For my final trip during my time abroad, I decided to check out the place that I heard so many negative things about during my time in Ireland: England. Yes yes, the English raped and pillaged the land and the traditions here, and now they’re symbolically doing the same thing with their chain supermarkets and popular television programs, but they can’t be all that bad! After all, they did give us a nice language to speak and those muffins with the nooks and crannies! So I brought myself a plane ticket for across the sea to assess things for myself. First of all, I wanted to look nice for my last adventure, and since No-Shave November came to an end the day I was leaving, I went from this:
To this:
Not going to lie, it actually felt pretty good to have the wind sweeping across my bare chin once again (plus I hear that airport security takes more notice to people with beards, and I didn’t feel like getting the pat down). So on Wednesday morning I landed in Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport. The name of the airport pretty much set the tone for what I was going to be focusing on to start my England trip, as Liverpool (map: http://bit.ly/hFjDnp) was the birthplace of all four members of the Beatles! To get in as much Beatles action as I could, I bought a ticket for the aptly-named Magical Mystery Tour, which takes you around to all the Beatles-related places in town:
Trippy, dude. First, we checked out all the childhood homes of the Fab Four, such as the McCartney’s at 20 Forthlin Road (where reportedly twenty Beatles songs were written):
The Lennon’s at 251 Menlove Avenue:
The Harrison’s at 12 Arnold Grove:
And the Starkey’s at 10 Admiral Grove:
I was particularly interested in Ringo’s old house, because I had a toy octopus in my possession (thanks to a certain friend back home) and I wanted to see if I could find a garden nearby so I could place it there (hence “Octopus’s Garden,” one of just two songs written by Ringo for the Beatles). Unfortunately, there was only a garden in the backyard (blocked by a fence), and there was snow on the ground anyway, so I just took a picture of the octopus on Ringo’s doorstep:
It will have to do. Anyway, we stopped at a number of places relevant to the Beatles, many of which found their way into Beatles songs:
We also noticed a lot of places that, in turn, were named after Beatles songs:
The tour finally ended at the Cavern Club, where the Beatles performed 292 times between 1961 and 1963 before their popularity began to soar through the roof (which is pretty high, since the Cavern Club is actually about three flights of stairs underground). Luckily, there was actually a John Lennon impersonator performing that night, who looked like Lennon in his later days (well, maybe not so chubby) and sounded much like him too:
He took requests, but got annoyed when people kept asking for songs written by Paul (“Yesterday,” “Blackbird,” “Hey Jude”). In retaliation (and to “get it out of our system”), he played a seven-minute medley combining all the songs from the 1973 Paul McCartney and Wings album, “Band on the Run.” Luckily, I came to the rescue and requested a John song (“Girl”), where he thanked me repeatedly. I write all of this with a heavy heart, as today is actually the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon’s death, when he was shot in the back four times by some jerk I will refuse to name (since his desire to become famous was part of the reason he shot Lennon in the first place). There will actually be a concert to John’s memory today outside of his old high school, and I’m sad that exams forced me to plan my trip earlier so that I’m missing it (damn priorities!).
Anyway, now that I probably Beatled you out, I then hopped on bus to go eastward into Manchester (map: http://bit.ly/dN697X). Manchester was mostly built in the 19th century during the industrial revolution, and as such it doesn’t have much of the history that I enjoy (if you couldn’t tell by now). One of the interesting things was that the city was built upon (and named after) a 1st century Roman fort called Mamucium. The north wall of the fort has been reconstructed in its original spot:
Another notable fact about Manchester (and you can tell I’m reaching here) is, due to its predominance during the Industrial Revolution, the first passenger train station in the world was build there, linking the city with Liverpool and the sea. The station is now a museum that hosts a lot of old trains and other means of transportation:
Trains, planes, and automobiles! Anyway, I really didn’t find Manchester all that interesting. I mainly used it as a stopping-point before I continued eastward into Leeds (map: http://bit.ly/frMc9l). Unlike Liverpool and Manchester, which are in the historical region of Lancashire, Leeds is in the western portion of Yorkshire. Shires used to be the main unit of administrative divisions in medieval England, when hobbits were running around, singing songs, and throwing rings into volcanoes. Now shires have less political significance, but it’s still a way for people to identify themselves by location (“Where are you from?” “I’m from Yorkshire!”). Lancashire and Yorkshire actually have a bit of a rivalry mainly because of the 15th century conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, when the Houses of Lancaster and York fought each other for control of the English throne. While the war really had nothing to do with the regions surrounded by Lancaster (Lancashire) and York (Yorkshire) than it did two cousin-branches of the same family squabbling with each other over who was more qualified to rule, it has still taken up a significance so that a matchup between the football (soccer) teams of Manchester United and Leeds United is called, “The War of the Roses.” Luckily, I was able to see one of those teams in action for myself:
This is Elland Road, home of the Leeds United Association Football Club. I was able to see them take on Crystal Palace, a team from the south section of London, when I visited the place on Saturday. It was certainly an interesting experience, much different than any sort of game I’ve been to in the States. Obviously, I was surrounded by Leeds United fans, but the reserved visitor section was just to the right of us, and it was full with (in my opinion) rather obnoxious Crystal Palace supporters. What was really fun was when the Crystal Palace fans began to sing their team’s fight song, the Leeds United people around me would stand up, face the opposing fans, and sing their fight song even louder to drown everything else out. There was also a lot of name calling and hand gestures being flung around that I don’t care to repeat in this blog (got to keep it classy, folks).
Anyway, the game itself was pretty good, although it didn’t seem like it was going to be. Leeds United actually scored in the first two minutes, but it was called off thanks to a late offsides call. That actually happened two more times for Leeds until Crystal Palace scored a goal that actually counted, despite a possible offsides there. It was 1-0 for the longest time (many of the Leeds fans were getting really antsy) until ten minutes left, when they were finally able to tie the game. The fans went nuts, but then they went even more nuts less than two minutes later when Leeds scored another goal to go up 2-1:
Unfortunately, due to where I was seated, I couldn’t get a good picture of the action going on in the game. I was positioned right behind the south goal, but all three goals in the game were scored on the other side of the field. Even when there was something happening on my side, I had to pay close attention, since a ball could be kicked into the crowd at any time (one of them actually grazed the tips of my fingers as I reached my arms up to get it), and I was paranoid that it would hit my camera and break it (and there goes all my Beatles pictures! No!). But it was still a great game and a great experience (certainly better than watching soccer on television…*snore*), and I was happy the home team finally came away with the victory. I wished I had more time to explore Leeds in full (there’s a lot of history and culture there), but it wasn’t long before I had to catch my bus back to Liverpool John Lennon Airport and spend a long, sleepless night there (you’d think with the whole “Bed-In” thing he and Yoko did that there would be some comfy couches and chairs to sleep on).
So there was my voyage to England, and my final adventure of the semester. It makes me a little sad because, essentially, my study abroad experience is over (since all I have left to experience are stupid final exams). However, I think I’ll be quite happy to come back home and get back to what I’m used to (my family and friends, my dog, the right side of the road, the dollar, the non-accents, peanut butter). I think I’ll have one more blog entry coming up after I return to the States, summarizing my trip, pointing out my favorite parts, and detailing the positives and negatives of my experience. Thanks to all of those who have been reading and keeping track (or stalking, if you prefer) of what I’ve been up to here in the Emerald Isle and beyond! Beidh mé abhaile go luath!
No comments:
Post a Comment