WHITECHAPEL
First stop was Whitechapel which is also the first stop on the Monopoly board. The worst part about this first one was that it was the furtherest away from where I lived and the two tube lines that went there were both closed for engineering works. So after an hour and a bus, train, tube, different tube and 20 minute walk we finally got there! To the White Hart which was completely empty until all six of us came in with a desperate need for a drink.
KINGS CROSS STATION
After about an hour we finished up our drinks and headed off for our next destination - Kings Cross Station. I had copied off the pubs and the plan from a website I found and it had directed me to a pub on Platform Eight. Turns out that pub had closed a good two years ago - whoops! So we quickly found a pub just outside (so close enough to Kings Cross Station) and started on the next drink. Now this put a little bit of a dint in the plan because this pub was on Euston Road which was the next stop on our pub crawl. To make up for it we spent a little bit longer in this pub eating and having a couple of drinks to wait for the rest of our crew before moving on to the next one.
EUSTON ROAD
Right next door to the previous pub was another pub so we jumped next door so we could cross this one off our list. By this stage all the stragglers had joined us as we were ready to get into a good decent game of Chance. I had printed off some chance cards with drinking games and dares on them and brought a dice along so whoever rolled an even number had to pick one up. At this pub Sean pulled a dare saying he had to pay for the next round with monopoly money. He waltzed up to the bar and I don't know if he sweet talked him or if the bartender just thought it was funny but he actually got a free half pint! I did lose some of my monopoly money but that was a pretty good price to pay haha!
MAYFAIR
There was a slight hitch to my plan in that I had lost all my directions to all these pubs when I broke my laptop. I had emailed myself the directions which was lucky however my phone died after the first three pubs which was a bit unideal. Luckily for me I had emailed them to a couple of our pub crawlers so all hope wasn't lost. It also helped that one of my pub crawlers had bought his London A-Z (now why didn't I think of that?) and led the way to a little pub in Mayfair called 'Ye Grapes'. Two of my pub crawlers had dressed up as some squares on the Monopoly Board one featuring this pub so it was of course a MUST that we went there. While we were there she asked for a free drink thanks to her 'free advertising' and got one! So far everyone had been having heaps of luck.
PICCADILLY
After Mayfair we went for a wander up the road to a pub in Piccadilly where we ran into another Monopoly Pub Crawl group. Weirdly enough (or is it really I dont know) they were dressed up in costume but not in Monopoly Theme. I mean what does a clown (albeit scary) have to do with Monopoly? I felt quite smug a this stage actually as my crew had made a pretty mean effort with thier costumes - we had a 'free parking' square, two prisoners, someone even IN jail, two hotels, two monopoly squares, a car (which Jules had made in 15 mins right before we left the house), a banker, a dog, a few people dressed in monopoly board colours and me as Mr Monopoly. Take that OTHER people. We dominated this dress up pub crawl thank you very much.
PALL MALL
Now... I'm going to admit something here by the time we got this far through the pub crawl things started to get a little blurry. We had being pretty good only having one drink at each pub (well mostly) but by this stage we had been drinking for six hours at least and it was dark so it definitely got a little blurry. All I can say is thank god Ted bought his A-Z and was sober enough for to navigate 15 or so drunken people around the centre of London. The pub in Pall Mall was quite a cute little one but it since it was so quiet and cute we felt a little bad intruding as we were neither cute nor little nor quiet so I would probably think this drink was the quickest one.
REGENT ST
Did I mention it was FREEZING cold on the day? We had had a warm winter with the temperature getting up to 12 degrees (whoa heatwave) but on my birthday it was a chilly high of 3 degrees. The sun had gone down and it was starting to get chill so the ten minute walk between each pub became more and more hurried and frustrating. I distinctly remember saying to Ted at this stage "I dont care if its the one on the list but if it remotely CLOSE to Regent Street - I want to go IN THERE!". Luckily enough for us it was a pretty good pub for a bit of a warm up as we ordered food, grabbed a table and a drink and had a bit of a decent rest.
TRAFALGUR SQUARE
After a quick rush through the cold we went down to a pub on the corner of Trafalgur Square which was the OTHER one of the Monopoly Square the girls had dressed up with but unluckily this pub didn't give out a free drink. Bummer. We also ran into those OTHER pub crawlers in this bar too so we would have probably been about half an hour ahead of them. It was getting almost to the end and we had lost a few members of the pub crawl along the way so the few of us that were left headed off to the final pub.
BOW STREET
The last pub was a bit of a let down as they wouldn't serve us 'in a group' and neither did the other pub on Bow Street so we had to compromise again and head to another pub in Covent Garden as I had no back up plan for this pub. While I was disappointed I couldn't do the whole thing properly by this stage I was well and truly drunk, very cold and very tired. Organising a 9 pub pub crawl is a big effort on any behalf let alone on my birthday! After a drink at the last pub I headed of home in time to get the last tube home and snuggle up in my bed.
Sadly enough I was the last one home out of all my housemates so the night didn't turn into an epic all nighter as I had wanted or planned but in the end we had been drinking for a good twelve hours so I went and truly celebrated my birthday. I managed to make my birthday weekend last even longer with my housemate Matt cooking me a delicious brekky and Siobhan cooking me birthday cookies (she makes us all a sweet treat of our choice for our birthdays - mine was penut butter and choc chip cookies) as well as one of my favourite dinners for tea. I pretty much sat on the couch dwelling on my hangover and watching four movies. I only moved to have a shower and get back into my pj's or make one of my endless cups of teas. Not a bad way to spend a sunday if you ask me!
Overall I had a pretty fantastic first birthday away from Oz. I wish I could have celebrated with all my friends in all parts of the world but one of the things about exploring life overseas is missing out on birthday hugs. I was still spoilt by my friends who sent balloons and a bottle of champagne and I know everyone was thinking of me due to a zillion facebook messages. I had a great couple of phone convo's with family and close friends so I certainly felt loved and missed by those that I love and miss. Thanks to everyone who made my special day special! xo
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