Arrive London

'Ello, 'ello! (say it in a British accent, it sounds cooler).

So good, friends I have arrived in London. I woke up with the usual up-set stomach I've gotten use to getting on my Travel Days, but it didn't have much to do with being nervous about the train, so much as I don't like train rides or airplane rides. Stupid, really, since cars and driving are highly more dangerous, and I'm more likely to die in a car on the way to the train station or airport, but never the less.

I got dressed and packed and took a cab to the train station and found my platform with no big deal (I had a pretty good feeling I knew which one it was - I had scoped out the area when I picked my ticket up on Wednesday - and the train ride itself was no big deal. I sat next to this friendly girl who's my age and talked to her for part of the time. She's from Liverpool and was heading to London for the weekend to stay with friends, and she thought my accent was cool. Yeah, I have an accent. Anyway she was asking me what we call a bunch of different things in the U.S.A. She was absolutely fascinated by it. I was fascinated she found it fascinating. The circle of life. It turns out she was actually staying in a hotel just down the road from my hostel so we took a cab together from the train station so it was only 3,50 British Pounds for the whole ride. Not bad all things considered.

I've gotten checked into my hostel no biggy and found a nice little cafe that gave me the best omelet I've ever eaten. No lie. I probably couldn't make one better. And I'm a pretty good cook.

Otherwise I have no great plans for the evening. My first big goal tomorrow is to find a place to buy and Oyster Card. It's a card to use on the Metro and is much cheaper than buying single tickets all the time. And I'm going to need the metro to get around London.

Well, that's all for now my good peeps! Love you for always!!!!

'Is there anybody going to listen to my story..." Pictures

 "Under my um-brella, ella, eh, eh..."

 Part of St. James Garden.

 Just a picture I took. I love all the green...

Me in the garden.

'Is there anybody going to listen to my story..."

Alright, so day two in Liverpool:

I work up around 9:00 today which isn't horrible, but I took my time getting ready, not particularly sure what I wanted to do today. I did know that I was going to walk to the train station again to see if I could pull my duffel there tomorrow and save the cost a cab. Yeah right. Taxi it is. Without the duffel is no big deal, but I can't drag it that far. Having a plan for tomorrow, I changed direction.

I did want to go and investigate St. James Park that I saw yesterday behind the Liverpool Cathedral. So I walked there and explored it a bit. It's the huge park that's GREEN! If I were Kermit the Frog I'd be invisible in there. It was beautiful. It was actually lined with tomb stone markers all through the park. They weren't all graves, in fact most of them weren't, but they were there in remembrance to those who've died in the city of Liverpool. I actually found it a bit comforting to be there. It smelled nice and earthy, the birds were out, it rained last night so everything was still dripping with water, and since the sun was out, it was making everything shine in the garden. I just plopped down on a broken stone and read my book for a little more than hour. It was nice and relaxing.

I found that I was glad I had my time in the park. I don't know why, but I was feeling cranky with everything today. I've been scared, upset, homesick, happy, amazed, and a whole bunch of other things but today I found that everyone around seemed to irritate me so I was glad to find the garden empty. And it was a huge garden so there was no one who could have come through to bother me.

I was only out for a few hours today, but I felt like that was enough so I headed back to the hostel and took a couple hour nap. I don't know that I was tired and that's why I was feeling cranky, but I feel better now that I'm up, and I'm really really excited to go to London tomorrow! I know where my hostel is, the train is only a couple hours, and I'm hoping beyond hope to not repeat Rome and make my train by 30 seconds.

Well, good homies, have a fabulous night! I know a good bunch of you are getting together and drinking so drive responsibly! (at least some of you have children (who have licenses) that are now home for the summer so you have a sober cab -- use them!). Love you tons and I can't wait to see you in a week! Wow - one week! It seems unreal! The next time I'll write you will be from London!

Liverpool Pictures

 Me at Albert Dock.

 A shipi in Albert Dock

 Just a picture I took of an older couple on the dock. I thought they might look how an immigrant couple would look, waiting to get on a boat. Looking out at the unknown.

 Me with the water behind me.

 Sign.

Part of the dock -- you can walk all the way down or sit on a bench and look out at the water.

 This isn't just a creepy skull and head...see the story below.

 Story

 A small part of the ceiling in the Liverpool Cathedral.

 Me in the Liverpool Cathedral.

A different section of the Cathedral. I'm actually on like a balcony here...you see the sides with all the little arches -- I'm in a smaller one at the back of this hall.

Liverpool

I have to say, after nearly a week of scattered sun and quite a bit of rain in Dublin, I was thrilled to wake up this morning and see that it was sunny here in Liverpool. Maybe not warm, but sunny at least. I wasn't positive on what I wanted to do here, really, since it's sort of just a stopping point for me, but I knew I at least had to go to the train station and pick up my ticket I bought for Friday to get to London.

So I set off with my city map, not sure how long it would take me. Paris, I was staying in the city center, but it'd take me at least 10 minutes just to walk into town. Dublin, if I took three steps out of the hostel I was somewhere else. Liverpool, as it turns out, is quite a bit like Dublin. It's really not too difficult to navigate, and I found the train station without a problem and managed to pick up my tickets. I took a look around the station, trying to figure out my bearings a bit for Friday. I can NOT have a repeat of the fiasco in Rome. Fortunately this time, everything is in English so if I'm desperate, I can ask nearly anyone for help.

Realizing how small the city center is, I decided to walk down to Albert Dock. It's the main dock Liverpool is known for. They estimate nearly 9 million immigrants went through the dock in the last century. That's pretty fantastic. The dock was super cool. I don't think I've been on an actual dock before, so it was neat. It was a lot bigger than I thought it'd be too.

After walking around the dock for a bit, I spotted the Liverpool National Museum and went inside. And it was free, so that was a nice bonus. It was interesting to walk around because it explored the history of Liverpool and all the parts of its development. It explained the history of trains finally being built to connect it to the rest of England, the dock, the immigrants, and other pieces of the history that's been discovered over the years. It talked to about more current things like sports and music and what they influenced in Liverpool. It was quite was interesting. Although some of the life size statues they had freaked me out a bit. They looked shockingly real. A couple times I thought a person was standing in a glass case on display.

I have to tell you guys this funny story. I was just out and about today and was stopped at one point to consult my map and this group of girls, probably my age came up and told me they liked my sunglasses and wondered where I got them. Ok, well they're just a cheap pair I have from home -- So I told them I just brought them from home. They kind of looked at me. I told them I brought them from the U.S. All four of them went "Oooh --" then the one girl said, "So that's where your funny accent's from." Yup. I'm the one with the funny accent. And I've thought about it before, where I feel like I sound funny compared to everyone else, but no one has ever said anything. I had a small laugh about that after they left.

So after the musem, I still had a good piece of the afternoon left, so I walked to the Liverpool Cathedral. It's the largest cathedral in England and was only built in the early 1900s. Holy crap, you guys, this thing is massive. It's hard to explain the enormity of it. I bet at least 200 decent size houses could comfortably fit in there. Easy. It's strange because so often I'm impressed with the beauty of so many of these churches and the grand scale they were built on, then usually later on I find myself wondering, "did you really need to gold filligry in the ceiling?" At the time many of these were built people were poor and dying of starvation in the street. How many taxes were imposed on the citizens so the church could look as beautiful as it does? It's just crazy.

I don't really have any great plans for tomorrow other than to walk to the train station again to see how long it takes. I'm debating back and foward between pulling my duffel there Friday or taking a cab. I'll see how the walk goes. And this is going to sound horrible, but I think I'm ready to come home. The constant packing and moving is starting to wear on me a bit and I'm really lacking the motivation every morning to get out and do stuff. I'm glad there's a lot I want to see in London so the time should fly. I think though, I miss my bed, not packing up my shower stuff every time I take a shower, hot water, I miss cooking, driving, and all of you fabulous people. I didn't really feel 'lonely' today, but just more tired that had nothing to do with the amount of sleep I got. I'm not thrilled about going back to work, but everything else, yes.

Thanks again for being wonderful yous! Love from Liverpool! (does that sound like it could be the name of a movie? Hmm)

A Bit of an Update

Arrive Liverpool! Yeah!

I'm going to recap the last few days a bit. On Saturday I met this really nice girl from Canada at my hostel, named Rochelle. She has a working visa so she's moving to Dublin for a year to work. Anyway, we sort of hit it off right away so we just sat and talked for a few hours about our lives and travels. Since I was going to the Cliffs of Mohr on Sunday we didn't see each other, but yesterday we both sort of stayed in the hostel for the better part of the afternoon, relaxing.

As it turns out, there's an organization for the people who are working in Ireland on a Visa, and they have dinner every night at this pub, so Rochelle asked me to go with, and since it was my last night in Dublin, I thought "why not?"

Dinner was fantastic! The group of people who showed up were amazing! I could tell they've stuck together and have formed bonds. They told stories about each other and talked about living and working in Ireland. They were fabulous. They were infectious with their vibrant moods. And right before we went to dinner I got a surprise phone call from home from my good friend Jack. It was so lovely to hear a voice I know. It completely made my day. So that on top of dinner was just the perfect end to the evening.

Of course now though, everyone in the group wants me to apply for a Visa and go work in Ireland for a year. Rochelle said I already know people so it would be great. I'll think about it :) It could be fun.
So this morning since I had some time before my bus was going to pick me up, Rochelle and I went for a walk around Dublin and we had coffee and cake at a little cafe. It was a nice morning out too, so I was thrilled to have something to do other than sit in my hostel.

I did eventually get the bus to the airport, and while I was waiting to check in (couldn't do it until 2) I talked with this funny older lady from London and she told me funny stories about when she was younger and back packing with her friends. It's just great.

The plane ride was something strange. It was suppose to depart at 5:15 so we board at 4:45. Well, we were all in line and waiting, but there was no one to take our boarding passes, it's already after 5:00. I'm beginning to think our flight was canceled. Finally they let us on, we all sit down (and bonus -  not a full flight so I wasn't packed in like a sardine this time) we get going down the run way, and we sit there. And sit. And sit. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with the plane and they were going to make us switch or cancel the flight entirely. And of course I'm thinking if there is something wrong and we take off, the plane is going to blow up.

But, fortunately I've arrived in Liverpool (got to the hostel by taxi -- really nice guy) and I'm just updating everyone quick before I go find a bite to eat before bed.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week and I can't wait to see you all. Love always!

The Cliffs of Mohr. . .and More Pictures

 This is on the farm. The hills in the background are covered in rocks. It's hard to see, but there's actually a lot of land up there. The stone walls are made of nothing but stone. No cement or glue. The largest stones are on the bottom and the smaller ones on top. The weight of them and the fact they wedge themselves into little cracks keeps them from falling. These walls have been around for over 100 years.

 Me on the farm. It was super windy! Fortunately the camping jacket I bought was windproof. I was a little worried since it's sort of thin, but I could put a couple sticks under it and use it as a tent. Never felt the wind cut through. I was super happy!

 The lanscape. The pictures don't even do the colors justice.

 The Cliffs of Mohr. What a view.

Me at the cliffs. That's about as close as I got to edge. And it does drop off right behind where I was standing. My hood is up because of the wind being so cold and managing to pull my hair out of my ponytails. I couldn't keep it contained.

 A different part of the cliffs.

Me and the ocean and some of the cliffs...it was really windy. I wasnt even sure if I had managed to get a photo.

 A part of the ocean the bus driver pulled over by so we could take pictures.

Me and ocean.