A Weekend in Liverpool

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Sorry it’s been so long since I had last written, but I had a very busy weekend and week. Because of that, I yet again have a lot to write about. The good thing this time is I have pictures for you to look at as you read. Plus, they’ll help break up the text. So, let’s get started.



This last weekend was the best weekend I have had here in London so far. The reason for this is the fact that I got to Liverpool. For those who don’t know what Liverpool is, it is a city in northern United Kingdom and the home of the Beatles. The trip was fantastic, and I learned so much about the Beatles.
Our trip started out Friday morning with a 4.5 hour bus ride from our flats to our hotel in Liverpool. During the ride, I got to see the lovely UK countryside and the UK version of rest areas. Rest areas in the UK are kind of like the ones that occur on the New Jersey Turnpikes. They are a combination of restaurants, bathrooms, and small shops, and they occur every so often on the highway. So, it wasn’t much different for me. The weirdest thing that I saw on the bus ride was the fact that the highway signs displayed the distance to places in miles and not kilometers. That just kind of threw me off. Besides that, I enjoyed the trip up.



We arrived to our hotel in the afternoon and got a thirty minute break to unpack and settle down. Then, we did a small walking tour of Liverpool. The tour was just to give a sense of what was around us and what was in the rest of the city. At the end of the tour, we got to go inside a building that was a part of the Beatles Story, a history of the Beatles thing. Inside, we got to see a whole section devoted to the story of John Lennon. That helped give some perspective on him and on some of the Beatles’ songs. After that, we went to a little movie thing called “The Fab 4D.” It was a 3D movie that had a compilation of Beatles’ songs and a crazy story. It was a little trippy, which I think was the point.

When we were done with the Beatles’ Story, we did another walking tour of Liverpool. This one was basically of places related to the Beatles. We went to Matthew Street, and this was the place where most of the clubs and pubs were. On this street was the Cavern Club. This place is where the Beatles played a lot of their gigs in Liverpool, and sadly, I never got a chance to go in. That was fine with me. It was just cool to be outside the club. After this tour, some my fellow TFs and I went to a really good Italian restaurant, which had great food. For the rest of the night, we walked around Liverpool.



The next day was yet another Beatles filled day. At the start of the day, I had my first English breakfast. It consisted of an egg, sausage, bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Personally, it was ok, but it is definitely not something that I am going to order any time in the near future. Luckily, there were pastries and other things around to eat. After breakfast, some of us went to do another part of the Beatles story while others went to see the childhood homes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. I was luckily in the second group and had a fantastic time seeing the homes. The cool thing is that there are actual people in the homes, and they are paid to live there. Also, the homes were decorated to be like they were when the Beatles were growing up. These visits put a lot of perspective on both Lennon and McCartney and again the music of the Beatles.




After all the tours were done, we had some free time to go out on the town. I got to see an exhibit at the art museum that related to stuff I had been studying in my art class. I had extremely good fish and chips, which was accompanied by an excellent glass of pinot grigio. For dessert, I had a really cheap, but really good piece of chocolate cake. After all of that, I just hung out with some of the people on the trip.

The last day in Liverpool was full of more Beatles’ and beautiful skies. For most of the morning, we explored the city and saw some more places related to the Beatles. The one I liked the most was the Casbah Club. This was another place that attributes itself to the birth of the Beatles since they played there a lot. It was/is located in the basement of a house, and it is really small. The cool thing about it is that the Beatles helped decorate the inside. After that visit, we went to the highest point in Liverpool and got to a panoramic view of the city. We took a group picture and went back to seeing the city. That afternoon, I got to do the Beatles Story audio tour. The tour basically went through the history of the Beatles, and it was very informative. At the end of that, we had some free time in the city and left that afternoon.



If I had the money, I would definitely go back to Liverpool. It was very fun, and there is so much more that I want to do there. At the end of the trip, I decided that if I had the chance, I would live in Liverpool for some time. The people there are really friendly and it is so much more relaxed than London. I enjoy being in London, but I think Liverpool would be a much better experience for me.

With the weekend done, I guess it’s time to move to my week so far. There is not much to report. Monday was another school day. It seemed that the students overall were much better behaved than the last two Mondays, but there were still issues. The good thing though is I got to help out a couple of students out during the day. For my next three Mondays, I’m going to balance my “research” with my helping out in the classroom. I’m definitely not going to teach a lesson, but I am going to help out whenever I can. That night we saw another play called London Assurance. I really enjoyed it. I was surprised by that because I had to read it beforehand and that was extremely boring.

There’s not much to report on Tuesday, except I signed up for housing.
Wednesday was an interesting day. I had no class that day and that night we had another play called Money. This was a site specific play and it was very weird. I’m still trying to figure it out, and I will get back to it when I can.
Not much happened today. I got all my essays done that are due tomorrow, and we watched Help! the movie in the Beatles class.

Highlight of the Week: My step mom came to London for some work stuff and she had time to visit me.

That’s it for now.

Until Next Time,
Jefe