Manchester / Liverpool

So it was a smooth ride into Manchester, where we were greeted by my friend Jack. As some of you readers might know, I actually hosted Jack through CouchSurfing at my place in Amherst back in May; he had no hesitation in returning the favor! He actually lives just outside Manchester in a very small town called Stockport, but a short ride into the city. Crashed the first night at Jack's, and woke up the next day to sort out some transportation details.

After all was said and sorted, Jack showed us around the town of Stockport. The town had a very 1800'sy feel to it, with many cobblestone streets, stone buildings, and rolling hills with walking paths. We saw the town's "Torrs," which were the huge stone structures underneath the town which keep the bridges from falling. We later took the train into Manchester, and walked around much of it's northern quarter, stopping in many vintage stores by request of Emily for some ridiculous clothing for the music festival to come. Several beers were had with a delicious Italian dinner, and we soon headed back to Stockport to call it a night.

The next morning Emily and I smoothly made it from Jack's, to the train station, to the bus, to Liverpool! Apart from the fact that we weren't sure where we were going to be sleeping, we were doing great. Pretty easily, we found the cheap and friendly International Inn, dumped down our bags, and latched onto the free internet on my ipod. I had gotten a message from someone we'd sent a couchsurf request to, and so we texted him about meeting up later at a pub to watch the World Cup. After unsuccessfully wasting our time trying to sort out the ferry to Dublin, and stuffing our faces at a local Chinese buffet, we met up with Daniel (the couchsurfer) at the Pilgrim, a pub which was actually very close to our hostel. We had a great time meeting Dan, a couple of his Liverpool friends, and the two French girls who got to him first about CouchSurfing at his place. Several pubs and many beers later, we parted ways and promised to meet up for the next World Cup match the following night.

First things first in the morning Emily and I booked our ferry tickets, and wandered down to Albert Pier, home of the Beatles Museum. By recommendation of the two French girls, instead of touring the museum and/or going on the touristy Magical Mystery Tour, we bought a bus pass and sought out to find the landmarks ourselves. Frenchies Lucy and Camille came with us to see Penny Lane, John Lennon and Paul McCartney's childhood homes, and Strawberry Field. It was a great day of touring Liverpool, and we had a bit of time before going to meet up for the World Cup so we stopped into the famous Cavern Club as well, where a Lennon lookalike was performing for (coincidentally) Ringo's 70th birthday. We were soon back to the Pilgrim for the Spain/Germany match, but our friends ended up not coming out to meet us. By this point, Emily and I had heard back from another, and this time positively responding, CouchSurfing host, and so we sought him out at the pub he was visiting. Anders turned out to be a very friendly and accommodating host, and paid for our taxi ride back to his place to get some rest before waking up very early to catch our ferry to Dublin.

I'm not that far behind on the blog anymore! Dublin and Oxford are coming soon, really.