Day 77: Beatles post one!

Liverpool made me what I am - it kept my feet on the ground.

Paul McCartney

Beatles post number one! Here are some of the Beatles-centric pictures I took while in Liverpool, there are plenty more where these came from, but too many for one post!


Outside of the Cavern Pub, Allen took us here on his tour. Across the street is the Cavern Club, not the original but a pretty loyal re-creation. I'm pretty sure it's McCartney approved.


Beatles bench outside of the club.


This is absolutely terrifying. Some sculptor put this statue up shortly after John died. It's Mary holding three babies which were supposed to symbolize John, Ringo and George, and the baby on the right was supposed to be Paul. The baby was to have Wings to represent Paul's new band, you can tell its him because the guitar is in the left hand. However, right before the sculpture went up John was killed and this baby was changed to represent John.


Allen standing next to a sculpture of Eleanor Rigby, the inscription just says "All the Lonely People."


Me and Abby with wall sculpture downstairs in the cavern club.


The Cavern.



Me, Paige and Abby at the cavern club waiting for the Beatles cover band to start playing! This was taken by our new Liverpool friends, an adorable couple in high school.



Blue Meanies!



Really talented group as far as cover bands go!



First stop on the Fab Four Black Taxi Tour, a tribute to Liverpool culture, the guitar case symbolizes Paul McCartney.



On the left, John's art college, on the right George and Paul's school.



Brian Epstein's house. John and Cynthia lived here after they got married to keep their relationship under wraps.


The Empress from the cover of Ringo's solo album.


Margaret lives in Ringo's old house right around the corner from the Empress! She invited us in, offered us tea and lunch and shared with us all her stories about being Ringo's next door neighbor and eventually moving into his house. Pretty much every time Paul McCartney is in town he stops in and has a cup of tea with her. This is one of her walls of memorabilia.



Paige with Margaret in the background. She calls herself a Beatles ambassador.



The social hall on Penny Lane where Paul and his brother attended boy scouts, church events, etc. Eddie Mercury lived in this apartment for a spell.



Penny Lane!



Paul's house with the Liverpool city curator. I'm not completely convinced...I think there might be some McCartney in his blood somewhere.



Paige at the gates by strawberry fields. Strawberry Fields was actually an orphanage by John's House, he would climb over the gates and play with the orphans because he didn't quite get along with school kids his age.



John Lennon's home.



Eleanor Rigby's grave. She died a year before John was born.



This is our tour guide holding up the picture in the spot where the Quarrymen performed the day John met Paul. This was in the backyard of the church, close to Eleanor's grave and John's uncle's grave.



George's house.



In the basement of the Jacaranda, pub owned by Allan Williams, John and his friend Stu Sutcliff painted these walls with lots of crazy retro designs for a couple extra bucks.



Memorabilia on the stage at the Cavern Pub.



Me and Abby in the Cavern Pub.



Paige in a booth at the Grapes! This pub is directly across from the Cavern Club, the Beatles used to run out in between sets to get a pint since the Cavern didn't have a liquor license.



Elvis picture in the Beatles museum.



Quarrymen memorabilia.



Close-up of John in the quarrymen, the photo that the tour guide was holding earlier.



Picture of the boys looking pretty in the Cavern!



Cavern Club recreation in the Beatles museum.



Beatles tights! I want a pair!!



John Lennon Memorial.



Hanging with John outside the Cavern.



Stage at the Cavern Club.



Outside picture of the Grapes!



Gates of the Philharmonic. This pub was just a hop, skip and a jump from John's art school. He said he missed getting a drink there after he was famous. It's also one of the most ornate pubs in England.



Philharmonic dining room.



Fantastic open chicken pie! This place is famous for their meat pies.


Bar at the philharmonic, decadent!

Overall a fantastic experience, I feel like a Beatles expert now!

Day 77: Non-Beatles Liverpool

My love of New York, is something to do with Liverpool. There is the same quality of energy in both cities.

John Lennon, 1971

I understand you John, New York and Liverpool were separated at birth it seems, and now Liverpool has a little place in my heart! This city is just spectacular, I could easily see myself living here. The people, the culture, the prices are all great! Especially the people, they are the most friendly bunch in Europe yet, I made so many friends over the course of our three day trip. I feel like I know more Liverpoolians (I think I just made that word up) than Irish.

I'm probably going to have to do three posts for Liverpool. This one is all the non-Beatles pictures. I'll do a Beatles post from my camera next and then tomorrow I'll get pictures from my friend Paige who took a lot of pictures with us in them at Beatles sites.


The dockside at Liverpool where some of the big shipping offices are still situated. This was the first stop on our walking tour with Allen, an extremely nice guy who does tours of Liverpool on the weekends. He works in construction, grew up in the city and is basically a Liverpool historian. I'd go on his tour again in a heartbeat.


Renaissance style architecture on the shipping office.


A typical fancy pub in Liverpool. Allen said that much more money went into the construction of pubs than into the construction of housing.


An old Pirate Ship in Albert Dock.


Allen outside of the protestant cathedral.


The outside of the protestant cathedral in Liverpool. Allen said its the fourth largest church in the world.


A taste of the ornate stained glass inside.


So big!


Abby and I went to the international slavery museum, an enlightening and sobering look at not only the history of slavery but the history of racism as well. These are some of the tribal masks brought from Africa to Liverpool during the slave trade.


Why not paint merry Christmas on your slaves for your holiday card? There were lots of very strange pictures like this one. My favorite part of the museum was when I got to talk to a local school teacher who was in the exhibit sharing the story of her great grandfather who was a slave that stayed in Liverpool.


"They will remember that we were sold, but not that we were strong. They will remember that we were bought, but not that we were brave." - William Prescott, former slave


Here's the shopping in city center in Liverpool. This is just a portion of it, their downtown is absolutely huge! This part kind of reminded me of the student union at Kate's school.


Delicious cappacino I had at Bella Italia, where we celebrated Paige's 21st birthday with some great Italian!


Paige and Abby in fab four pizza, we stopped here during our self-led pub crawl on Paige's birthday. The pizza was delicious and even better, very cheap! The guy working at the pizza place told us how crowded it gets on weekends and we chatted with a couple club bouncers who were telling us horror stories from crazy weekends. Liverpool people love to tell stories.


Albert docks, a pretty advanced structure for its time!


Outside of the Roman Catholic cathedral, I feel like Blessed Sacrament ripped off some ideas from this architecture design. Abby didn't like it, she said it was too much of a spaceship.


So beautiful! Not as imposing from the inside as it is from the outside.


St. Joseph's chapel in one of the annexes of the cathedral, I loved that it was all wood carvings and low lighting.


Alright, one Beatles picture! The airport was renamed recently to John Lennon Airport.

More to come soon!

Day 71: Queen Mother

Her majesty's a pretty nice girl, some day I'm gonna make her mine.
-The Beatles

Today is absolutely beautiful, a bit chilly but very welcome after three days of freezing rain and even a freak snow storm! Seriously Dublin!? The locals were just as surprised as I was. I thought it may have been an elaborate April Fool's joke they were playing on tourists, but today is blue skies!

So, I've been a recluse, sitting in my apartment finding different ways to use sausages for dinner (soup, pasta, chili, breakfast for dinner) and getting ready to go to Liverpool on Easter! Some may call it a tourist trap, but I call it a pilgrimage. It's somewhere I've always wanted to visit but kind of forgot about. When Scotland turned out to be so expensive this weekend (thanks world step dancing competition) Paige, Abby and I researched some other options and decided on Liverpool.



I picked up these lovely ladies this morning. I probably waited in the bank line for about 20 minutes, because the bank is closed for four days! Irish banks are never open Saturdays or Sundays, and Good Friday and Easter Monday are apparently both bank holidays. I think a couple of the big branches are open for a couple hours tomorrow.

There's a big fuss about the pubs being closed tomorrow. Apparently its law that pubs have to be closed from midnight Thursday to midnight Friday. I really don't think its going to hurt anyone to skip a day of drinking (I'm sure they're stocking up at the off-license as I type this), but I guess its the principle of the thing that has the Irish angry. The majority of them aren't too thrilled with the church at the moment.

On a happier note here are our daffodils! They survived the snow quite well!

Day 67: Ol' Canal

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal...
-"Dirty Old Town"

I may have used that quote already, but its my new favorite pub song and very applicable. The old canal isn't that dirty, there was actually a big initiative a couple years ago to clean it up and its pretty clean for being in the middle of a big city!

The canal is one of my favorite things about Georgian Dublin, I can literally walk outside of our apartment building and the canal is a few steps away. Before I was all sick and leper-like I would "run" along the canal to the West and back, steering clear of the terrifying swans along the way. Once I'm done with my drugs and its warm, those swans better watch out.





Also, here's a picture of some flowers my new roommate Joanne picked up at the grocery store, flowers are really springing up around here. Next to them is the palms they hand out at mass, not like they grow them (import them) in America! Next to it is a pamphlet for Dorian Gray month in the Dublin! More details (and pics) about that soon!

Day 66: Shannon scarf day!

I noticed I wear my red check scarf a lot, but I didn't want Shannon to worry, I love this scarf too! Today I'm making it an essential part of my outfit!



Also, I'd like to thank everyone for this great window display I've acquired! I got two recent additions on Tuesday with Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma and Papa's St. Patrick's Day cards!


I think the selection of St. Patrick's Day cards is a lot better in the states, I had a hard time finding anything here! I'm not as creative as Maura and Shannon who could turn out a dozen different holiday cards in about half an hour.

Finally getting over being sick, the penicillin is working wonders so far!

Off to the National Gallery for a day of free (and sophisticated) entertainment.

Day 63: Inis Mor

Go to the Aran Islands. Live there as if you were one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression.
-W.B. Yeats

I fell in love with Inis Mor.

I already have plans underway for a Bed and Breakfast/Tea Parlor/Alpaca Farm/Craft Store that I'll run somewhere along the coast. There's plenty of room and old buildings to choose from.

Inis Mor is what you think of when you think of Ireland. Also what you think of when you think of paradise. I'm pretty sure if the ferry would have shut down for a few days I wouldn't have complained, maybe would have moved in with some of the locals I met at the pubs. All I can think is when am I going to get to go back?


Gen on the morning ferry over to the island. Pumped! We drove through Connemara to the dock and it was beautiful.


The best, easiest, and cheapest way to see the island is on bike, even if you are as out of shape as me! I only had to walk up one hill, although I was hurting a little bit the next day.


Hey ponies! More horses than people on this island it seems! There are definitely more sheep than people. The horses are extremely social and very excited to taste your clothing, bike handles, purses, whatever's in reach.


Outside of St. Enda's monastery. The church was blocked off, but as you can see in the Cliffs of Moher posts barriers are made to be broken in Ireland. The sign on the church says its from the 7-8th century.


Hanging in the monastery.


Genevieve and Abby making their way down the rocks to the coast. This was right by a seal colony, I'll try to get a couple pictures from my friend paige of the seals. There were also tide pools full of mussels, clams, all kinds of delicious sea life.


So many horses!


Look at this precious angel. He was scared to come out from behind his mom.


Graveyard on the way to Dun Aengus. Most of the graves belonged to the Hernon family, members of which I met at a pub later that night. Two of their sons were playing the banjo and the accordian, they're a very old island family apparently.


This is me in front of the outer wall of Dun Aengus. We road our bikes a few miles from the village and then hiked up this rocky hill until we reached the fort. The cliffs here are just as breathtaking as the cliffs of Moher, its no wonder prehistoric people built this fort almost 3,000 years ago! I thought St. Enda's was old! Inside the interior wall is a large stone altar on the very edge of the cliff that may have been used for sacrifice or other pagan ceremonies.


Cliffs by Dun Aengus


Again, too close?


This beach at the foot of the cliffs received a clean beach award! From who? I have no idea.


Me and Abby at the shore, quite a bit different than Jersey!


Gen's pretty happy to be on Inis Mor.


Breakfast for dinner! We saved money by going to the one grocery store on all three islands and picking up some breakfast food including rashers! Better than Taylor Ham!


This is the view I got to wake up to after a night at Joe Watty's pub on Inis Mor. "The Hernons and Padraic" played some great Irish songs, including the crowd favorite "Galway Girl," but also threw in some Bon Jovi. Nice. I took my tea on the hostel deck and enjoyed this beautiful morning.


Kilronan hostel, great people, great location, happy days as they say!