Day 4 - Penny Lane and Liverpool

Day 4

Monday, March 19th, 2012

Penny Lane and All-Around Liverpool

Our first full day in Liverpool! Katie picked us up in the morning at the hostel. We walked to the center of the city to take a bus to the outskirts. All we had to do was wait until all the stores said "Penny Lane" then hop of the bus!

UK buses are so comfy! The buses in Scotland were furnished and also these ones in Liverpool. I could fall asleep for certain! The buses in Italy are plastic, few, and oddly positioned. Chances are, you will be standing!

It was another nice day for us--so lucky! Penny Lane was a bit run down, but the hype of The Beatles was there. Truth-be-told, we did not know what we were looking for. Apparently there was a mural dedicated to The Beatles somewhere on Penny Lane. Exploring time!

Penny Lane was not much. Just a street. Houses on each side and a long stretch of lawn. I was afraid we would not find anything interesting! It would not have been a waste of time, but it would have been anti-climatic.

Coolio for us, a community center was only a little further along. It was locked, so we were uncertain how to get in. At first we went gurilla and took photos of the place from the other side of the fence. Then I got smart and read a sign: "Buzz in to enter." Do not mind if I do!

The community center is a work-in-progress. The mural is the most finished part of the yard. A graphic designer was commissioned to design it, I think. It is really cool! I took pictures of "I love Ringo" and "I love John" because those are my faves. Check out the rest of the pics in the previous post!

A lady came out to greet us as we checked out the mural. She explained that this was a community center and that a lot of work has happened and will happen to it. An octopus garden was explained to us in one corner of the yard. Plants with ribbons on them were trees people have adopted. Overall, the place was really nice! I cannot wait for it to grow and become a hot stop for people to hang at!

Jackie's mother is a huge Beatle's fan, so she adopted a tree for her. They printed off and laminated a certificate for her for doing that! I bought a postcard. I wonder who I should send it to?

We got to write our names on this!

Our next task was to get back in town for lunch. We figured all the buses eventually converged on the city center, so we took the first bus that came our way. As good as that theory was, though, this bus took us all around Liverpool. We were seeing more of Liverpool than Katie had! Eventually, we got off and transferred to a more reliable bus to the city center. It was really cool, though, seeing so much of the city.

For lunch, we went to the cafeteria on Katie's campus. Because we were late, her friends had already eaten and gotten off to class. The food was really good! You will not go hungry. I always have to remember that chips means french fries...

Out again! We checked out a contemporary church, then an Anglican one. We did not go inside, but the outsides were cool!

We saw more of Liverpool walking. All over town we found these crazy sculptures of a sheep and a banana. Apparently it is a social commentary about genetic modification and such. Every sculpture is painted different. It reminds me of the polar bears, globes, and dogs Racine has had in the past. De Pere has the butterflies and other insects, also.

Katie had to take us to a church that had been blown out in WWII. The structure was in tact, but the roof and the stained glass windows had been blown out. It really was amazing to look at. I tried to get as many artsy shots as possible. It was too good an opportunity for awesomeness to pass up!

By this time, we had walked a lot. Our last stop was to be the museums on the docks. It was getting late, so we would not be able to spend a lot of time on the docks. The sky had gotten cloudy. I really loved looking at it.

We could only spend time in the Maritime Museum. It had stuff about the Titanic and other famous ships that had ported in Liverpool. The history of maritime is very extensive and cool! I learned a lot of fun facts from it.

I enjoyed the large anchor outside the museum.

For the rest of the day until the evening we hung in Katie's apartment making grill cheese sandwiches and enjoying tea. I have not had grill cheese sandwiches since I came abroad--I love them! Oh, it was so nice to have them. Funny how the little things make you so happy.

Our evening was spent listening to a colleague's music class concert. Brian is an underclassman at SNC and friend of Katie's. He was part of a class that had the participants form groups, practice arranging and playing songs. There were three groups. Brian's was the last group to play. It reminded me of the Knight Owl entertainment back home. It was so much fun! Everyone did an awesome job. If I ever get pictures of the performance, I will be sure to put them up!

After that, it was late and we were tired from all the exercise. We said good night and parted ways. I figured I could get us back to the hostel, no problem. I told Katie I would call her, though, if we got lost!

All that's left to say is we crashed at the hostel. Tomorrow was a plane ride to Dublin!