Spanish bulls

English farmers and teapots

Hungarian porn actresses

German tourists and Bavarian milk maid

Romanian vampires

American cowboys, hicks, gangsters, Nascar girls and the statue of liberty (there were a lot of Americans at this one)

Lebanese suicide bombers

Brazilian surfers

There was also our hostess who donned the noble attire of the Inuit. This is a picture of the two of us together, the Canadian contingent, making merry with a little maple syrup! You know how antsy in your pantsy you can get after gulping down a few swigs of the sweet sweet sap of a Canadian sugar maple!

Even Mom's getting into the spirit!

It's no Bulmer's Pear, but it'll do!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Galway, Ireland!

Oktoberfest

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I'm not going today! Aside from the beer I had this morning for breakfast (it was a traditional Bavarian breakfast apparently, and was composed of white sausage, white beer, and big ass pretzels. It was pretty damned good too!) I will be giving the drink a bit of a miss today. Instead I think I'll try to take it easy and do some corresponding with the folks back home.

Time for a recap . . .

For the moment I'm in Frankfurt (as pictured above) but will be leaving for München and Oktoberfest tomorrow. So far this has pretty much been the pace of the trip. Quick! We stayed in London for 3 nights at a hostal in Lewisham. It was even more awesome than you#d have imagnied. Folks there were awesome and Richard and I had some great times!

Now we're in Frankfurt and things are just as great! Last night we went out to try some local apple wine and some traditional Frankfurt foods. What we got was a 10 liter jug (it's the smallest they had) of apple wine and a HUGE plate os meat layed over a bed of saurkraut. Seriously, it was a plate of meat! Sausages, ham, whatever! It was delicious! And much to my dismay and misinformation it cost €11.50.

Today we forced ourselves to wake up before 2pm and are going to go walking and exploring for a bit.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Leading up to New Years I was a little nervous. I had been told that the last time June introduced someone to her friends who only spoke English, they really made no effort to talk to him and he was bored.

I shouldn´t have worried though. When we arrived June and her friends all talked with each other and I found out there was a Brazilian girl there too, so good! 2 non native speakers! I think I started talking to her in English and within a few minutes I was able to talk to everyone and they were all great!Our entrance to the bar cost us 20€ but that included 3 drinks and a shot. And they just gave you free shots when you ordered a drink anyway, I have no idea why! And if you asked them to mix you a really strong drink they would. It was pretty good! Anyway we stayed there ´till 4 or 5 I guess then we went to another bar and then to a house party in some room some guys rented. Across from their room there was a bar, I went in and bought a beer and ended up talking with strangers in there too. I had an argument with some Latin American guy about whether or not I was American and I just gave up because he was getting mad. After that though we were best of friends.

Just before the bar closed I asked the bartender if he´d just fill up my pint for me . . . and he did!!! Ha! Just filled ´er on up! Then I played hackey sack with some guy with a tennis ball, or more accurately just kind of kicked his tennis ball away from him.

Over the course of the night people disappeared, people reappeared, people threw up, I was given a roll of toilet paper in a grand ceremony in the bar, and then at about 8:30am we all stumbled back to our places and tried to get as much sleep as possible. I didn´t get up ´till 5pm.
Prior to all of this, June and I had watched the countdown to New Years on T.V. and then ate the traditional 12 grapes during the first 12 seconds of the year, then went out to the balcony to watch people shooting off fireworks from their balconies! Seriously! People were shooting crap right out their kitchen windows! I say one thing smack into the wall of the building on the other side of the road! I saw pedestrians on their way out have to run after someone dropped a firecracker out their window above them. It was awesome!!

Please note the Christmas tree in the background of the one picture. That´s because Christmas here isn´t over ´till January 5th when the 3 wise men come. The 25th is when Olentzaro brings gifts. That´s the dude who´s effigy I´m carrying in the impromptu parade in the old town.

Bilbao baby!

I made it to Bilbao! After Jean-Phillipe decided to leave a few days early, I decided to leave with Petra and hitchhike together as far as . . . well, whatever the name of the place she wanted to go was. This gave me 4 days to get across the entire width of southern France then down into Spain and Biblao.
The first leg of our journey took us 4 hours. Not bad for Petra because she knew she was going to arrive that day. For me it was a bit more stressful because we´d only managed to get a fraction of the way that I needed to. Then in Foix we (plus another hitchhiker we bumped into) we found some French arachists who were going to Portugal.

SWEET!
So I just rode with them all the way to Bayonne and then spent the night in my tent. Then the next day we got up and went to meet some of their friends. I ended up living, eating and drinking with these guys for 4 days first in a squat, taking breakfast at 2 homeless shelters, then 3 days on the Atlantic coast. When eventually we did leave and get to Bilbao 2 days late and at 10:30pm, June was waiting for me in the station. We caught the metro back to her place and I showered and did some laundry. The next night we went out for an explorative walk and rented a movie. A movie which still remains unwatched because Bilbao seems to have a disproportionately large percentage of pirate pubs! We hit 3 that night before coming back home and going to bed.
The next day we went to a fantastic juggling convention full of young hippies from all over the place! It was awesome, with tall celings, enthusiastic young jugglers, a bar, sleeping upstairs, rope acrobatics, unicycles, everything. If you´ve seen it in a circus or ever wished you had, it was at this convention. All held in a fantastic 4 story squat, complete with vegetarian kitchen on the 2nd floor and climbing wall on the 3rd.
That evening we went to see a show and before hand one of the hosts started talking to me about my moustache. June told her I was Canadian so she started talking to me in French. Then later on during what was a FANTASTIC show full of ´Just for Laughs´caliber tricks and performances, they started giving out prizes. The last prize she started asking for the Canadian guy with the moustache she liked. I didn´t understand a word of it, but June said she was looking for me so I stood up. When she saw me she ran over, jumping over seated people (remember there are 400 people watching this show) and came over to me, gave me a pink toy bicycle, kissed me once on each cheek, and held my hand aloft saying something about being the Canadian d'Artagnan.
After that everyone at the conference knew me, and after the show lots of folks came up and patted me on the back, or congratulated me, or maybe insulted me, who knows, I don´t speak Spanish!

All in all it´s been a damn fine week. Let´s hope next week can match it!

Back in Belgium

For those who don't know (and those who read my blog. This means you Clayton.) I've just returned to Belgium from Amsterdam. After my last experience hitchhiking I decided to just take the bus. (Last time took me 5 hours to get 2 hours up the road and it was hailing and cold and dark so I just gave up and took the bus and then the train. This time I just paid €5 more and took the train all the way in.

It was sold out on the internet, but when I arrived in person it only had 5 people on board, so I managed to get a ticket (discounted again because I'm under 25 ;) ) with no problem at all.


The trip took 5 hours so I slept a bunch. Then in Leuven I found my friends weren't home so I asked a stranger if she knew of a pay phone. She didn't so she took me back to her house, baby strapped to her chest, and let me use her phone. No answer, so I went to the pub ... for 5 hours.
In my defense I only had 6 beers (not even pints) over the course of 5 hours. To my detriment it was Duvel which is 8.8%, so I was a bit toasty when some granny started to chat me up in French. Fortunately my friends arrived before she could buy me another beer and she left. Then we left.


After arriving chez mes amis, we played 'Sing Star' on the play station. Turns out I suck. Then everyone left so I'm currently alone in a flat in Leuven, Belgium. It wouldn't be so bad if the T.V. was working but as far as I can tell I just have to wait for technical problem to be solved. I could read, or journal but I've been doing that a shit load today in that pub and I'm not really up for it again.


In other news I got a new Camera in Amsterdam!! It was priced €150 but I got it for €100 with 2 free memory cards. Not really cheap but it's good to have a camera again. Here is one picture. I don't know how to change the picture quality on my camera so everything is too big to upload all at once.

I'm starting to think this cowboy look isn't really working for me

Last night Matilda (my current host in Glasgow) and I went out to 'The Box' pub and listened to some music. It was pretty good. I'd been there the night before but the group last night was better by far.

At one point a guy came over to talk to Matilda, and then another guy came over and he hugged the first guy. Then he asked me if I had a problem with him being gay. Fortunately at that point Matilda said something to me and I was able to dodge the question entirely.

Then, not more than 30 seconds later, the 2nd guy that came over punched the first guy in the head. Really hard! So that guy got pissed off and stormed out. Then the punchy gay dude said unto Matilda in a thick Glaswegian accent 'Hey, can I talk to you for a second?'

The conversation went like this . . .

Dude - Hey, can I talk to you for a second?
Matilda - Uh, sure.
Dude - Are you guys together?
Grayson and Matilda - No.
Dude - Well, I'm not interested in her because, well, I'm just not. What he (referencing the first guy) chatting you up?
Matilda - No.
Grayson - No, he wasn't chatting her up.
Dude - He said he was chatting her up.
Grayson - Oh, well I guess so, but it didn't seem like it. How long have you two been together?
Dude - He's my brother.
Grayson - Oh.

At this point the conversation was between the two of us because Matilda had stepped out of the way. That's fine, it makes sense. It's the kind of thing you do in that situation. What wasn't fine was that she was insinuating that I should try to hit on him. That's when I stepped out of the conversation and left the guy by himself. He stood there alone for about 30 more seconds and then he said . . .

Dude - Fine. Hey, did that guy take a mobile from behind that speaker?
Grayson - I don't know, he took a jumper.
Dude - But did he take a phone?
Grayson - I don't know. He just took a black jumper.
Dude - I need to know if he has my phone.
Grayson - Well, was it in the pocket of a black jumper?

Then he kind of flailed and ran out the door.

Couch Surfing

I've left England for now, via a five hour bus ride prefaced by an hour and fourty five minute train ride which required waking up at 5:30am.

I'm in Glasgow and I'm couchsurfing in an awesome flat with an interesting story attached. It's also a store house for porn props. I've not been snooping but apparently there are all sorts of . . . things hidden about the place.

Last night there were a couple of other folks crashing there, and we all went out to some pubs. The first few were uneventfull (think out of key singers and stuff) although the streets were full of people! We tried to get into some of the better places around but at entry prices of £8-£15 we decided to stick with the smaller venues. Eventually we ended up in a basement pub somewhere off Sauchiehall Street and I ordered something on tap that looked cool. I found out 2/3 of the way through pouring my pint that they were out of what i ordered, so I got the 2/3 pint for free. Then some dudes saw my hat and moustache and they came over to chat.

At first I thought they were just friendly lads although a bit touchy feely. They got me a few pints and chatted with my friends and I. Then after a time (a relatively short time) I got the distinct impression that they were trying to pick me up. This suspision was confirmed later that evening when one of them looked at me and said that he had to level with me. That things weren't going as he had planned. That he had misread my hat and moustache and that there was no way I was going to sleep with him. I confirmed this statement and we ended the night with a big group hug in the street involving a random couple and lots of unecessary jumping.

It was weird, but whatever.

Here's an excerp from a recent e-mail home

I've moved on from Wicklow now, and am in Dublin. I had GREAT crack in Wicklow too though! On my last day we went on a hike in the woods and came across a river. This river was beautifull, so we stopped to enjoy it. 'Twas at that poin that we found 11 500ml bottles of cider. So . . . we took 'em. While we were gathering these beer, I happened to look into the river and notice a full can of Budwiser floating past. Following that I found a fottle of Miller sitting in the shallows. 'Twas grand and it was the start of a great night!

I arrived in Dublin yesterday around noonish. I managed to find a German couple who would put me up for an indefinite period (always a good thing) and along with them came a couple of guys from Germany, a girl from Finland, and another girl from Argentina. They're all great craic and today a bunch of us snuck (we didn't have to try very hard) into the Guinness brewery. We did the entire thing, went to a tasting, and at the end of the tour, some American guy I just bumped into asked me 'Hey, do you want a free beer?' My obvious answer was 'Yes!' and there I was, enjoying a 360 degree view of dublin, in a pub that I wasn't allowed into without paying, with a pint of Guinness that I didn't have to pay for.

Tonight we're going to go to a free pub that's going to play reggae/sca/dub/Brazillian music. Should be good, but if not, who cares, something else is going on within a couple of minuites walk.

Timmy O'Horton

Where am I anyway? Apparently you can get Horton's coffee in the back of some shops. I've not seen any yet, this cup was found by Jill (from P.E.I.) in a pub with a name I can't spell. It's been a grand 2 weeks in Galway, especially since I was only supposed to be here for a couple of nights.

The other night Karol had a big BBQ, we spent a good hour putting her BBQ together and then found out the connection wasn't right for the propane we had! Fortunately one of the guests was a chef and he cooked everything up in the kitchen. After a bottle of Buckfast and a few beers we went downtown to a pub to dance, then to an after party in a condo uptown with a D.J. We were supposed to go clubbing but I wasn't allowed in with my shoes, despite the fact that there were a few other folks inside wearing runners. My theory is they heard my accent or saw that I was having fun and decided I wasn't getting in. My response to them went a little like this . . .
Ignore the funny looking Italian guy giving me the fingers, I don't know him. He only lives with me.

It's chilly today . . .

. . . and there is a window open in the internet cafe.

Colm took this one of Keith and I at the first place I stopped in Taumgraney.

This is Matia, Kano, Drea, Chris and I on Jarod's last night in Ireland.