Friday afternoon was a free day. I had arrived in Newcastle Thursday night with the plan to attend the Newcastle Falcons rugby match Friday night. Thus, I had multiple tourist options for Friday afternoon. First, I thought I might take the bus to Hadrian’s Wall – a fortification wall built by the Roman Empire between 122 and 126 AD. Second, I considered seeing the sites in Newcastle and staying local. Third, I could check my email, run some “online” errands and relax at the hostel. …

My train arrived in Newcastle Thursday evening and it was now time to find the Albatross hostel I had booked on Tuesday. The hostel was located at 51 Grainger Street which was a short distance from the train station. The most important aspect for every place I would stay was that it needed to be within walking distance of the train station for two reasons. First, it is easier to find and second, it was close to the train station so I could get back quickly the …

As I wrote earlier my plan for Thursday afternoon was to attend the first division county cricket match between Yorkshire and Hampshire at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground in Leeds. The match started at 10:30 am and it took anywhere between 2 and 2.5 hours to take the train from London to Leeds. One train left London’s King’s Cross station at 8:10 am and arrived Leeds at 10:21 am. By the time I would arrive at Headingley it would be around 11 am which seemed like good timing even though it …

After visiting British Mick, I took the same bus (#295) I had on Sunday afternoon back to Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s Carling Cup match against Queens Park Rangers (QPR). This time I left earlier so I would not be late for the match which probably meant I would need to pay for my ticket.
Obtaining TicketsAt first I thought I would check to see if tickets were available for the match at the main ticket office. However, when I approached the security guards at the box office they said the match …

I woke up at 9:45 am and immediately started getting ready for my day at The Brit Oval. I was not too concerned with arriving on time at 10:30 am as a day of county cricket lasts for around seven hours.
After getting ready, I had an English muffin with Big Chris and started walking to the cricket ground at 10:30 am. I had walked this same path as I had walked on August 12, 2007. I was interviewing over that weekend in London and was staying near Waterloo Station just …