Strawberry Fields Forever!

---

We are now in Liverpool at the library, where we got free internet access! Woo! Liverpool is a crazy city, but it's interesting and a lot of fun. Today we got up early and went for a walk to this gigantic cathedral - I guess it is the biggest one of its type in the world - and went inside to check it out and take pictures. And let me tell you, it was bloody MASSIVE. I have honestly never seen a building that big that wasn't a skyscraper or something... We wandered around in there and made a donation (even though we aren't Anglican or anything). The road that led up to it was pretty neat too in a creepy sort of way... it was lined on one side with gravestones from people who died in like the 1800s. It was very cool.

After that we went on our own personal Beatles tour, which included going down the street where the band first played and cheching out the statue of John Lennon and another one of Eleanor Rigby, and also a very large yellow submarine! We walked down to the docks and went into a museum called the Beatles Story, where it takes you on a whole tour of the beginnings of the Beatles and all their solo careers and whatnot... and we saw all their instruments and John Lennon's round glasses!!! We took pictures and everything, it was awesome! But I digress, here's what happened in Edinburgh before we left:

Edinburgh was a great city, but it was so big that we couldn't see everything that we wanted to see in one day. However, we did go past a cafe called the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling first started the Harry Potter books, and we went into this large building called the Camera Obscura, which is basically a weird little contraption out of the 17th century used to spy on people in the street. There was also a lot of cool illusions and things of that sort, so that was neat. We also saw a bunch of full-out Scotsmen (in kilts and hats and everything) playing bagpipes, and a bajillion monuments to Sir Walter Scott. We went on another double decker bus tour as well, which took us past all the important spots in Edinburgh. We saw Holyrood Palace (where the Queen stays in Scotland) and this corner where people back in the day though that if they went any further they would fall off the edge of the world, and other such things. It was a very informative tour.

Our hostel was amazingly nice - the people there were great. We FINALLY did some laundry, thank god, because it was getting to the point that my pants were beginning to wander around on their own. We basically relaxed, I bought some amazing stuff for my cold which worked like a charm (its all gone, yay!). The hostel was also quite cool because there were two fresh fruit markets across the street so we went and bought a whole bunch of food and some milk for only 3£ and had a delicious lunch. The day after we went back to Marks and Spencers (i LOVE that store) and ate breakfast on the double decker tour bus, which took us down to the waterfront where we saw the Royal Yacht Britannia, which is the Queen's yacht, very nice indeed. What sucked about that day was the train station wanted an INSANE 5£ EACH to hold our bags for like 2 hours, so we were forced to haul them around with us everywhere we went. This was especially a chore when we went up to Edinburgh castle, which is situated above the city on an extinct volcano and in some places is very steep. Edinburgh Castle, however, was amazing. There was a Scottish War Memorial which was beautiful, and a tour called Prisons of War which takes you through what the prisons were like during all the wars. It was funny, because one of the exhibits showed what the rations were for a prisoner in a day, and for anyone else it was like 2 pints of beer and some meat and bread and cheese and basically a full meal, but since the Americans who wanted independence were thought of as pirates, they only got a hunk of bread. Haha.

The coolest part of the Castle were the Crown Jewels. Wow. You started out at the bottom of a tower and climbed up some stairs and went through exhibits telling you the history of the crown jewels (and in some places Sean Connery's voice was narrating!), and finally you actually get to go see them. They were shiny and very expensive looking. I wanted to take them but there were about 50 armed guards standing around who looked ready and willing to take me out, so I resisted the urge... : ). There was also a Scottish War Museum in the castle which we wandered around in and saw a bunch of neat things like bayonetts and swords and other such weaponry. We then had to run for the bus because we were late, but we made it, and that was the last day in Scotland... *sigh*.

Oh yes, Mumsy, I forgot to mention that I lost my sleep sheet in Glasgow... It fell off of my bag and I couldn't find it because by time I noticed we were on the train, and so I hope some drunk Scottish hobo keeps warm with it, because it is certainly no use to me anymore... At least it wasn't anything expensive. I am in the habit of losing things on this trip. Yesterday I left my water bottle in the Prisons of War exhibit and Sarah had to go in and get it for me because my foot hurt too much... yeah.

We took the train to Liverpool and got here at about 8:00 or so. Our hostel is a very weird place - we don't mind it so much today when its light out but it was quite intimidating yesterday - the people are a bit loopy. However, when I went downstairs for coffee this morning I chatted with one of staff, a friendly Torontonian guy, so I guess they aren't all crazy. Just most of them.

Well, tomorrow we are off to Bath! Love you all, miss you all!

Cheers!

Jackie

P.S. I just checked and I got an A in Visual Anthropology. Woo!

---