There beneath the blue suburban skies

Hello from England. I've been enjoying my time here, and it's been great having some company with me. Thanks Mandy! I have to be careful what I say about her since she has a habit of reading my blog in my presence...

I kid of course. I have nothing but great things to say of her. I finally arrived in Liverpool on Sunday after all the bus and train shenanigans that I had to go through. It was frustrating to say the least. You can bet they received a polite but firm email from yours truly. You can take the man out of Canada, but you can't take Canada out of the man! Mandy and I caught up over some wine and pasta at the Liverpool hostel. We were both pretty tired from a long day of travelling so we kept it relatively quiet. The next day we decided to be Tourists with a capital T. We went on the magical mystery tour, a Beatles bus tour. We had some time to kill first, so we decided to wander the city a bit. We found a neat graveyard and the Liverpool Cathedral (well...the cathedral is hard to miss...it's massive). The were both neat sites to explore. Finally it was time for the tour. It was very informative, but way overpriced...pretty much exactly what we were expecting. The tour ended at the famous Cavern Club, where we decided to have a drink amongst the other capitalized Tourists. We were glad(ish) we did, since about 30 minutes later, a John Lennon impersonator came out and played. Musically, he was really good...his voice actually sounded a lot like Lennon. Physically he looked more like an Elvis impersonator...the later years Elvis. And he was horribly obnoxious in his between-song banter. Nonetheless, the music was really good so we stayed around for a while. Later that night we went to the Philharmonic Pub which I'd highly recommend to anybody going to Liverpool. The building is very big, old, and fancy and it clearly used to be used for something other than a pub. I was impressed by the bathroom...not to get into too many details, but the urinals were the fanciest I've ever seen. Most men's bathrooms can usually be described as utilitarian at best...this one was lavish and fancy. Let's move on.

We left Liverpool on Tuesday and headed south for Bath. This was a long bus ride, but worth the trip. Bath is a beautiful town with really old architecture. The town is famous for its roman baths, so it's kind of a posh spa town. It's very boutique-y. For my Canadian audience, it really reminded me of Mont Tremblant, minus the mountains and much older. Dan and Hayley, my Australian friends from Edinburgh were there on Tuesday too so we met up for some beers and asshole (the card game, not the orifice). I taught them how to play it in Edinburgh and they've been obsessed ever since. Apparently they were practising all week on the computer. Good times were had by all.

On Wednesday, Mandy and I enjoyed exploring the town, walking around. We found the botanical gardens, and a few other cool spots in the town. We were also determined to figure out a way to get to Stonehenge from Bath without having to pay for one the overpriced tours going there. The only way we could have done it was to take a train and a bus, and then walk for 4 miles over a combination of highways and through farmer's fields with directions such as turn left at the nice row of trees. And it would have cost more than doing the tour. So we both agreed that Stonehenge wouldn't really be worth it and we decided not to bother... the Mystery Tour was our overpriced Touristy splurge of the week. That night we found a really cool pub with some good live music and lots of character. Somebody ended up spotting my Canadian accent and soon enough we were joined by two women, one being from Ottawa. Shockingly she also worked for the gov...such a rare quality in an Ottawa resident! They were cool people to talk to so we enjoyed their company for the rest of the evening.

On Thursday we switched hostels, since the one we had been staying at was a shit hole (avoid Bath Backpackers if you're ever in Bath). Our day was a little quieter but still fun nonetheless.

So what's the plan next you're likely not asking yourself, but I'm answering anyways. In a couple of hours we'll be heading to Bristol where we'll be staying with Mandy's friend for the night. Then Saturday we'll be parting ways...I'll be heading to London to meet up with the Edinburgh crew (and possibly seeing the nfl game at Wembley on Sunday if I can find a cheap ticket...not dropping 80 pounds on two teams that are almost as bad as the Bills). Mandy will be heading to work on a farm near Bristol on Sunday. All the best Mandy, thanks again for meeting up with me and showing me around England!

Photo update. So I've been completely slacking on taking pics. I didn't take a single one in Edinburgh, which is criminal since it's probably the most beautiful and photogenic city I've been to yet. So I'm trying to get back on the trolley. Here are the photos from Liverpool. I tried captioning the Beatles tour pics as best as possible, so you know what you're looking at, other than some old brick house. Have a great weekend!