Liverpool and INTERNET!

Dear friends,

I’m back in Nevers after a great week in Liverpool, which I found to be a really fun city and really enjoyed. It’s a big city, but it has a very manageable city center and it’s a good place for wandering, something I always like. Because Kathryn (the cousin I visited there) had class during the day while I was there, I had plenty of time to see the sights, and I think I managed to get through quite a few – I saw the Albert Docks, the Tate Liverpool museum, The Beatles Story museum (The Beatles came from Liverpool!), the Victoria Gallery, the Walker Art Gallery, Lark Lane and Sefton Park, the Anglican Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral, a really cute nearby town called Chester, the Merseyside Maritime Museum, and we also went to see a play (The Black Album) and a ballet (Giselle)! I managed to spend an entire week in England in which it only rained on my last night there, something I wasn’t sure was possible and which I think should count as a real achievement.

Liverpool is in the northwest of England, and it has historically been a big port city. It had lots of shipyards back in the day, and so lots of Irish people moved there to work on building the ships. The influence of this migration is still easily found today in the Liverpudlian accent, which I personally think should count as an entirely different language. Liverpudlians (or Scouses, as they’re also known) have a VERY strong accent, to the point that I often had trouble discerning if they were speaking English at all, much less understanding them! They seem to be generally friendly and laid-back though, although the 80s could learn a thing or two about how to tease hair from Scouse girls – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much super-teased hair in one place in my whole life!

More seriously though, Liverpool is a lovely city with lots of pretty architecture, tons of free museums, and many different neighborhoods, all with their own personalities. I spent my first day exploring the area around the Albert Dock, a section of the Liverpool docks that’s been spruced up and now has all sorts of museums (like the Tate Liverpool, The Beatles Story, and the Merseyside Maritime Museum), restaurants, and shopping. It was really nice weather that day, so it was very pleasant to spend the afternoon down by the Mersey (that’s the river that goes through Liverpool, from which all the ships were launched).

Not only did I go to The Beatles Story museum at the Albert Dock, but I also got to see several true Beatles landmarks. While the real Cavern Club, where the Beatles played 294 shows, has been torn down, I walked past where the original entrance was and saw the bar they used to frequent before and after their shows there. I saw the hospital where John Lennon was born (it’s since been converted into a block of apartments), as well as the real Penny Lane! It’s really not a very exciting street at all, but the City of Liverpool has to specially bolt down (and replace!) the street signs there because Beatles fans steal them all the time! Kathryn and I also went for a drink in the Philharmonic Bar, a really cool old pub near the Philharmonic Hall – John Lennon used to go there as well.

Liverpool has two cathedrals, one Anglican and one Catholic, and they actually face each other – they’re at two ends of the same road – interesting, non? I visited both of them, and they’re like night and day. The Anglican Cathedral is absolutely massive (I think it’s one of the biggest Anglican cathedrals in Europe, if not the biggest) and really beautiful, both inside and out. It was designed by the same guy who designed the famous red phone boxes, and I think you can see the resemblance if you look closely enough at the two and think about it. The Catholic Cathedral, on the other hand, is very interesting. It was built in the 1960s, and it really shows. It’s circular and built of concrete, and it kind of looks like a spaceship or something out of Star Wars – you should Google it; it’s really hard to explain. It has a lot of stained glass though, which makes for some really cool light effects inside during the day.

Over the weekend, Kathryn, her flatmate Nina, and I went to Chester, a nearby town, for the morning. It was a really darling little town – there was an open-air market when we went (honestly, it was kind of like being back in France), and we spent the morning wandering through the half-timbered town center and browsing through some of the stores there.
In addition to all the museums I visited, we added a bit of culture to my trip by going to both the theater and the ballet. We got free youth tickets to see a play called The Black Album, which was about an English Pakistani who goes off to university and gets caught up with a group of Islamic fundamentalists, who disapprove of the romantic affair he’s begun with one of his professors. I’m pretty sure I missed some things, but it was interesting, and I enjoyed it. We went to see the English National Ballet perform Giselle on Sunday afternoon – I’d never been to a ballet before, and it was beautiful – I loved it! It made me really excited for Cendrillon (Cinderella), performed by the Geneva Ballet, which a group of us are going to see here in Nevers in a few weeks.

I left Liverpool early Tuesday morning, spent a few hours in Paris, then got the train back to Nevers. Moritz, a friend and fellow language (German) assistant, was on the same train as me, so it was a nice surprise to have some company for the 2-hour trip.

Sarah and I moved into our new apartment on Tuesday afternoon as well, so it was a very busy afternoon, getting all my stuff from the Foyer to the new place. I wish I could describe my new apartment to you all and do it justice, but I think I’ll just have to wait until I get a camera so I can take some pictures – it’s actually like you step back in time about 35 years. Every room has different wallpaper, and calling it vintage is putting it nicely. It’s super funky, and I’m pretty sure the carpet is also original (needless to say, I won’t be going barefoot). I really do like it though – it’s totally furnished and tout équipé (completely fitted-out) with everything we’ll need for the 6 months we have left – an oven, a microwave, all kinds of kitchen utensils, a vacuum, an iron and ironing board, even a TV!

About 5 minutes before I posted this, Sarah and I finally got our internet sorted out - I'm honestly like a kid on Christmas morning, bouncing around and doing all sorts of internet-y things! At first we thought there was a problem with our phone line, then I realized that the neufbox (our wireless router) wasn't actually plugged into the phone jack.. Clearly we're very intelligent!

That’s all for now, sorry for the monster post – j’espère que tout va bien avec vous!