Scouse-istan

Early Thursday morning, I embarked on a train for Liverpool with my friend Juani and her friend Lauranne. We were quite the little international cohort: Spain, France and USA all were represented.

Bore Da Talybont South!

St. Mary's Street in Cardiff at 4:30 am

There's something really Zen about being awake before the city is.

We arrived at the trainstation just in time for out train at around 5 am. Ahead of us was a four-hour ride.
We got to Liverpool around 9 am.

Liverpool has some of the weirdest combinations of architecture. Stay tuned, it's about to get weirder

We looked at the Church of St. Luke (aka the bombed-out church). It was bombed during the Liverpool Blitz of 1941 and today remains as a shell of a building with no roof.

It hosts a diverse range of events, including Tai Chi and concerts! 

Right down the road from this was the Liverpool Chinatown.

Fu Dog! I haven't seen one of these since Beijing (c. 2010) 

Even the lampposts are decorated!

The Gate, seen from across the road

It felt a little bit like stepping back into the Forbidden City for a little bit!

I think this was the first bilingual sign I've seen that wasn't English/Welsh

So colourful!

After, we trekked up the hill to see the Liverpool Cathedral.

Wait, if you're a cathedral... Then why are you so modern?

Alright, Gothic Architecture, my camera. You know how this goes. Expect the artsy shots.

Interior of the cathedral to follow!

There was a photography competition going on 

We put magnets on our home regions (Vermont, Castilla-la-Mancha, and near Montpellier) 

I had a bit of trouble reconciling the architectural style with the uniformity and precision of the stones. I soon learned that the foundation stone was laid in 1904 and the cathedral was dedicated in 1978.

Fun Fact #34: The architect, Giles Gilbert Scott, was a Roman Catholic. Naturally, it caused a stir when this surfaced.

Quick, guess the Saint!
Your guess is as good as mine!

We also poked around the photography exhibit (I didn't take pictures of the displays there. I wasn't sure of the rules surrounding this).

Here, have this artsy photo instead

The vast majority of the touristy stuff in Liverpool is down on the Albert Dock. This entailed us walking back down the hill, probably through the side of the city a lot of tourists aren't shown...

Ooh, unintentional overlapping shot. I'm such an artiste! 

Another oddity of Liverpool are the Superlambananas. While most cities have statues of horses, cows or eggs that are decorated, Liverpool decided to invent their own creature and have it spread through the streets. Here are all the pictures I have of them:

This one used to have a red chef's hat 

Child-devouring specimen

"When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die". 

We arrived at the Docks and did a circuit around.

Sailors' Gate

See what I meant about the architecture? It's all together, old and new!

Next on our list was the Merseyside Maritime Museum. Various floors were dedicated to various exhibits. We went into the Customs and Borderpatrol exhibit, the International Slavery Museum (about the Atlantic Slave Trade), and the Titanic Exhibit.

American Revolution!

A modern sculpture from Haiti 

West African-style house 

I didn't take any photos of the Titanic exhibit (I think they had some signs prohibiting it in certain sections). But they did have a roster of passengers. For fun, I checked to see if anyone matching my last name was onboard. Low and behold, there were two men in third class who perished at sea. I was shocked, my last name isn't very common. This definitely calls for some more research!

The Docks

More of the Docks 

We stopped for a lunchbreak nearby this park.

These look like the wind turbines from Halo: Reach

We then made our way to the Museum of Liverpool.

The fence along the path had some lovelocks on it (they're popping up everywhere! Juani said it's because they featured in an Italian romance novel or something!). 

Juani and the Draft Horse

In the museum, we saw a short movie on Liverpool's most famous sons, The Beatles. To be honest, I didn't grow up with The Beatles, so my first exposure to them was when I heard "Yellow Submarine" ad infinitum during commutes to summer camp with a bunch of children. Probably not the best introduction.

There were other exhibits, including a China one. I felt quite in my element there!
The museum was a bit overwhelming. There were a lot of exhibits all in one small area.
After this, we made our way to The Cavern Club, where The Beatles first performed after returning from Hamburg.

John Lennon statue

Bricks with the names of bands/people who've performed at the Cavern Club 

I suppose it would've meant more to me if I were a Beatles fan.

Our next stop was the Bluecoat Chambers, which had some art exhibits in it.

So lovely!

We saw one exhibit called I exist (in some way). It was about identity in the Middle East. Fascinating subject matter. I highly recommend it.

We finished up the day by sunbathing in a park. It was a lovely way to close out our trip.

The trainride was really long and exhausting. It didn't help that there was a rather verbose man in our car. He seemed to be talking on a mobile, but he was monologuing at the person on the other end of the phone. I couldn't place what language he was using.

Ok, as a postscript, Liverpool and its various stereotypes. I definitely saw some dodgy stuff going on. I also saw the infamous "Trackies and trainers" look being sported. Lastly, I had quite the earful of Scouse accents. Here are two choice incidents:

When we were walking down the street towards the Bluecoat Chambers, there was a man on his mobile behind us. He started off by saying he wanted "a fooking cider!". He then proceeded to relate a story alternating "fooking" and its variants with normal words.

During the wait for the train, we heard some guys getting into a heated arguement. I was worried that they were about to throw punches!

I think that's enough excitement for me.

Cheers!