Liverpool

We had a little over a four hour coach ride to get to Liverpool so we were set to leave at 8:00. Due to the tube strike Lyndon was a little bit late getting to our flats where the coach picked us up. We got going around 8:30 putting us behind schedule. For the first half of the coach ride we got to sleep and do our own thing. We made a half hour stop for lunch. Once we got back on the coach we got to experience our first pub quiz. We got to pick our own teams so Jeana, Alyssa, Ashlin, Elias and I joined up for form the Elianitors (Elias + terminators). Lyndon asked us about fifty questions from categories such as politics, the monarchy, sports, pop culture, etc. It was a lot of fun but also made us realize we should have known more of the answers! A lot of them we were close on but ended up missing. Overall we didn’t do bad and learned a lot in the process. It was all about having fun anyway!

When we were done we were pretty close to Liverpool. Ashlin and I spent the remaining time hanging out with Nathan and Elias and had a blast. Then Lyndon handed out our tasks for the day and the lyrics to Penny Lane. As we neared Penny Lane he played the song to let us know the tune. It is tradition that we sing the song as we drive down Penny Lane. After hearing it once it was our turn to belt it out. We enjoyed it…you really can’t drive down Penny Lane any other way. At the end of the road we jumped out to take our photos then get back on. ReBecca then presented her information on Penny Lane and we got to see the actual buildings that are mentioned in the song which was pretty neat.
We were then supposed to start a short bus tour of Liverpool to get acquainted with it but since we were way behind schedule Lyndon cut it short. Lyndon had a few people share their research as we passed their items. We passed two famous Cathedrals. I really wanted to go back and visit them but we never ended up having time. We then went to our hostel to check in and drop off our things.

We literally dropped our things and headed back out the door. It was already 3:00 so we did not have much time left to explore Liverpool. The first thing we did was head to the Beatles exhibit. There was no way we were going to miss out on that while we were there. The exhibit was pretty awesome. There was so much stuff to see. We sort of felt like we rush through it and still had to skip a few of the things in order to have time to do other things. I am really excited we got to go through. It reinforced a lot of the stuff Rob had taught us about the Beatles which was cool. When we got through we of course had to stop in the gift shop and get our Beatles merchandise.

Afterward we decided we needed to try and take some pictures for our project so we had something to work with. It rained the whole day so it made getting good pictures sort of difficult but we did our best. We stayed around Albert Dock area. We did have some questions to answer so our next mission was to figure out the answers. We went into a pub and the bar tenders got us every answer expect for half of one so that ended up being a super easy task! It was fun talking to them about the answer though. The accents in Liverpool are definitely different though I don’t think I can explain how. It was really nice to complete our task so fast (especially because the group with the most correct answer won a drink from Lyndon!). When we left the pub we ran into another group and we all walked around the dock. When it was time we headed back to the hostel for dinner. We were all starving so we had been looking forward to dinner. They made us a nice dinner of garlic break, pasta, salad, and cake for desert. After dinner we went back to our room for a little bit then headed back out. To claim our prize we had to meet Lyndon at the Philharmonic Pub at 8:00. We walked around and explored a bit while we found the pub.

On our way there we had to figure out the one part of the question we had left. To get full credit we had to sing the chorus of “Ferry on the Merzy.” We lucked out because we ran into some old guys who knew it on the way to the pub. We practiced as we finished our walk there and had ourselves some fun. When we got there Lyndon wasn’t there yet so we waited outside for him. He got there not long after. Upon grading our sheet he claimed us the winners even though no one else had showed up yet. He didn’t even make us sing the song but after all that practicing we had to show off our talent! I think he was quite impressed with our efforts. As he promised he told us to each pick out a drink we wanted. Ashlin and I were going to try winter Pimm’s but they didn’t end up having it so we got summer Pimm’s instead. After we got our drinks everyone else began rolling in. It was a great night all hanging out at the Pub together. We didn’t have to come but almost everyone did which was nice.

Eventually people began to do their own things. A few of us heard there was going to be live Beatles music so we wanted to check it out. We went to The Cavern. It’s a famous pub where the Beatles used to play. The one we went to isn’t the original but it was still neat to see. We were all pretty tired after a long day and headed home after a little while. They didn’t end up having live Beatles music though there was a live band. On our walk home we heard a band playing a Beatles song so we went in. They only played the one song so then we really went home and headed straight to bed.