Last days in Liverpool

1 Sept 2010

As for the last few days in Liverpool, I realized that I haven't visited the museums at Albert Dock. Due to lack of interest in museums by my other pals, I decided to visit them ALONE. After visiting titanic model and learning a few gay words, I headed home, looking at Albert Dock one last time.

Liverpool dockside.

2 Sept 2010

Tomorrow would be the day me and 2 other friend head out to backpack for Europe. Before I leave UK, I wanted to see Merseyside more, especially Chester. But then, my other pals decided to go on nostalgia trip around Liverpool. I resolved to go even without them. (I usually go with the herd, which caused me to miss many things; but not anymore!) One-man trip to Chester!

Upon arriving at Chester, I took a map from the train station and started exploring. Chester was once a Roman fort named "Castrum". During that time, the town was a major trading port. It lost it's importance once the river got shallow. The town has one of the most complete roman walls.

Anyways, I reached a park full of squirrels, looking for something(?). One even climbed onto me. The large park feels nice and peaceful so I strolled around.

.. and found a partly ruined church(St John the Baptist Church), with bodies stored inside walls such as this:

Inside the church is interesting to see, as it is more than 1000 years old. Tombstones of important people and roman eagle standard can be found inside. And stained glass!!

Next point of interest is the Roman Amphitheater, which is situated at the main road, outside the walls. This amphitheater was discovered when upgrading the main road. It was lying beside the road all along! Excavations are still going on this site.

This is about what would the audiences see a gladiator fighting an animal from the seats.

And just right beside the amphitheater is the wall gate!

Finally, the main highlight of Chester. Inside the city I walked around the town looking at Renaissance buildings, visiting the Roman Museum, and walked above the walls to see the River Dee. I also unknowingly wandered into magistrate building court, which was once used by the Romans too. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera and my smartphone ran out of battery. Therefore I missed a lot of pictures and memories :(

River Dee and the bridge built by Romans.

Roman lock.

What Chester looks like in Roman days.

After Chester, I visited other places such as New Brighton beach, to see the fort, then West Kirby beach, where I walked far out to visit an island only accessible during low tides. Ate a nice Fish&Chip dinner while enjoying the sunset. No photos!! :( By the time I got back to Liverpool, it was dark, and I found that my pals panicked because they couldn't contact me.. Being the last day in UK, I daresay this was the day I enjoyed most during all my days in UK, and comparing the trips I had: Crosby, Whitby, Chatsworth, London, and finally Ireland.... Bye bye UK!

Crosby Beach

12 June 2010 - Crosby

Yesterday was a fine day for me, which is cloudy for most of the day. We planned this trip because we want to go to the beach. The main reason is that we are not sure if the beach is really a 'beach', that's why we are going to check it out.

We took bus 53 at Queens Square at £1.00 on a single way journey. The journey took less than an hour. And so we arrived. The first thing I noticed is the sand dunes stretched across the beach and a whole lot of iron men across the beach. Example:

The thing about the beach is no water activities allowed, because it's muddy and it seems that sometimes the waves are strong. After almost an hour having fun exploring on the beach, we decided to walk down the path that seems endless.

There are benches along the path with small memorial plates to the deceased people of the town. (we ate our lunch while sitting on those benches) We find that at the end of the path is a town called Hightown. Since the bus service ended long ago, we have no choice but to take train which cost us £2.80 back to Liverpool.

Some random photos of our little adventure:

A faraway town can be seen, I put my penny on New Brighton.

The view as seen on top of one of the sand dunes.

Windmills on the sea.

Rolling hills.

Liverpool

The flight from KL to Abu Dhabi was surprisingly more eventful as expected. After watching "The Last Samurai" on the plane, I got bored so me and my friends went to have a nice chat with the cabin crew. I learned quite some interesting tidbits(ok, I admit I'm quite ignorant); more significant ones are like age limits of air steward and stewardess only exist in MAS, not to mention better pays offered by other airlines, or all the food not eaten are thrown away every flight. I also got to know my neighbours, two business admin girls. (Somehow they ended being my neighbours again during the flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester)

Nothing worth noting on the flight from Abu Dhabi to Manchester. I spent most of the time sleeping.

Being the first day at Liverpool, it was a tiring one. As soon as we arrived, we went out to explore the city while attempting to buy some necessities. More accurate description is that we decided to go shopping at Tesco without the knowledge of its location.