Liverpool

A few days ago I went to spend the day in Liverpool home of the Beatles and I was not disappointed.



Liverpool is only 3 hours from the Isle of Man with the ferry. I was quite shocked when I got into the ferry because it was packed. I don’t know why but I expected the boat to be almost empty, I guess most people use the ferry because it is the cheapest way to reach the mainland. As the boat was approaching its destination, the view on the nice little houses of New Brighton on the right of the boat was a great contrast with the view of the harbour of Liverpool on the right of the boat. The ferry docked next to the Crown Princess, I didn't expect to see a cruise ship in this part of the world. I quick look on the internet taught me that the ship was on its way to New-York and would be making some stops in Iceland and Greenland. 17 days on a cold sea that is what I call having fun, I thought cruise ships were only cruising hot sees. The visit began once I exited the ferry.




I did absolutely no research about the city before going there. I like to get somewhere and find my way, I may not see all the important places of the city but I will get a different experience of the city. I asked in the ferry if they had a map of the city but they did not. When we disembarked we found ourselves in front of huge ancient buildings, on the right there was a huge plaza with a brand new building: the Museum of Liverpool. I was where the docks used to be, many had been destroyed, some had been turned into bars, restaurants, shops or hotels. What once was a completely abandoned area had become quite alive, there were terraces everywhere and a shopping centre as large as a neighbourhood was located nearby. It is not the kind this is inside a huge bulding, this one only had 1 or 2 levels arranged along large pedestrian streets. I am not at all a fan of this kind of place, I find shopping as interesting as soccer or cars but I think this place would amaze any shopper. You could find all the international brands as well as the local ones that I do not know, the streets were packed with people. I made the effort to go into some stores to try and find some pants I might like (it is not simple) and which are my size (it is even less simple). It is not easy to find something to wear when you're tall and slim, it seems that in “prêt a porter” thin people are short and tall people are large. As I didn’t expect to find something I didn't linger and went out of the shopping area.




It was nice to be back in a city, the Isle of Man is like a village for me. I spent most of time walking in the streets. I came across a building called Grand Central, you could tell it was not your ordinary place just by looking at the front. I could see that the front doors were open I as came closer so I decided to go inside and discovered a really special place. There were a lot of small shops everywhere: clothes, vinyls, piercing, jewels… Everything that was sold there had absolutely nothing to do with what was sold in the shopping center, this reminded me that English people don’t like dressing like everybody else. The building architecture was in complete sync with what was sold inside.
I walked through the streets of the wealthy part of the city where houses have large windows and where there often is a plaque on the wall, I went through places where the walls hiding the vacant lots are covered with concert posters, I made a small detour through Chinatown, I went to see the cathedral with its particular architecture, I walked a lot...




Every time I stopped somewhere I took the opportunity to watch people. It amused me to make comparisons with the countries I have visited. The first thing I noticed is that people are quite large, I might even say as large as the average American. It is not as obvious on the Isle of Man. There were so many people with red hair, blue hair, purple hair, a tattoo or a piercing. I almost felt like it was a national brand for the youth. I say youth because I have seen very few people over 30 who had that look. It was Saturday and I saw a few groups of guys already drunk at 2 PM, I guess they ended the evening in the gutter. I laughed when I saw these groups of girls who were all dressed the same way except for one or two details. I thought it must be very profitable for the brands that they buy.
I of course took my time in Liverpool to eat what we French are bereft since 1997: A whopper. As soon as my stomach began to make some noise, I headed to one of the Burger King I had seen during my walk. Important information: Burger King is the best fast food chain in the world. I ate two whoppers for lunch and one in the late afternoon while waiting for the ferry to arrive. You can not imagine the happiness I felt when I bit into my whopper, the last time I had eaten one was in Malta last October. Here is good news for French lovers of Burger King, it seems that the company has decided to return to France in 2012. The information is not 100% confirmed but it feels very good, I can already see myself eating my whopper in Paris: priceless! Once in the ferry, I slept like a log with a well-filled belly.



After that nice day I ended up having a strong pain in my left leg. It is funny, I can walk for 5 hours in the mountains of La Reunion but not in the streets of Liverpool.