Galway-Brighton-London-Paris

Yes, it's been ten days since my last blog entry. Hope I haven't lost any of my audience out there. Blog catch-up time. Here goes:

After Dublin, I took a bus to Galway on Ireland's west coast. I spent a few days there, which included a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs were spectacular. I didn't love the whole bus tour thing. It was okay - we did spend a good amount of time at the cliffs - but for our stops along the way there were elements of the whole "stop-the-bus-get-out-and-rush-over-and-snap-a-few-quick-photos-and-get-back-on-the-bus" thing. It's not my favourite way to travel, to say the least. But the thing is, I had no other way to visit these out-of-the-way places. Next time I'm in Ireland, I think I'd rent a car. The countryside is beautiful, and there seems to be countless neat little spots to visit.

Someone needs a haircut. And hey, those cliffs are nice.

My visit to Ireland has definitely been the most "touristy" part of my trip, which is owing to the fact that I visited during the busiest time of tourist season and that I visited the tourist hubs of Dublin and Galway. I didn't really get as much of a chance to connect with locals like I have in England. Those I did meet were awesome though - warm, talkative, welcoming people (especially Declan - the owner of the hostel I stayed at in Galway - we had some interesting chats). I definitely need to return to Ireland some day - my brief visit was but a taste.

After Galway, I flew from Shannon Airport back to London and then went straight to Brighton, where I spent a few days. I was only supposed to be there a day or two, but some plans changed so I ended up staying there three nights. It was nice to wander around and to get a feel for the place - more so than I was able to in the day trip I took there earlier in the summer. It's a cool place - great shops, artsy feel, and the sea, of course.

I returned to London this past Friday, staying in southeast London with my friends Vicky and Nick. We went to central London on Saturday - guitar and book shopping on/near Charing Cross Road. Sunday, Nick and I went to Blackheath, where there was a little farmer's market (where I had the best - and I mean THE best - chicken burger of my entire life. I wish the whole world could get a taste of that chicken burger - there'd be world peace. Okay, enough about the chicken burger).

And now, I'm in Paris - possibly my favourite city in the world. I took the Eurostar (train) from London. I haven't really given much thought to being here - at least not until I got here. And now I'm getting pretty excited. I'm staying with my brother-in-law's brother in Montreuil, just a 10-15 minute train ride from central Paris. I've been here three (!) times before, so I feel no need to rush around and catch all the must-see sites - I've been to most of them already. But I'm looking forward to hanging out in cafes, wandering around, exploring - you know, stressful stuff (ha!).

Dublin

I caught a RyanAir flight from Liverpool to Dublin on Sunday night. My stay in Dublin was hampered by lack of sleep - some of it my fault, some of it not. The hostel I had booked into was located, unfortunately, right in the heart of Temple Bar - a major pub and nightlife district - and more specifically was right beside a rather large pub that played "traditional" music (the quotes are for the occasional version of Sweet Home Alabama, etc.) accompanied by the enthusiastic patrons. Not much sleep was had those first two nights. I then switched hostels for the third and fourth nights. The first night in the new hostel, however, was the night I went out on a raging Dublin pub crawl. The next day was pretty much a write-off, as a result. My own fault, I know (and the pub crawl WAS fun).

So, my Dublin activities, aside from the pub crawl, consisted of a tour of the Guinness Storehouse - which was worthwhile - and a three-hour walking tour. Roughly one and a half days of activity spread over three and a half days (!). Dublin was very expensive, by the way - more expensive than anywhere in England I've been to, including London - so if you come here be prepared to spend.

Liverpool Football

Just returned from my first ever professional football (soccer) match: seeing Liverpool FC play at Anfield (the part of Liverpool where their stadium is located). In fact, this is the first professional soccer game - or soccer game of any note - I've ever seen live. That would be like having never seen a live hockey game, and then starting out seeing an NHL game at the Montreal Forum or Chicago Stadium. My Liverpool friends are HUGE Liverpool fans, and were quite excited to take me to my first game. They schooled me as best they could on the various chants and songs sung at the match. (In particular, Liverpool fans are famous for singing the song You'll Never Walk Alone at the beginning of each home match. Then there are songs for various players usually sung to the tune of a well-know song - think "Yellow Submarine" or "Ring of Fire"). As well, they also bought Zac (the Aussie) and I each a Liverpool shirt - how excellent was that? - which we proudly wore at the game.

The match was a UEFA Europa League qualifier against a team from Macedonia, FK Rabotnicki. Liverpool dominated the match, outclassing their opponents 2-0. I've never enjoyed soccer (I don't use that word over here, by the way - it's "football") as much as I did this night - much better in person than on TV. We sat in The Kop, the legendary grandstand located behind one of the goals from where the chants usually begin. The main contrast between watching professional European football and North American sporting events is that  there are fewer bells and whistles (i.e. distractions) over here - well, at Anfield, anyway: no huge HD videoscreen, nor multiple scoreboards, no ads on the pitch, and no music playing: it's all about the game. I know part of this is likely due to soccer/football's lack of stoppages, but it made the experience better...purer. Also, though they allow you to buy beer on the concourse, they don't allow any to be drunk in the stands. They are pretty strict on any unruly behaviour, as well. So, time to retire any outdated notions you have about English football fans being a bunch of violent hooligans. Then again, I wonder what would have happened if the home side had lost? (kidding)

I've never been a fan of any soccer/football team, until now. My time here, and certainly going to the match, have now officially made me a Liverpool FC fan. My Scouser friends are so proud.

The view from The Kop.

Post-match, sporting my Liverpool shirt.

Liverpool

I'm currently in Liverpool and have been since late Friday night. Me and my Aussie friend Zac caught a bus from London in the afternoon (and I had just come in by train from Cambridge - an hour away). The bus to Liverpool was waaaay cheaper than the train. But it was way late. We have been staying in Liverpool with our friends Lisa and Cat, who we met the previous weekend in Cardiff. They've been excellent hosts. They live a little bit outside Liverpool in a suburb called Maghull (pronounced kinda like "muggle"). Lisa, Cat and Lisa's fiance Martin picked us up and gave us a late night tour of Liverpool, then fed us and gave us beer. An excellent welcome.

Next evening we went on a pilgrimage (for this Beatles fan, anyway) to The Cavern Club on Mathew Street in Liverpool. For those of you who don't know, this is the club where the Beatles started out and played an astonishing 292 times in the early 1960s (a fact duly noted in the club). The Cavern closed between the early seventies and 1984, and had to partly be excavated to be re-opened - it's a couple flights underground- so it isn't exactly the way it looked back in the day, but pretty close. It's extremely warm down there - Thankfully there is no smoking. I can only imagine what it was like back when the Beatles played. They had a Beatles cover band playing.

During the day on Saturday, our friends took us out to Crosby Beach, north of Liverpool. There is an excellent art installation there by Antony Gormley entitled "Another Place": about a hundred life-sized iron men are spread out along the beach for 4 kilometres. It's pretty cool to see the tide recede, and gradually uncover the heads and shoulders of these figures.

The iron men on Crosby Beach

Sunday we went down to the docklands to the refurbished Albert Dock. It houses several shops and a couple of museums. We visited the Maritime Museum and went on The Wheel - a ferris wheel similar to the London Eye (which I passed on) - from which you could get great vistas of Liverpool and The Mersey. Monday, we returned to the Albert Dock and went to The Beatles Story - a Beatles museum. Loved it. I have to go back: They have a Beatles-themed Starbucks adjacent to it that I still have to go to (it was closing as we left). I need to say it again: Beatles-themed Starbucks. Wicked.

Yes, I'm wearing an audio guide. They're helpful.