Hello, Goodbye

Hello Liverpool, Goodbye Ireland. I'm excited to see the rest of Europe, but honestly would've been perfectly happy staying on the great Emerald Isle for the next couple of weeks. It has definitely stolen my heart. Checking into the Belfast City Airport was fairly easy, minus the confusing small room away from all of the check in desks with just one security guard where we had to check our baggage. After checking in we grabbed some last minute Irish souvenirs and boarded the plane from outside, still find doing this so strange! Rainy weather this morning, hope it stops at Liverpool. As we sat on the plane I contemplated just a few of the many reason why I love this country:

The people - always polite, happy and patient

Differences in words - give you a ring, rubbish

Using cheers at the end of convos

Telling time as half 7 instead of 7:30

Short flight to Liverpool, only about 35 minutes. Wish we could have found something cheaper, but at least we made it! Flying into the UK was beautiful. Windmills were scattered about in the ocean and the land is so green, very similar to Ireland. Flipping through a magazine on the flight I discovered a new crush, Paddy Wallace - an Irish rugby stud. Rugby is a sport I could definitely get into. Also, the magazine highlighted a small island off the coast of France called Jersey. Looked like it would be worth a visit in the future. Once in the Liverpool airport we headed upstairs to take pictures with a John Lennon statue. We're both excited to be in a city with so much Beatles memorabilia. We took a local bus into city center and got to ride with all the locals headed to school or work, all very nicely dressed or in uniform. Adam noticed that all the windows on the houses are much bigger here and the accents are completely different from ones I've ever heard. Already started out the day with some good luck when the bus driver didn't make us pay for the ride into the city. When we first got on he didn't have change, and told us not to worry about it when we got off. Didn't I just get done saying how nice everyone is here?!

Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

We first walked to the train station to check times for a train to Manchester and check in our packs so we didn't have to haul them around all day. Looked like everything was fairly close so we decided to walk rather than use the hop on hop off bus tour. We stopped by a couple of the main cathedrals for a bit - Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Liverpool Cathedral. The Liverpool Cathedral stood all alone and is by far the most impressive thing to see in this city. One of the most impressive buildings we've seen on this trip. Afterward our cathedral visits we stopped at a fancy English restaurant called The Monro for lunch. We split lamb rump and goat cheese on rolls. First time trying lamb, so delicious - although I couldn't stop feeling guilty eating such cute animals. After lunch we headed down to the pier and stopped at a few other site seeing places along the way. At the pier we went into the Beatles story - a tad bit expensive, but totally worth it. We spent a few hours there hearing the background story of each individual Beatle from important people in their lives and seeing various objects of significance to them. The museum was definitely our favorite site we visited. Hearing the Beatles' story in such a detailed and personal way would make anyone a Beatles fan! Also went to see what we thought was an awesome movie put together about the Beatles but turned out to be just a kids 4D show that had incorporated Beatles songs into its story. Corny, but we still had fun. Afterwards we headed back to the train station to catch a ride to Manchester for the night.

The Cavern

Radcliff

On the train to Manchester Victoria Station we were smashed in with locals - always fun to observe. Short ride through woods and fields. Once in Manchester we wondered around for a bit looking for a bus to take us to Radcliff - where our hotel was. This was another 30 minute drive or so and a little walk up a big hill overlooking Radcliff. When we got to the Hawthorne Hotel the owner was in a bit of a panic saying he hadn't received any email conformation about our two night stay and was all booked up for Saturday night. He made his secretary - a girl a little younger than us and completely incompetent for this job as she was on Facebook the entire time not even caring about our situation - look up a few things before calling another hostel to see if they had an opening for us. Thankfully they did and we could grab a taxi over there to drop our bags off at in the morning. After throwing our bags in the room and settling down a bit, we went on a little adventure hike to find a lookout - unfortunately epically failing. We then walked to a local grocery store for sandwich supplies and chips and salsa I had been craving. We also picked up some alcohol, picking out Bulmers pear to try while Adam choose another local cider. We ate in the room and watched a bit of TV while trying to figure out how to get to London. Hoping to just go Saturday night but couldn't find any open, fairly priced hostels for the night. Hopefully the hostel tomorrow works out ok!

Enjoy these other pictures from Liverpool:

Beatles stuff everywhere!

With Lennon's piano, nbd