Friday morning I puddle jumped over to Liverpool via Ryanair to check out the Beatles capitol of UK! I went with Caitlyn and Tim and went straight to the hostel we were staying in once we landed. I wasn't sure what to expect from a hostel, I had never stayed in one before. We got there only to find out that Caitlyn and I would be the only 2 girls in a room with 10 other boys...bummer haha!
The first guys to arrive after us weren't too friendly. Tim tried to make a good impression but it just wasn't working. That's OK though, the ones after that made it all better! Welsh accents and Argentinean accents...hott! The man we met from Argentina was actually pretty cool. He came to Europe to better his English speaking skills and was backpacking through England and Germany for a month. He tried out his English on us and we got pretty far, he was doing very well with his lessons! We also met another man who was in college but had come to Liverpool to see a friend's performance. He was from Wales, and was very scholarly indeed. I thought he was the friendliest out of them all and was probably the nicest man we had met so far in the UK.
But moving on...Friday we explored the city and walked around and saw all the wonderful architecture. I was a little worried at first about visiting Liverpool because some of our Irish friends said there wasn't much to do there. But I liked the sights and the weather was pretty decent, no rain! I couldn't believe how tall some of the buildings were in Liverpool. There were sky scrapers, but they weren't just tall business buildings, everything was an art. The buildings had curves and dimension to them. They weren't ugly boxes sitting there obstructing the views.
We eventually found a Beatles museum that was FREE! I love seeing that word in places...The museum was great. I posted the pictures on facebook for all to see. There were guitars used by the Beatles and lovely quotes all over the walls by their kids and wives. Definitely something I would go back to see. When we were done in the museum we headed back to the hostel and met some more roommates that were there for the night. Again, Cait and I were the only girls but that was OK. We managed just fine with ONE bathroom between the 12 of us! Yes, I repeat, ONE bathroom. Ughhh. We ended up making an early night of it and hit the sack.
We got up early on Saturday and went to take a tour of of Anfield Stadium. This hour of the weekend was dedicated to our friend Tim, he was the only boy travelling with us! The field was pretty cool. A lot of history there and you could feel the love from all the people we talked to during the tour. Someone had actually travelled from Australia to see the stadium! Once the tour was done we hopped on the bus and headed back into the city. We ended up walking around all day and we didn't have a set plan which turned out to be fun.
I wanted to see the Beatles museums so we headed there and toured several of them. When that was over, Tim saw a huge building he thought was interesting so we walked across the city to it. I can't even begin to imagine how many miles we covered throughout that whole weekend! When ever we saw a tall building we made a point to walk to it, not knowing what it was or far away it might have been. We ended up finding Liverpool Cathedral. It took over 100 years to build and was amazing! I could not believe how big it was once you were up close to it. If I thought the outside looked cool, the inside was 10x better! The cathedral ceilings were so high and everything echoed. The church was full of natural light streaming in from the stained-glass windows that took up most of the walls. There was even a smaller cathedral attached to the basement of the church. It had to be 5x bigger than my house!
When we left the cathedral, we headed back to the hostel for dinner and a nap. We decided to go out and see the nightlife of the town, but it ended up being a bust like the night before. Girls were dressed like they were heading to the red carpet and again we were all in jeans and t-shirts. We walked around and people-watched which ended up being pretty entertaining. We went back to the hostel and hung out with our roommates. We exchanged stories and helped one another understand each other's languages. It ended up being an early night because we had a 9 am flight the next morning and we needed to be there 7 am for immigration.
Our cab ride in the morning turned out to be pretty entertaining! Our cabbie was Scottish and had been to America several times to visit his friends and family. Although I was a little weary once he started talking more and more. He was informing Tim of how to properly beat your wife and keep the ladies in line. He even showed him his metal bat! Although I knew it was all fun and games, he always seemed to take his jokes to an all new level. The cabbie proceeded with how he did not like Americans (not jokingly) and how he didn't understand the women and why we acted the way we did. He then went on to say how he appreciated the English women and girls because he liked how they took 2-3 hours every night to get ready and poofed up their hair with a whole can of hair spray and how they wore next to nothing; mini skirts, leotards, and 6 in heels! I could not believe what was coming out of his mouth...I'm sorry I like wearing jeans and being fully clothed lol. I miss being home and going to a party or club wearing jeans and a tank top, whatever happened to being comfortable?
All in all the weekend was a success. We had fun and saw the sights we wanted to see and then some. We met some great people and not so great people, but you get that everywhere you go. We even ran into some of our program friends at the Shannon Airport. They had gone on a weekend trip to Belgium and Paris! Updates to come soon, my birthday is in 12 days and London is in 11!!
No comments:
Post a Comment