Much Needed Relaxation
The past few days have been very relaxing, which has been a huge blessing after driving all over the country...literally.
Saturday, June 21st
We headed to Liverpool to visit the Beatles display. Although I have heard quite a few of their songs over the years, I never knew much about the band. It was interesting to go through the entire museum and learn about how they formed, and the different things that happened along the way. Very very informational, but I did enjoy it, as with pretty much everything on the trip thus far.
Another thing that I have enjoyed recently is spotting the differences between our culture and that of England. Besides the obvious difference of which side of the road that they drive on, it's been fun to talk to our host about what different things are, and attempt to relate them to something that we can find in the U.S. For instance, they have "Give Way" signs that equate to our "Yield," and "crisps" are potato chips.
After we finished up in the museum we ate lunch. Somehow I only ate half of a lettuce salad, which is surprising, considering I hadn't eaten dinner the night before. Following lunch we went to a Beatles 4D experience. Out of the 5 of us, I was the only one who had ever been to something like it (thanks, Universals Studios and Shrek) so it was pretty amusing to watch and listen to their reactions as they were sprayed in the face with water and jerked around in their seats. Extremely funny from my perspective.
We headed back to the house and relaxed for a few hours, ate food off the grill, and then changed into warmer clothes because we were planning on walking over to the racetrack to watch a concert featuring several singers from the '80s. It wasn't until we were in the parking lot making our way toward the stadium that I was informed that these would be the real singers, not just impersonators. Up until that point I was assuming the worst.
At that moment I began to get extremely excited. I probably had no real reason to be as excited as I was, but I had just come to the realization that I would actually get to hear Rick Astley sing "Never Gonna Give You Up." For a girl my age, unless I really embraced 80's music, you wouldn't expect this reaction. To be honest, I know absolutely none of the other songs that he sings, but during my junior year of high school that song was one that we sang in our musical, "Back to the '80s." Actually, I didn't even sing the song, but I knew it word for word, and when the time came, I had to try extremely hard not to belt out the words.
By the way, we never actually made it into the stadium. Instead, as planned, we sat on the ground just outside and watched the jumbotron and listened to the loudspeakers boom a couple beats behind the music. I'm not complaining though! Such a cool experience, and something that wouldn't have happened if we had taken the total tourist route of spending all of our time in London.
Sunday, June 22nd
I really don't have a whole lot to say about it. It was a super relaxing day. Maggie and I were dropped off at the mall, which is extremely confusing to maneuver around when you have never seen a map of the place. We planned to go to a movie instead of filling the afternoon with endless spending of our limited European money. We watched "The Fault In Our Stars," and I did have a few tears in my eyes at several times throughout the movie. It was very well done, and a pretty accurate replica of the book. Oh yeah, and the ticket cost about $20 in U.S. money, so don't ever complain about our movie theater prices. The dollar theater was a blessing for a lot of years! Other than that, I spent the majority of the day finishing the book Paper Towns by John Green. It was honestly a great read. I am pretty sure that I started it yesterday and just finished it about an hour ago. Now on to Bossypants by Tina Fey!
Monday, June 23rd
Our last real day in Manchester was today. We will be back, but not until we have visited London and Paris, which will take up the majority of our final week here in Europe. I am excited for our journey tomorrow, but I really enjoyed today. It was extremely relaxing, we didn't have to travel very far, and we had a great view!
At around noon we headed to Formby Point Beach, which is slightly north of Liverpool. Michelle had told us that it wasn't really a beach that people swam at, so we didn't even think twice about leaving our suits behind. When we got there it was a little windy, and the tide was super far out. Maggie and I started running toward the water, and it stretched on for quite awhile. It was at least a quarter mile before we finally reached the water, which happened to be the perfect temperature.
Apparently the only thing that is really dangerous about the water is the numerous jelly fish that could have "attacked" us while we were floating around. Although we saw a lot of them dead on the sand, we didn't encounter one during our time in the Irish Sea (how cool is that to be able to say!!!). When we got out, we eventually dried off, but took awhile. We went for a walk along the beach, and picked up various objects that could help us to create a sandcastle.
It was super fun, and all we used were two different sized cups, a tupperware, and shells! Tonight we were able to come back, wash off, and relax while watching one of the World Cup games. It was a great day!
Striding for him,
Melanie
Saturday, June 21st
We headed to Liverpool to visit the Beatles display. Although I have heard quite a few of their songs over the years, I never knew much about the band. It was interesting to go through the entire museum and learn about how they formed, and the different things that happened along the way. Very very informational, but I did enjoy it, as with pretty much everything on the trip thus far.
Another thing that I have enjoyed recently is spotting the differences between our culture and that of England. Besides the obvious difference of which side of the road that they drive on, it's been fun to talk to our host about what different things are, and attempt to relate them to something that we can find in the U.S. For instance, they have "Give Way" signs that equate to our "Yield," and "crisps" are potato chips.
At that moment I began to get extremely excited. I probably had no real reason to be as excited as I was, but I had just come to the realization that I would actually get to hear Rick Astley sing "Never Gonna Give You Up." For a girl my age, unless I really embraced 80's music, you wouldn't expect this reaction. To be honest, I know absolutely none of the other songs that he sings, but during my junior year of high school that song was one that we sang in our musical, "Back to the '80s." Actually, I didn't even sing the song, but I knew it word for word, and when the time came, I had to try extremely hard not to belt out the words.
Sunday, June 22nd
I really don't have a whole lot to say about it. It was a super relaxing day. Maggie and I were dropped off at the mall, which is extremely confusing to maneuver around when you have never seen a map of the place. We planned to go to a movie instead of filling the afternoon with endless spending of our limited European money. We watched "The Fault In Our Stars," and I did have a few tears in my eyes at several times throughout the movie. It was very well done, and a pretty accurate replica of the book. Oh yeah, and the ticket cost about $20 in U.S. money, so don't ever complain about our movie theater prices. The dollar theater was a blessing for a lot of years! Other than that, I spent the majority of the day finishing the book Paper Towns by John Green. It was honestly a great read. I am pretty sure that I started it yesterday and just finished it about an hour ago. Now on to Bossypants by Tina Fey!
Monday, June 23rd
Our last real day in Manchester was today. We will be back, but not until we have visited London and Paris, which will take up the majority of our final week here in Europe. I am excited for our journey tomorrow, but I really enjoyed today. It was extremely relaxing, we didn't have to travel very far, and we had a great view!
At around noon we headed to Formby Point Beach, which is slightly north of Liverpool. Michelle had told us that it wasn't really a beach that people swam at, so we didn't even think twice about leaving our suits behind. When we got there it was a little windy, and the tide was super far out. Maggie and I started running toward the water, and it stretched on for quite awhile. It was at least a quarter mile before we finally reached the water, which happened to be the perfect temperature.
Apparently the only thing that is really dangerous about the water is the numerous jelly fish that could have "attacked" us while we were floating around. Although we saw a lot of them dead on the sand, we didn't encounter one during our time in the Irish Sea (how cool is that to be able to say!!!). When we got out, we eventually dried off, but took awhile. We went for a walk along the beach, and picked up various objects that could help us to create a sandcastle.
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| Photo by a random stranger who said he was no good at photography. |
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| Photo by Maggie Raes. |
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| Photo by Maggie Raes. |
It was super fun, and all we used were two different sized cups, a tupperware, and shells! Tonight we were able to come back, wash off, and relax while watching one of the World Cup games. It was a great day!
Striding for him,
Melanie
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