Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London (10 Days)

Europe » United Kingdom
February 27th 2006

Published: March 1st 2006

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karab

Abancourt Picture 1

This is Abancourt. Notice the entirely empty station? Yup. Creepy. Erin, Me, Hannah.

Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London (10 Days)

I refuse to make this travel journal become a chore. I wanted to update, I really, really did!

Problem #1: I had a French midterm the Thursday I got back - for which I had not studied, and had well prepared myself by spending 10 days in English speaking countries. (*ahem*) So I studied until then.

Problem #2: On Thursday, I was reminded of my Oral Presentation in French, so my weekend was full of preparing for that. (Let it be known that I rocked that presentation - the professeur had to tell me to be 'moins vite!' - A problem I have when I speak English. Yes, I am good.)

Thus, the end of my problems as I am now updating. I'm not sure how long this will take, and if I'll be able to finish it today - but I'll do my very best! The best way for me to begin it is by inserting text from my written journal on the first few days (I found it difficult to keep up as we were so exhausted at the end of the day that I didn't get a

Abancourt Picture 2

Another look at the wonderful station!

chance to write at night). Please be advised this is going to be a very large post! And so we begin...

Feb 9/06 - 12:30-ish/11:26pm

I'm currently on the plane from Beauvais (France) to Dublin! I'm super excited! 😊 We had a long day getting to the airport but everything went quite well considering!

We got (Hannah and I actually) out of class at 3:00 (instead of 4) and we all met up and "raced" to the train station (from the bus really). I realized I didn't have my 12-25 card (Ed: discount card) , which meant if they checked my ticket and I didn't have it, then I'd have to pay a fine... Panicked moments later, I attempted to explain that I forgot it at home... don't think he ever understood. So, I just took my chances! (Ed: I used the train washroom after we left the station - since it's a rule not to use it until then! - and as I was coming back, the official was just leaving the other girls, and never came back to check my ticket! I lucked out.)

We got off at our first stop, Abancourt -

Guinness Drink #1

Our half pint of Guinness. My first taste ever by the way. Note my expression.

and we're in the middle of nowhere, having visions back to WW2 train stations waiting to transport unsuspecting Jewish people across Europe. (It was that bad and creepy...) We waited for longer than we thought and suddenly we realize that the bus that went past the station was actually the think we were to take - not a train! (Ed: our tickets said 'Auto-car' - meaning a bus. If they had put 'auto-bus', I would have caught on!) So Hannah and I go to the station and somehow get the point across to the non-English speaking, but very nice, station attendant that we need to get to Beauvais, but missed our bus. We somehow understand that a train will come at 18:07 and we can take that... So, we do and no one checked my ticket at all.

I had to edit as I went through since I may have been a bit too overwhelmed by 1: Being on a plane and you all know how much I love planes! 2: Going to Dublin! 3: Getting out of France. My vote is for #3. You can see in the pictures at the Abancourt station (as well as how

Hannah + Guinness

A genious picture of Hannah with our half pint of Guinness as it was settling.

middle of nowhere it really is) just how psyched we were to be leaving! Okay, back to the chronology of the trip! The next entry wasn't until the end of the trip - my attempt to recount our days in Dublin at least! I only got to two days into the entire trip. Not sure how I'll be able to keep up for a month and a half!

February 17 2006 - 8:10pm

Alright... I didn't write all throughout the trip, but I will write highlights, etc, now!

DUBLIN

- First 2 nights -> Paddy's Palace (Northside)
- Second 2 nights -> Kinlay House (Southside - Temple Bar + Christ Church Cathedral)

Thursday February 9

Got into Dublin around 11:30pm (ish) and were met by Matt, Mok and another girl I can't remember the name of. Matt drove the 4 of us to Paddy's Palace while the other two followed with our luggage. We lugged our stuff and checked in. As it was so late, we basically went straight to bed.

Friday February 10

We slept in until around 9:30am and headed out for the day. Our first stop: Guinness Brewery!

Guinness Drink #2

Second attempt. This time at a full pint!

We learned how to make beer (because I enjoy it soooo much!!), and were treated to a sample of Guinness about half way through the tour. I'm not sure how I feel about Guinness beer. It's very very thick, and has a very strong aftertaste. Alison swears by the stuff now, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel. We roamed around the brewery a bit more, looking at other exhibits, and headed to the top floor to get our free pint. Since we'd been there for 2 hours already, and there was much more of Dublin to see, we decided to have contests to see who could finish the pint first - I pulled myself out of the race early on. It was hard enough to drink at a slow-pace! We took pictures outside Guinness (inserted!) and all decided we were in need of REAL food (not Guinness).

We went to the Bagel Factory, as all of us had not had a bagel in 2 months! We were to return there several times while in Dublin. Following our meal, we headed back to the hostel to hang out. I seem to have blanked out this

What Guinness Does

This is the effect Guinness had on us after our time drinking it. By the way, we did 4 copies of this picture. Don't we look so happy?

part of the night oddly enough. But we ended up picking up some grocery items to make ourselves food in the hostel in order to save some money. I got myself very yummy pasta (It was all in one - just add water and heat up!) and shared some of Hannah's bread and cheese to make a grilled-cheese sandwich.

After dinner, Alison and I were sent out to get alcohol for all of us to pre-drink before our night out to the pub and club with the Irish guys (We knew we would have to keep up in some way!) I won't get into the trouble that was started... involved Budweiser and two spoiled girls. Anyhoo... we played a drinking game (Kings) and I was triple-shotting vodka with my Red Bull. Needless to say, I got tipsy near the end. Hannah and Erin were in the room and Alison and I watched half of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo" - definitely better when drunk. I can imagine it's a stupid movie when sober. So... soon after, my high came down before we even left the hostel!

Around 9:30, Matt came by and we all left (plus the Australian hostel

Group Pic!

In front of the big Guinness sign. We all got individual pictures too, and a nice man took this for us!

employee, Phil - who we suspect was there for Hannah or moi - Hannah was flirting with him to sell off the unwanted Budweisers.) We arrived at Mojos, a pub, with 3 Euro pints of beer. Ed: I must stop to speak of pints. Pints are big. I'm not sure if they even exist in bars in North America. I suspect not: but they should! Pints appear to me to be twice the amount of alcohol! A bunch of Matt's friends joined us and we found out we were going to a club. Alison and I didn't have enough money on us to even get in for cover, so we went back to the hostel to refund. Matt was good and gave us his cell phone to call Mok if we ran into any trouble on the Dublin streets. No trouble and we met the others as they were starting to leave the pub towards the club.

21 = the club. An expensive and hip club that was a 10 Euro cover charge (i.e. $15!) Took me a bit to feel comfy there but once I got my barrings, I was good to go. No drunkenness for any of

Group At Mojo's

A bunch of us hanging out at Mojos: Phil, Me, Alison, Erin, and Matt.

us though. Good time dancing. The night ended off with Counting Crows, "Mr. Jones" - So I was of course belting out the lyrics as I am a nerd and know all of them! We left the club around 3:30am. The guys were all drunk and went to Burger King - making the time we returned to our hostel to be 4am! Needless to say, we slept in the next day - 10am I believe.

Saturday February 11

We checked out of our hostel and headed to the next one - Kinlay House.

And then I stopped writing. From here on, it's all from memory 2 weeks later - so it may not be quite that accurate!

I had at least thought we were going to be checking into Kinlay House. Instead, however, Matt drove us to a small little pub near a field in the 'burbs of Dublin, and said he'd be back after he picked up his two other friends. So, us four headed into the little pub where we were going to watch a rugby match between Ireland and France - fitting, no? We, of course, would be cheering for Ireland! Maybe about

Irish Boys

L-r: Mok, Daniel, Matt, ____ and ____ !! (I can't remember their names!)

a half hour later, Matt comes back sans friends, and says they're still sleeping. It was another hard night for the Irish. The match started in a bit and we got comfy - until it got exciting and we were standing up! I've forgotten how crazy rugby really is - and how confusing it still is! In the end, France won - much to the dismay of all in the pub (because I wasn't in France!!)

Almost immediately after the game, we headed out (along with Matt's lone friend - name forgotten - who ended up coming along) to the field behind the pub and watched the players warm up for a live game between two local rugby clubs. This was my first official professional rugby game seeing live - so it was fun and exciting. It's still an insane sport! Not sure who won since we left halfway through the game to get to our hostel. We took the bus Matt told us to, and we got to the place he said a lot of cabs usually are, so we could get to our hostel without searching for hours. Found a taxi and got to our hostel around

Christ Church Cathedral

4pm - much later than I was expecting to actually be there! That night consisted of Alison and I walking around Temple Bar for a while, and then getting Subway (it tended to be a standard for this trip actually!) and playing cards until 10pm as Hannah and Erin had fallen asleep earlier on!

Sunday February 12

The next morning, we decided to check out Christ Church Cathedral and did some shopping around Temple Bar - picking up souvenirs and postcards. I will not say anything about the souvenirs! *wink, wink* We visited an Internet cafe and made our way over the River Liffey to go to our favourite bagel place for lunch. More walking around and exploring the streets of Dublin. We checked out a few markets and then took a quick 'train' (not a tram, but not a full train, a 'train'!) to BlackRock I wanna say... I think that's the name. But it's part of Dublin, on the outskirts. There's a huge flea market there, and we found a great sign we wanted to post EVERYWHERE in France: "Please do not smoke, people are breathing." I think that should be my motto here! I should

Christ Church Cathedral 2

probably mention that we got lost on our way to the 'train' and ended up in one of the 'ghettos' of Dublin. We were fine, but Matt's reaction to us walking around there was complete amazement that we had no troubles there. Needless to say, we learned a valued-lesson: STAY OUT OF GHETTOS!

We ended up back at the hostel and played some card games before we were to head out to meet Matt & friends at another pub. (Yes: I visited a total of 3 pubs and 1 club in 4 days in Dublin, oops!) Erin wasn't feeling too well, and so Hannah, Alison and I went to Subway (Meal #2) and then to catch our bus to the pub I cannot name. It was right along the Irish Sea (yep, Dublin's got a River through it, and a Sea on its side!) Almost got lost on the bus, but somehow found the place and met up with everyone. Not quite the turn-out as the Friday night, but still a good time to say goodbye and thank them for all the help. We called it an early night as we had an early flight the next day (5:00am

Irish Sea

This was our rainy day in Dublin :(

wake up, eek!)

Monday February 13

5:00am, my alarm goes off, and the 4 of us scramble together and end up down in front of the hostel to wait for the taxi we ordered. One shows up, but is already holding a passenger. It leaves and another one follows within 2 minutes. We get to the Dublin Airport and have a bit of a wait after check-in until our 8:15am flight. (By the way, my luggage was always JUST under 15kg or JUST over it! - I was quite proud of myself for 1. Keeping it around 15kg the whole time, and 2. Being able to carry 15kg around for 10 days!) Nothing much the say about the flight - Hannah slept the whole time and I listened to my music and looked outside on landing to see sheep - the first thing I see of Scotland!

At the Glasgow Airport, we took a 'free' train into the city centre and stumbled to our hostel (Euro Hostel - DO NOT STAY HERE!) And so begins the problems of Glasgow! We weren't allowed in our room yet, and so we were told we could put our luggage in

River Liffey

The River Liffey that separates the North from the South side of Dublin.

the luggage room. We walk in there, and all we see is bag after bag sitting on the ground. No lock-up, no hostel worker to make sure no one steals things. Sure, there was a button reception had to push, but once in there, it was a free-for-all! Needless to say, we weren't leaving our stuff there. We ended up taking it up to the TV/Kitchen area and going in shifts of two to the supermarket down the street to get some food for lunch. We cooked it, blah blah blah, and soon enough we were okay to go to our room (12:30ish). For the entire trip so far, we were always in a room of 4, so security was never a problem for us - but it is the first hostel that had lockers in the rooms - a trend we would see across the rest of our trip.

We only had the day in Glasgow, so we knew we had to get out there and look around at the city instead of sitting in our room all day! Our first stop was Glasgow Cathedral - complete with tombs in the basement and an eery graveyard outside. The

Rugby!!

Here's a pic of the live game we watched. So exciting :)

Church itself was very peaceful actually - the basement, while with its tombstones, was very interesting and included a beautiful white chapel, that I can only believe is still being used. Up next was St Mungo Museum of Religious Life And Art. It was just as it says: a museum of religious life and art! I actually enjoyed this place quite a lot. It went through the stages of life in all kinds of different religions, and I probably spent the most time out of all of us looking at this place. On my way out of the room, I bumped into Allison! (She was on the trip to Le Havre.) Odd to say the least and France was following me to Scotland! Such a coincidence and a really small world!

The religious part of it was only one floor, but on the floor above was actually a whole display of photographs taken by this man in southern US of the KKK. Very frightening actually. He did it not to mock or to promote, but to simple show as he believed the pictures spoke for themselves. There were lots of pictures of children with their KKK parents involved in

And we're watching....!

And here's Erin, Alison and I watching the game!

ralleys and walks. And this was recent - 1998-2002 I believe. Unbelievable to think there are still people like this out there, people who believe that the KKK has any relevance to today's world. It was an eye-opening experience. So if you happen to be in Glasgow, don't miss this exhibition.

Following this floor, I met Alison across the street at the Oldest House in Glasgow. It literally was the oldest house in Glasgow (they even have a sign outside that says: "This is the oldest house in Glasgow"). Very very small doorways! Alison got a picture of me in the door actually! Oh, I forgot to mention, museums are free in the UK! So of course, all these things in Glasgow were free. And I like free stuff 😊 After this, Alison and I roamed around (as Hannah and Erin had already gone off), attempting to find a street address that contained an Internet cafe. This took upwards to about an hour, and we didn't get to it until around 4:30pm. I think I can say this day felt like the longest day yet (until the day we came back to France). We did our Internet stuff and

Glasgow Cathedral

Isn't it freaky looking?

found our way back to the hostel. Hannah and Erin were no where to be found, and I was dying for a shower. Alison did some journaling I believe while I was busy. We gave the girls a 1/2 hr time limit then we were going to go off to find dinner. They came back within 10 minutes and said they'd already eaten, but gave us the place they had found that had great fish and chips (when in the UK...) So off we went. Great place, and we shared a banana split afterwards!

We got back to our room and low and behold, Hannah and Erin were sleeping. So we decided to watch some Olympics on TV since we were sad to be missing it. We watched pairs figure skating (Kristy, I know you're proud!), and watched a Chinese girl fall during a jump. Looked like it hurt, but they somehow got 2nd place - go figure, eh? Didn't something like this happen to Russians last Olympics but actually got 1st and left the Canadians in the dust? Hmm... maybe? After this, we realized how exhausted we were (as I think I fell asleep at some point) and

The Graveyard

Glasgow Cathedral's graveyard. I was afraid to walk there because of the graves flat on the ground like that.

went to bed.

Tuesday February 14 - HEART DAY <3

We awoke in order to catch a 10am train to Edinburgh. We (well, Alison and I) had originally planned to stay in Glasgow for 2 nights and taking a day trip to Edinburgh, but realized we had seen much of what we wanted already. This was our reasoning for needing to find an Internet cafe the day before - to book a hostel in Edinburgh! The train ride wasn't overly exciting - except for the fact that Alison realized that the copy of The DaVinci Code that she bought at the Dublin Airport was missing 50 pages and a jumble of pages afterwards! I believe she will return it to the publisher! We got to Edinburgh and the two other girls generally just didn't wait for us, which didn't matter much since we were wanting to go to our hostel and drop off our bags anyways. (They were just there for the day and were taking a 10pm train to some English town near Liverpool that I can't spell - Os-something-or-other... - to visit friends. All for the best considering the tension between the two 'groups' at this

The Basement

Ooohhhh.....

point of the trip - Won't get into it since it's not important to anything in this blog!)

I actually had official business to take care of in Edinburgh. My watch hadn't been working for about a week, and as someone who is perpetually always on time, this was a problem. So, we actually found a watch-repair place just outside the station (literally on the steps leading to it!) and got a new battery there. Cost me 6 pounds, but it was either that or send it home since I could never be able to explain in French - and that would end up being more than 6 pounds (which works out to about $12 - pound is double the Canadian $!) I will from now on call the pound, the P to save me time and effort!

We headed to the Information Desk to find out how to get to our hostel and were told that we have to catch a shuttle there since it's a bit far to walk (which we didn't entirely know before this!) We relaxed for a bit near the meeting place and talked about the day's passed. Soon enough, it was time

White Chapel

So pretty.... So white...

to get the shuttle. We met some Australian guys who had been in Edinburgh for 4 weeks, and were working in bars in the city. Once again, more Australians who are on a gap-year! I think North America should get on this gap-year.

Our hostel, Edinburgh Backpacker's Hostel, was near the water (still not sure which water - if anyone wants to do research and let me know!), and seemed to be in the middle of nowhere! Nevertheless, it ended up being the best hostel we stayed in, despite its location. It had a movie room, a large Internet room, a TV room, a lodge-like cafeteria, a big kitchen, a little store to buy food in, a free gym to work out in, bunk-beds with sheets around the edges, and of course, the individual lockers in the rooms. I was quite impressed. Alison and I had a whole plan to work out after exploring Edinburgh, but it just didn't happen! We dumped our stuff off in our room - locking it up as we were now a room with other people. It was a 6-female dorm room (as we were a bit sketchy on sharing with boys) and had

Small World Indeed

Look who it is!! Allison, Me, Hannah, Erin, Alison. Such an odd coincidence...

a washroom and shower down the hall. There ended up being only another two girls in the room with us that night - which was fine since we had a whole side of the room to ourselves! We explored the hostel a bit, checking out the movie room, watching a bit of The Bourne Identity, which had parts of it taking place in Paris as we just couldn't escape France!

We caught the 2pm shuttle back out to Edinburgh, walked the streets a bit, and decided to head to the National Museum of Scotland - since the Edinburgh Castle would be expensive (11 P) and I personally had already seen too many castles! Once again, the museum would be free. We roamed around a bit, tired from our walk around the city. We then saw a passageway that said we could get to the roof. Interested, we followed stairs up (by the way, they were metal stairs that I could see through, therefore they scared me) and ended up on the roof of the museum, overlooking all of Edinburgh! Very beautiful sights of the city and of course of the castle. It was really windy, so any pictures we

Scotland From The Train

Hilly, green, brown!

took had our hair in our faces.

Despite being very tired, we decided to walk around the shopping area for a bit. We, of course, went into H&M and tried on a few things, getting a feel for sizes different than in North America. Following this, I had an inclination to find a music store and check out some UK music. I had seen an HMV on the shuttle earlier, and knew it was on the main stretch, so we headed that way. Before we reached it though, we found a Virgin Megastore. This is where the trouble started. I was a kid in a candy store (except I was in a music store). Music stores in France just don't get me too excited considering they have one little "Import" section (so weird to think of North American music as imported) and it rarely has anything new. We wandered around, and Alison made the mistake of leaving me alone, and she comes back and I've got 3 CDs in my hand, trying to choose. I finally choose a 3-disc complilation called The Very Best of Power Ballads: The Greatest Driving Anthems... Ever!. Be my guest, look it up and

View of "Some Body of Water"

This is the view from our hostel in Edinburgh. I have no clue what it is.

look at the listings and don't tell me that it's just the greatest compilation EVER! I then found out that the Megastore has a way to listen to ANY CD in the store just by scanning the barcode at one of the listening stations. Oh man... So I grabbed about 10 CDs from the shelf of British artists and started listening. I finally decided on The Magic Numbers. Check them out too! Why don't stores have this option of listening to ANY CD in the store at home? If anyone knows where it exists, let me know!

So, there I am, 20 P later, after being too cheap to go to a Castle for 10 P, with two new CDs (Technically 4 if you count all the discs in the compilation one!), and on a high from all the music. We went to Marks & Spenser's Simple Food at the train station (the only food-oriented place still open) and got some food for our dinner. We went back to the hostel, cooked, and joined a big group in the movie room to eat. Men In Black 2 was playing, so that was interesting enough. Following this, we did our

Edinburgh Castle

This is from the roof of the museum.

dishes, and then chose a new movie to watch, Not Another Teen Movie, bringing our movie intake up to 3 for the day! Following the movie, we headed to bed since we knew we had a 8am train to Liverpool the next day!

Okay. Now that I went through all the good stuff about Edinburgh, I think I'll go into our train troubles to get us to Liverpool! So, before we actually got our food for dinner, we decided to buy our tickets to get to Liverpool. We knew there was one around 8am, and inquired as to how much it would be. Get ready for it: 40 P !! (i.e. $80) For our minimal budget, we hadn't factored this into the equation! When we had checked out the prices earlier online, it was 15 P for the trip - more than half the size of the new price. Apparantly, the 15 P was the cheap tickets, and they were sold out of those. So joy, we would have to pay the general fee. On a bad roll, we asked how much it would be from Liverpool to London, and the man (bless him, he was doing his best

Edinburgh

Also from the roof. It's a pretty city.

really!) said that it would be 50 P!!!!!!!! ($100!!!!) Okay, so Alison and I are generally pissed off at our wonderful luck. My high off my CDs was officially gone. We ask if there's any student fees or plans we could look at to try to lower the price a bit - and he mentions the Young Person's RailCard, 20 P, but will save us 1/3 of the price of tickets all throughout the UK. We did our math, and realized that we would be saving just by buying this RailCard! I had to take pictures in a photobooth outside since I didn't have mine with me (And I had taken 16 with me from Canada - they were just in my room in France!) Alison had her pictures in her wallet in the hostel, so we didn't get our tickets then (I got my pass though), and would get it in the morning instead.

Wednesday February 15

Morning. We woke at 6:30am, believing we could catch the 7:00am shuttle into Edinburgh, but of course, this was not true. One would not be going out until 7:30! We had missed the 6:30am one. Somehow, we reached the train

Our Bags!!

Alison is snuggling with our bags. As you can see, my towl on the bottom never really saw a good day. It's package broke before I even left France... I hope to find it a new home for the next trip.

station at 7:55 - after some mad running through the streets - and found out there wasn't a train going to Liverpool until 8:45. I'm still not sure if we missed an 8:00 one, or if there just wasn't ever one until 8:45. Either way, we had time. Alison got her RailCard, and we got our tickets (29 P each to Liverpool).

We got to Liverpool around 1pm, hightailed it to our hostel, put our bags in the SECURED luggage room (meaning that a hostel employee had to be with us as we got our bag that had tags on them!), and then back downtown to get tickets to The Magical Mystery Tour. It's a tour that would take us throughout the entire city (and outskirts) to see all the Beatles sites in Liverpool. But alas, the 2pm tickets were sold out and there wasn't another one until 11am the next day - and at that point, we were sure we would be on our way to London if not there already. So, we had the full day to figure out what we wanted to do on our own!! I spotted a 3 P map of Beatles sites around

Liverpool!

Random street in Liverpool. I think this is near the City Hall actually.

the city just sitting at an unstationed desk, so I picked it up and took notes on where to go to see certain things. (I didn't have the heart to just steal it - that's not me. Mom, I know you're proud that my conscious was smart!)

We decided to visit the Beatles museum: The Beatles Story. It's located at the Albert Dock - which was a sight to see on its own by the way! We paid 6.50 P to get in, but considering we were there for 4 hours, I don't feel bad about the purchase! But if you're ever in Liverpool, then you should definitely definitely check this out! Even if you're not the biggest Beatles fan in the world, it's just an experience on its own - hence why I put the link up there for you guys to check it out yourselves. We were given an audio pack (for free, yay!), and it consists of Julia Lennon (John's sister) narrating and guiding us through the place. All the Beatles talk on it, as well as their producers and managers. The tour took us through the beginnings of the band, right up until the end. I knew

Look!

On our way to the Albert Dock...

a lot of stuff already, but learned a whole lot more and was able to see a lot of authentic merch directly from them, their families, and fans. There was a replica of The Cavern Club, and a special tribute room to John Lennon - quite moving. And right after was a room called "Imagine: The White Room" - which was literally a while room, with Imagine playing in the background. I'm really excited to see the John Lennon exhibition in Paris when Mom comes now 😊 (We better still be doing it!!) Afterwards... I visited the shop. Enough said. *coughIboughtstuffcough*

We finished the tour around 6:30pm, and it was the first time I looked at my watch the entire tour! Alison gave it props, which I was happy about cuz I feel that Liverpool was mostly for all my benefit 😊 After our tour, we walked along Albert Dock and got some great sunset pictures on the River Mersey. I'd like to mention right now that almost all of the cities I've visited in Europe have had rivers running through them - Rouen, Paris, Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London! That's definitely something about European cities being so dependent

The Beatles Story!

Me - SUPER EXCITED :)

on water travel back in the day. So anyways, we walked back to our hostel (being distracted by an odd light contraption on some side-street) and checked into our room. We went out briefly to get food to cook (we got fish & chips!!! - a.k.a. fries...) and returned. Food eaten, we wandered into the TV room and chatted with a couple from Germany who were watching the Olympics. We decided that in honour of our future hostel's location, we would put on Notting Hill! After the hostel employee helping us work the TV and VCR, we were lounging and watching. About halfway through, I dosed off briefly and woke to hear Alison laughing at me. Mean girl. Finished the movie, and decided that we would stay in Liverpool for half the day the next day in order to walk around Mathew Street a bit - as I felt I hadn't seen much of the city aside from the Beatles Story.

Thursday February 16

We awoke around 9am, showered, ate free bread and jam (compliments of the hostel!) and set out on our day. We found our way to Mathew Street (using the very useful and colourful Liverpool

The Mersey At Sunset

On the Albert Dock looking out on the Mersey. Perfect time to be there.

map - Mom, I still have it for you to have a look at!). Got some great pics of the Beatles Store, The Cavern Club, a large large banner over the street, and the various other Beatles displays. I should explain something... The Cavern Club was the club that the Beatles used to perform at, and also the one that Paul McCartney returned to a few years ago to perform. It's still open as a music club with live bands and all. I stepped inside, that's about it! Mathew Street is obviously the street that contains the Cavern Club. You'll see in the pictures that it's the main hub for anything Beatles in Liverpool.

Following our walk up and down Mathew Street (which is really quite small by the way), we decided there wasn't much else Beatle-ish I wanted to see that didn't involve us getting on random buses to Penny Lane (WE SAW THEM THOUGH!) and getting lost in Liverpool! So we gathered our stuff from the hostel and made our way to Lime Street Station (hehe... let me get teenybopper and say that the Beatles used this station several times!) I believe it was around 11:00 or

The Mersey At Sunset

Low tide... Plus reflection. Absolutely gorgeous.

11:30. We got our tickets (37 P) and waited at the station, taking shifts to get sandwiches at another Marks & Spenser's Simply Food store. They seem to be in train stations all over the UK! Had a train ride that consisted of Alison sleeping (again...) and me chillin' to my music and watching the scenery go by. I love trains for this reason. Nothing beats just sitting and watching the world go by going probably 150-200km an hour 😊

We got to Euston Station in London around 3:30pm and got Underground maps to get ourselves aquainted with the city. The subway system is quite easy to understand - much like the Paris one. The two are very similar actually. Colour coded with well marked stations and signs. Our hostel was near Paddington Station, and we had directions from the hostel from there, so it made most sense to go there. Surely enough, the directions made enough sense to get us to Wake up London! (fun to say with a British accent!) We had only gotten one ticket (instead of a full day pass for 2 P more) at the Underground since we knew we wouldn't be going anywhere

The Mersey At Sunset

A... pole...

else considering we were quite tired from travelling that day. So we got to our room, I discovered that one of the lockers did not work, so I made sure I claimed one that did - haha. This one was another 6-female dorm room, and ended up being filled up entirely. We locked up our stuff (as we are smart and bring our own locks!) and looked to see what we could do in the area. We decided to see a movie up the street at a mall (We had to ask the reception for this information by the way...)

We got to the mall and looked at movies and times. The one we agreed on was Walk The Line but it didn't start until 8pm. We got tickets, and decided (as it was 6pm) to go to one of the restaurants and get some food. We settled on a mexican restaurant called Oscars and got chicken Quesadillas. Wonderful service even though they hovered a bit over us - such a change from the French who ignore you half the time! After dinner, we checked our email and wasted some time before the movie would start. Around 7:40 we

Crazy Light Contraption

If you can figure out the meaning of this thing, let me know!

headed to the theatre to get seats. The theatre was definitely much smaller than SilverCity at home! Alison seemed worried we wouldn't be able to see the screen! Great movie though. It actually got me to like a country song *gasp* Johnny Cash's stuff was quite catchy. If I remember, I may just download - even though it may end up being Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon singing! After the movie, we headed back to the hostel, once again watched some Olympics, but then decided we should get to bed in order to be rested for our full day in London.

Friday February 17

We woke up around 8am and started the day off by walking around Notting Hill a bit, always looking for the blue door! (Didn't find it - but we were stopped later on in the day by a woman asking us if we knew where it was!) I'm skeptical if Notting Hill was actually all filmed in Notting Hill. Either way, it's a very nice area. I'm glad we were so close. We walked a bit through Kensington Gardens, never quite making it to Hyde Park as we had planned. We got to the

The Beatles Store

We went in here. It's okay, but the one at the Beatles Story is better. Glad I didn't wait to get my stuff here! I like the outside though!

Underground (you don't know how hard it is not to write "Metro"...) and got full day passes. Our first stop was Tower of London. We did the free guided tour to find out about the history of the place, and then were free to walk around. We walked through looking at the Crown Jewels and I was actually a bit disgusted at the whole display. There was millions and millions of dollars/pounds just sitting there behind glass, when it could be better spent on keeping people off the streets of London! I may just be over-critical, but I can't really see a point in the monarchy having so much wealth when they really don't do anything at all anymore. *sigh* And the Queen is still the head of our government...

We ended up being at Tower of London for a few hours, but we paid 11 P for it, and in my opinion, the longer you're at something, the less money you have to spend at other places. London is a very expensive place! Alison and I decided we were hungry (big surprise - all I seem to talk about is food!) and went to Subway! (Meal #3). So

The Beatles In Metal

A random statue in a shopping centre near Mathew Street. I couldn't resist.

good. I got a cookie too. Made me happy. Following our food, we decided to head to Buckingham Palace and check out some more monarchy wasted wealth (haha... no more bitterness!). On the way, Alison was pleased to find a Girl Guides' store (I was impressed too) - even though she knows it as Girl Scouts! I must say, Buckingham Palace is quite nice. And over crosswalks, they actually have towers for all of their Commonwealth nations. I found Canada 😊 And took pictures with it. I was happy. It's always nice when the British remember us.

After our stint at Buckingham (hehe), we headed over to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Big Ben (as they are all in the exact same area). By the way, we could see the London Eye from many areas of the city, and even though I really wanted to go on it, it's like 12 P and a bit too rich for my poor student blood. (And don't remind me of my 20 P CD buying in Edinburgh!) We didn't exactly do a whole lot at any of the places except take pictures in bad lighting. We didn't go back either. Oops. Big Ben

The Cavern Club

One angle of the Cavern Club. *sigh*

looks nice all lit up though! I think we may have seen one building at Westminster Abbey... St. Margaret's Church seems to ring a bell, but I may be entirely wrong! We were really tired...

So... we got some food that would last us the two nights as well as breakfast for the next two mornings. (As there was no free breakfast at Wake Up London! - we paid for it Friday morning, but were starved and needed sustenance.) That night, we wrote in journals and watched TV - wait, I think only I wrote... The entry you read way up there if you even remember reading it like 5 hours ago - which was when I was writing it.

We went to bed early since we had a few more things we wanted to do the next day.

Saturday February 18

We let ourselves sleep in a bit (9:30am) and rolled out of bed. It was going to be a lazy day. We got to the Underground (not METRO!) station and got another full day pass. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral first. I've seen many many churches. But this one was nice because it

The Cavern Club 2

Another angle.

has so many dimensions. Looks entirely different from the front than it does from the sides or the back. And the fancy monuments aren't too shabby either. Oh, by the way, you will notice in the pictures how blue the sky is. I think it only rained once when we were in London, but not for very long. The rest of the time, we had nice weather like this! It might have been a bit nippy, but I'd rather have it nippy than gray gross sky a la Normandy!

Alison and I decided to go to the British Museum since it was free and she wanted to check out the Egyptian stuff the British stole from Egypt. (Sorry, I am once again bitter!) Nice museum, very busy, but the Egyptian stuff was interesting for what it's worth. After the museum, we got Starbucks. I don't drink it much at home, but I haven't had it here once, so I figured I'd do it. There's Starbucks all over London, so we could've had our choice - we chose to go across from the British Museum!

We made our way back to Notting Hill in order to map out where

A Bench

Nice tribute. Because Mathew Street isn't enough of a tribute already!

we were to be taking the bus the next morning at 5am (grrr...) so it wouldn't be so much of a rush when we were going to be there. After this, we went back to the hostel and did you know what, and went to bed! But not before one of our roommate smoked! Yes. We had smelled smoke when we came back into the room, and saw ashes in the garbage can. She came into the room and was eating food, and almost immediately after, I heard a lighter flip on, and up goes the hand with the cigarette and out goes the smoke!! Right away I say: "Can you please not smoke in here" - even though she really didn't deserve me being polite. And she goes "Oh, I thought you smoked" ... I go "..." and then Alison goes "We could smell it before too, that's why the door's wide open." She apologizes and leaves. And so we nicknamed her Smokey McSmokerson. I could rant and rant, but my fingers are tired and I haven't even put up pictures yet!!

Sunday February 19

We woke at 4:30am, were loud so Smokey would wake up (haha),

The Banner!

I didn't notice this until we were leaving - but isn't it subtle?

and then got our stuff and left for the bus. It was to come at 5:10am and we got there around 5:05. It took us to King's Cross, and we went to Thameslink in order to get it to Luton Airport on the outskirts. We had already gotten tickets by the way (using our discount cards, thank ya very much!) We got there about 5:35 and the station wasn't going to open until 5:45. When it opened, we made our way to the platform and waited. It came at 6:05 and we were amused the entire ride by a British guy asking us about our countries and talking about the 'nappie' that he put on the train (it wasn't really a diaper, but he was joking and trying to annoy the other passengers). He was funny enough, and made fun cuz I asked if there was a difference between a "Scone" and a "Scon" Is there? I still don't know. He didn't really answer me!! Our train got to Luton around 7am (remember, our plane leaves at 7:40am), and we still had a 15 min shuttle ride to the actual Airport! Another 5 minutes wait, and we were off again.

Tower of London

The only shot I have of it

Got to the airport at 7:15, rushed and rushed and rushed and they pumped us up in the line cuz we were going to Paris and it was one of the next ones to leave. They didn't check our confirmation numbers this time - crazy...

We had to catch a shuttle/bus to the actual plane since it was across the airport from where we were - oh fun fun fun, another few minutes waiting. I believe our bus-load was holding up the plane. Do I care? Nope! We had a good enough plane ride and arrived in Paris around some time I can't remember because my brain is basically fried by trying to remember 2 weeks ago. (I have also been to Paris for the 2nd time by the way - which I will not write about for a few days.)

We got to Charles De Gaulle and somehow managed to find our way through two more trains, and got to St. Lazare (I'm skipping over the incidentals as I am tired and it's no longer important for me to recount EVERY SINGLE DETAIL anymore... you all love me, so I'm sure you understand 😉 ) around 11:30am.

The Thames

From inside the Castle.

Oh but wait. We were back in France, land of the 2 hour lunch!! There wasn't another train until 2:30pm. This made our entire theory of getting up for a 7am flight to get back here in the afternoon completely obsolete. We could've missed our flight and caught whatever was next! *sigh* Oh well. What's done is done. Finally got back to Rouen by 4:30pm, and basically just died.

To wrap up the amount of transportation Alison and I took that day:

5:10 - Bus to King's Cross/Thameslink
6:05 - Train to Luton Airport Parkway
7:00 - Shuttle-bus to Luton Airport
7:40 - Plane from London to Paris
10:20ish - RER from Charles de Gaulle to Gare du Nord
10:45 - Metro from Gare du Nord to St. Lazare
2:30 - Train from Paris to Rouen
4:00 - Bus from downtown Rouen to Mt. St. Aignan

Bus, Train, Bus, Plane, Train, Train, Train, Bus! I didn't include me walking because that hurts just thinking about it!

PHEW!!!! Okay. I started writing this at 9pm, and it is now 1:23am. (No worries, no class tomorrow). I'm going to put up the pictures now because I'm on