Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Liverpool

Well here we are in the final leg of our Ireland/UK leg of the tour starting out England with Liverpool, home of The Beatles! Apparently the intensity of our trip caught up with us for the first day this morning and we over slept our alarm by 2 hours, so we missed the train we initially were planning on grabbing from Edinburgh to Liverpool, so we had to go to a different one. But it was ok because we didn't actually have tickets reserved for this train so we didn't miss anything but time so we got some more rest and felt better then we were expecting to when we were planning on getting up at 6:30. So we hopped a train and started the long (4 hour) train ride to Liverpool. The tickets for this particular train were rediculously priced, but we did not get them in advance and buying in advance online a few days is DRASTICALLY cheaper for rail travel in this area. So we paid an insane £54 each for the ride. (for example, we got our next train in the hostel here a day early and it was £24, and had we gotten it a week ago it would probably be around £10) Oh well, live and learn.

So we got to Liverpool a bit late, and we had to twice ask someone for directions, and both times they were the nicest people. The first guy showed us where to go and actually walked with us a few blocks showing us the buildings and such since he was headed in the same direction, and the second guy was very nice as well and gave us his card in case we got lost and asked us to email him when we found our diggs to let him know everything worked out alright. So our hostel (Everett Hostel on Everett Street) is located pretty poorly. The location itself is actually quite nice, but it is a half hour walk minimum from the actual city part of Liverpool. But aside from that it is a truley awesome hostel. There are bowls of free fruit in all the rooms and the common area, free cereal, tea, coffee, cookies, snacks, milk, etc. all around. It is very homey and we actually have our own kitchen, wash/drier, and bathroom in our room. Our hostel mates are alright, one girl walked in only real late and went to sleep we didn't talk, another guy spent most of the time on the computer but was nice and I actually was able to help him book his trip from Ireland to Scotland (he wanted to do Belfast to Stranraer to Edinburgh, and I just so happened to have detailed notes on that exact stuff in my journal!) and theres a cool kid from Hamburg, Germany and a guy and girl from Finland who are cool as well.

After the train ride and considering the money we had already dumped into getting here everyone seemed pretty uninterested in doing all the Beatles things we had planned (visiting Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, the church where Paul and John met, the Cavern Club they played 292 times at starting their career, etc.) but Sharon and I still wanted to so we got a taxi and made it 3 minutes too late to the Beatles museum, but managed to convince (i.e. beg) our way in. The exhibit was totally cool and we got to see all kinds of great information and I think I learned a lot about the Beatles I did not know. They had lots of cool things including the replica (I think it was a replica, I assume they didn't actually get this) interior of the plane they flew to America for the first time in, a room set up with images of girls screaming everywhere and loud footage of them screaming blaring over everything so it was hard to hear the narrator talk, and best of all a yellow submarine you walked into complete with periscope and observation windows that were fish tanks with real fish making it seem underwater.

After Sharon and I got a cab back to the hostel and we all went out across town to a supermaket (ASDA, basically a Walmart it even had rollback prices and a yellow happy face inside) and got stuff to cook a big dinner in our kitchen since it was there, and it ended up being a super cheap and delicious/filling dinner (only £4.5 each!). Because what better way to spend your first day in England ever then going to a super market? Exactly, I didn't think you would have a better idea. We made prawns (shrimp) fried up in mixed chopped vegtables, seasonings, and a tomato basil/garlic sauce, pasta, and absolutely delicious garlic bread. The dinner came out amazing it was so good, and we over ate to the max.

After dinner we had some left overs (not a lot... but we had already stuffed ourselves so much...) and we tried to give the rest away to any of our roomates but we keep forgetting how late our eating times seem to people in Europe and they were all full having eaten a while before and it was too late to eat for them... too bad, they missed out. We also got ourselves some eggs and bacon to add to our breakfast tomorrow (so dinner was a little less then £4.5o each since it included the breakfast and the snacks we got as well) again, to make full use of the kitchen while we have it! Tomorrow we have a relaxing morning, not leaving until 11 and not having to leave the room before we go down to get breakfast since we make it right here. Also I'm excited about swiping some food for lunch to save from buying lunch tomorrow making 2 free meals, help play catch up for the expensive train ticket today. We will arrive mid-afternoon in Oxford tomorrow, and I'm very excited to see the sights! Not going to lie, Liverpool is extremely unimpressive looking, especially after coming strait from picturesque Edinburgh. But we still made it a totally excellent day. Well considering it is 00:36 right now, I think it's time for bed. Goodnight all!

3 comments:

  1. hey pat,
    the food looks delicious!!!!! did u cook any of it??
    hope to read more soon!!!
    love,
    cathy, sharon, alicia, aunt cathy, and uncle steve

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  2. Really can't believe no one else wanted to go to The Beatles museum! I would have loved to go to that! Glad to know you guys are still kickin it to the max over there!

    Oh and for the record, I think Walmart bought ASDA around 2000, so that makes sense.

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  3. Yes I did I did cook some of it, and it was delicious!

    I know Wink I was kinda surprised, but everyone was tired and it was a long walk to the hostel. But whatever we went and it was really really cool. I wish we got their earlier because they added some new part to the exhibit thats some sort of 4d Beatles ride thing but it was too late for us, and it sounded pretty trippy.

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