Preconceived Notions..

Before I came over to England, my friends and family members that have been here before, so graciously gave me their opinions and experiences that they once had here. The ranges of times that each of my friends and family were here were very widely spread out.

My grandfather, Mel Sorensen,  was the first (in chronological order)  to come over and visit London when he was apart of the U.S. Navy. He was here from September 1948- November of 1948. Grandpa's bit of advice was this: "When you get there, don't expect to have any drinks that have ice cubes in them. They don't even serve beer cold, everything is room temperature." So right away I thought, "Oh wonderful, I am not going to be able to get a cold drink anywhere I go. This is going to be a long trip.." (And this was going to be a "problem" for me because I do like my water and beers ice cold.) However, I was pleasantly surprised when I got here, and it turns out that England in fact does not live in the Dark Ages, and they indeed serve their beverages cold.

The next bit of information I got was from my cousin, Michael. He did a back packing trip throughout Europe back in August of 2011, and he made a stop in London for two days. Michael had nothing but good things to say about London and their culture, however he said that he didn't fancy the "traditional English" dishes very much. "After you've had 'fish and chips' once or twice, you wont want to eat that any more. Everything that you order, they will serve chips with. And the rest of it, is kind of just bland. I don't think they believe in seasonings." And yet again, I have been proven wrong by these assumptions that I formulated before even arriving in England. However, Michael was right... They do serve chips with just about everything.. But I wont complain about that! I have come to love Traditional English dishes very much. I would have to say that Vegetable Pie is the winner, but overall, I can't complain about any of the food that I have encountered thus far.