Before I begin, I would like to make a disclaimer that most of my days working for Collider are uneventful.  This is a fun job, but it’s still a job.  I usually write from home and go to film screenings.  I tell you this because the article you’re about to read is going to sound like bragging, but I assure you it’s not.  It’s simply a recounting of one of the best weeks of my life.  There’s no other way to put it when you’re flown out to London for the Blu-ray/DVD release of The World’s End, stay in a fancy hotel, eat delicious meals, go on a pub crawl of four pubs featured in the movie, interview stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, participate in overly-difficult pub trivia, and then have a free day to explore the city.  It was an amazing time, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about it.Hit the jump to read about my incredible trip to London and how I failed miserably at trying to jump over a hedge.I left Atlanta last Monday afternoon to take an eight-hour direct flight to Heathrow.  On the plane I watched R.I.P.D., which was quite awful but not the abomination I’d been led to believe.  It helps that I was stuck in a flying metal tube with almost nothing better to do (except read Nate Jackson’s great memoir, Slow Getting Up).After sleeping for a few hours on the plane (thanks, prescription medication!), I arrived to drizzling London at 8:00am local time.  After a few hours rest at the hotel, I still had time to do some exploring, so I walked down to Big Ben, which was a few minutes from my hotel.  Big Ben is surprisingly shiny, really tall, and quite impressive.  I can see why aliens in movies always want to destroy it.  Then I walked over to Picadilly Circus where I made it a point to visit Fortnum and Mason, a department store that’s older than America.  The Christmas decorations were already in full swing, and the store wins you over from the moment you walk in the door and see an entire floor devoted to nothing but candy and tea.  That’s how you stay in business for 306 years.There wasn’t any candy or tea that really grabbed me, but I did pick up this tiny Paddington Bear who comes inside a suitcase.  So cute!paddington-bearI decided to pass on the less-popular Paddington Werewolf.paddington-werewolfI then returned to the hotel for dinner with the Universal publicists and my fellow movie website writers.  There was good conversation and tasty food.  I’m unused to high dining (my attire to most of the meals on this trip: a t-shirt, hoodie, jeans, and sneakers), and noticed that the portions aren’t particularly big but they’re immaculate in their presentation.  They’re also somewhat overdone for my poorly refined palette.  For example, I chose the “Mocha” for desert.  Here’s the description from the menu:fancy-dessertAn equally accurate description would have been: “Sugary Things Arranged Nicely on a Plate”.After dinner, we enjoyed fine cigars and adult beverages out on the terrace.  I’m not a cigar smoker, but these were, shall we say, cigars that are somewhat difficult to find in the U.S. (I’ve been informed, perhaps jokingly, that I can’t actually give their name), and I’m a sucker for scarcity.  We all had a good time until the hotel night manager made us pack it in because we were being too noisy (i.e. a lot of people talking in normal voices at 2:00am were disturbing the old woman on the second floor—fair enough).The following morning, we went to the Corinthia Hotel for more fancy dining, and finely crafted food that sometimes didn’t make any sense.  For example, the world’s tiniest ice cream cone:tiny-ice-creamWe then drove an hour outside of London to Welwyn Garden City to begin our pub crawl where we would be going to the first four pubs from the movie: “The First Post”, “The Old Familiar”, “The Famous Cock”, and “The Good Companions”.The First Post was actually Pear Tree.  They didn’t really have a specialty beer or one I was unfamiliar with, so I went with the Foster’s because Australia used to be the home for British convicts.   That’s the tightest local connection I could make.pear-tree-exteriorpear-tree-interiorAs for the pub, it was charming, and the locals were friendly, although some of them were a bit miffed when the production came to town and closed down the place for a few days for filming.  I can understand that.  If you didn’t know the work of director Edgar Wright or anything about the movie, you would see this as an inconvenience.  But no one was harboring a serious grudge because they were all nice to us and they knew we were there because of the movie.The pub owners also had a cheeky sense of humor:pear-tree-urinalsThe light was beginning to fade, so we moved on to The Doctor’s Tonic, which served as the exterior for The Old Familiar.  In the movie, the interior was still The Pear Tree (movie magic!), but the actual interior of The Doctor’s Tonic was cozy albeit a little too clean.  It didn’t feel lived in like The Pear Tree, but I still enjoyed my time there.  I also had the house brew:the-doctors-tonicthe-doctors-tonic-interiordoctors-tonic-beer-1me-the-old-familiar-signAt this point, it was getting fairly late, so we decided to cancel our dinner at the upscale Oxo Tower Restaurant and grab some pub food at the next pub, The Two Willows, before getting a proper meal back at the Corinthia.  The Two Willows was The Famous Cock in the film, but a recent remodeling had drained the place of its personality, although they did keep the mirror bearing the flick’s best-named pub.me-the-two-willowsme-the-famous-cock-mirror-7Most of us grabbed a pint (I went with London Pride) and were treated to a smorgasbord of pub food including nachos, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, pita bread with hummus, and other pub standards.  If you were looking for a creative way to commit suicide, eating this entire buffet solo would be a delicious way to do it.Aside from the pub food, the best part of our time at The Two Willows was meeting one of the delightful and quite inebriated regulars.  [Name withheld to be the on the safe side] regaled us with stories like Jimi Hendrix playing a show nearby and other far-fetched tales.  But he always made sure to end with, “I swear on m’life!  Swear on m’life!”  He also had some trouble remembering where he put his cell phone even though he put in the front pocket of his backpack every time.  But he was a nice gentleman who wasn’t opposed to us buying him a round.We then moved on to our fourth and final pub, The Parkway Bar (aka The Good Companions).  By this point, I’d had three pints, and while I wasn’t drunk, my decision-making skills were slightly impaired.  The path from The Two Willows to the Parkway Bar was the same park where Gary King (Pegg) did a pratfall over a hedge.Now I know how movies work and that the production had stunt coordinators and a mat on the other side of the hedge.  But after three pints, my rational voice was quiet, and my primary thought was, “The ground is damp and therefore soft!  I’m wearing my sturdy leather jacket!  I can therefore do a hilarious leap over this hedge that is almost half my height!”  Here was the result:[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ALYkGFmMps?rel=0[/EMBED_YT]My shoulder would hurt for the rest of the trip, and I was sure to relate the event to anyone who would listen because this was my badge of stupid pride.Clutching my shoulder as it hung limply from my side, I entered The Parkway Bar and had a Guinness to numb the pain.me-the-parkway-barHere’s me fighting through my "injury":me-the-parkway-bar-4And here’s how I actually felt:me-the-parkway-bar-2After spending more time at the bar enjoying good beer and good conversation, we made the trip back to London and ate at the Corinthia Hotel where I ate one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.corinthia-hotel-steakThe following morning, we made our way to the St. Stephens Tavern where we had a long lunch with Pegg and Frost to talk about The World’s End and a variety of other topics.  Click here for a recap of the conversation.

THE WORLD’S END Sends Matt to London for a Pub Crawl,

Sightseeing, Unfair Pub Trivia,

and More Continued on Page 2

Then we had about six hours of free time before pub trivia at The Red Lion.  At this point I would like to point out that, in case you didn’t know, Ain’t It Cool News’ Eric Vespe (aka Quint) and Paul Shirley of JoBlo are awesome human beings.  I know they’re awesome because they were willing to hang out with me while I traversed the famous four-and-a-half story toy store, Hamleys.

Hamleys is world-renowned, and when you enter, it’s not difficult to figure out why (unless you hate children, toys, and fun; then you may be at a loss).  Employees fly remote-controlled helicopters, show off airbrushing art, do magic tricks, and more.  Also, constantly being cheerful is apparently a requirement.  It’s a sensible requirement if you’re around children who are probably about to burst from joy and parents who are rethinking their decision to bring those children to this wonderland.  As an adult, I can appreciate the store.  I can marvel at this “Metal Art Monster” that strongly resembles Predator:

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Or this abomination of Power Ranger action figures glued together to make a gigantic Power Ranger:

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I can also appreciate a LEGO recreation of the British Royal Family:

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But if I were a kid, I would absolutely lose my mind in this place.  I was shocked I didn’t hear a single temper-tantrum or crying child because there was just too much good stuff in this place.  It had something for everybody, and if you don’t get at least something, then it would be a missed opportunity (I picked up some LEGO minifigs and a die-cast double-decker bus).

From there, we hit a few more shops, Eric retired back to the hotel to grab some shut-eye, and Paul and I walked along the London streets spotting cool stuff like this ice skating rink:

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And enjoying the rest of the scenery as we walked along the Thames.   London is a beautiful city, and it’s nice to fantasize about living there one day.

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We then joined up with our peers and the publicists for some pub trivia.  It’s important to know that I take bar trivia far too seriously.  I play Team Trivia in Atlanta and it has order, slowly increasing difficulty, and even elements of strategy.  It’s a good way to spend a few hours.

At The Red Lion pub, our “quizmaster” also took trivia very seriously, but in a way that was slightly less enjoyable.  We split up into groups and were handed a list of lyrics and asked to identify the artist and song (one point for each), and struck out on most of them.  From there, we had four rounds with twelve questions each, and some questions had multi-part answers (the easiest one for our table of nerds was “Name the members of the Fellowship of the Ring”).  Some of the questions were fair, but there were some you would only know if you had heard the trivia question in the past.  The most glaring example was this one:

What year includes all of the Roman numerals? (The answer is “1441”)

If you need an indication of how competitive I can be, you should know that the prize for winning was an iPad Mini, and I didn’t care about the prize.  I just wanted to win, because as we all know, the person who wins a game of trivia is clearly the smartest person in the room.  This allows me to be a poor winner instead of a sore loser (there’s a reason I tend to play cooperative games rather than competitive ones).  Unfortunately, I was two points shy of competing in the final round, and proceeded to sulk the rest of the night.  I repeat: do not play games against me.

The following morning was a free day.  Yes, a free day, which is just crazy and fantastic.  Nothing The World’s End-related; just the full day to explore London.  Vespe and I are huge Beatles fans and wanted to make the trip to Abbey Road.  We picked up day-passes for the Underground, and since Sherlock Holmes’ home of 221b Baker Street was on the way, we decided to make a brief stop:

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Oddly enough, there was a Beatles store right next door:

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My need for souvenirs sated, we then proceeded to Abbey Road, which is still an active roadway.  It baffles me why they haven’t closed it off.  It must be the absolute worst road for drivers during the daytime because they know idiot tourists like me are going to clog it up as we imitate the famous album cover.  The photo ops are somewhat facilitated by photographers in bright yellow vests who will take your picture professionally for 10£ or will use your iPhone and you can donate at your discretion (I paid 5£).  I decided to go full McCartney for my photo even though it was too damn cold to be shoeless:

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Priceless photo taken, Vespe and I then made our way to one of my favorite places in the world, the British Museum, which is a sacred place for history nerds.

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I could spend hours just in a single room and it never feels like there’s enough time.  We decided to hit a few specific locations including Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, and Japan.  We also got to hold a 350,000-year-old rock:

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After spending a few hours at the museum, my feet were aching and we decided it was time to head back to the hotel.  Later that night, we had another excellent meal and then finished off with a round of fiery shots:

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Then I flew home the following morning.

I know it sounds like I’m bragging about my trip, but I promised to write about it, and I hope you found this article entertaining rather than sickening.  If it’s any consolation, I watched Home for the Holidays and Taken 2 on the flight back, and they were both pretty bad.

And if you’re still upset, here’s me injuring myself again: