My Liverpool trips
The place I am staying in in North Wales has no wifi and no phone signal so any time I want to upload to my blog or do any online research I have to go to a public place like McDonalds, Costa or Starbucks etc. to enable me to use their wifi but when I get there the wifi is usually quite slow which means I spend a lot of time in these places trying to get all my work done for the blog I write for “Best of Carmarthenshire” and for my own blog as well as social media, skype facetime, messenger etc.
The place I go the most is McDonalds which is up through Caerwys and just on the A55 junction. While I was there one day I got talking to a lady who worked there called Debbie, she told me that she has been thinking of doing what I am doing for quite a while but was unsure if she had the guts to go for it, we arranged to meet up one night for a chat and a drink to discuss my plans and if she could somehow start to do the same. We got on like a house on fire and found we had many things in common, the following night she was going out for a meal with her friend and she checked with the friend before asking me to join them on their night out to Liverpool. I jumped at the chance, on the one hand it was lovely to make new friends and on the other it would be really fun going into Liverpool.
The following night we all met at Debbie’s house and Jill, Debs’s friend decided to drive in as she had been before and knew the way, it took about an hour to get into Liverpool and we parked the car down on Albert Dock, it reminded me a lot of Cardiff bay, very cosmopolitan, we tried to find somewhere to eat on the dock as there were many places which all looked really interesting but in the end we decided to walk into town and try to find somewhere there.
It wasn’t far into town and we reached a big shopping mall with plenty of restaurants to choose from, we all decided Wagamama was the best as there was something we all liked there. It was a lovely meal and a chance for me to get to know Jill as well as chatting more to Debs. I had a really lovely night they then took me to Matthew Street for a drink before going home and we came across the Cavern of Beatle fame. In the short time and little area I had already covered in Liverpool it was obvious that they make the most of their connection to the Beatles! And why not, they were such an iconic band.
Little did I know that the Cavern club was on this street. The Cavern has been a contemporary music venue for more than 55 years. It has played a part in each epoch of music from 1950s Jazz to 21st century indie music. Many groups have played at the Cavern as well as the Beatles, including The Hollies, The Rolling Stones, Queen and Elton John to name but a few, Cilla Black was the hat check girl there. I haven’t been a big fan of Beatles music over the years but I found myself really excited at being there so we manged to get free entry into the Cavern which was down a few flights of stairs into an underground dungeon, similar to the underground railway stations. It looked like four tunnel shaped sections with a staged area over to the right of the bar where shows were being held but you had to book tickets for these events in advance so we just had a drink and looked around.
It was dark and moody just like the original underground stations but warm and inviting with lots of memorabilia on the walls in cabinets and pictures of the Beatles with some musical instruments and much more. The walls were all bare brick covered in graffiti, anyone and everyone was allowed to add their name to the many that covered all the walls and the ceilings so I tried to add mine, my pen wasn’t working very well so others might not see it, lol, but I know where it is. There were lots of people there enjoying themselves and then a live band started tuning up to begin their act, we stayed for a few songs which were all oldies so we could sing along and dance if we wanted. I loved it there.
We then moved on to another pub further along Matthew Street which was a bit similar to Wind Street in Swansea near where I live, I can’t remember the name of the pub but it was brilliant there, they had a dance floor and they were playing more oldies, mostly eighties stuff so we all danced away the time we had left. We didn’t stay too late as Jill had to drive back, which takes an hour and she had been working all day as a vets nurse and I was working the following morning for Welsh Cycling, we got home about 12 midnight which was fine. I really had a wonderful time. One of the best things about my trip so far has been meeting new friends, not that there is anything wrong with my old friends but you can never have too many friends. Debbie and Jill are lovely people and I’m so glad I met them.
My sister works in Liverpool sometimes so we arranged to meet up while I was in North Wales, but this time I caught the train in from Flint railway station which is only about half hour drive from where I am staying. I got into Liverpool about 6.15 ish and we went for a quick drink in the Liverpool, the pub right next to the station where the bar manager told me they were having Karaoke later on, I thought we might go back but Sis was working the following day so had to be back in her hotel early.
I was treated to a lovely meal by my sister in her favourite restaurant in Liverpool which just happened to be a Thai place called Chuaphraya, the people serving inside were from Thailand (which is not always the case with foreign restaurants in UK) and were going back to visit family in October, which is when I am going there, but they are going to the South and I will be going North, after doing some sightseeing in Bangkok. We had a little chat about their families and the country and I just can’t wait to go. The meal was lovely; I had Pad Thai a traditional Thai dish, getting in the mood for the Thai trip. #Lovinglife!!
