The Scottish coast is stuuning

 It is travel day. We have already begun the fiasco. It's 945 am. We have to leave the airbnb at 10. We get a notification that (WAIT FOR IT!!) the train is cancelled!! So it's only canceled to out train transfer point. So you are thinking get a ticket to the transfer point and continue on your merry way. 

I looked at at later trains  - sold out. I thought I better getter get another train quick with the way this is going. I'm sure it's chaos at the ticket counter. So I booked it thinking I'll get a refund for the first one.

So the new one is at 235 pm. We have a 3 hour wait. We are perched on the 2nd floor of Picadilly looking at people scurrying around.

SCHREEEEECCCHHHHH!!! Stop the blog! I take back whatever I have said about the rail system. This 4.5 hour train was some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Starting with rolling hills of wheat fields and pastureland with cows, sheep and horses to the beautiful Scottish coastline, it was otherworldly. 

We travelled along the coast for probably an hour and a half of the trip. Gorgeous cliffs and beaches. Pretty coastal towns.

I was thinking what it must be like to live on a big hill with the ocean view on one side and rolling green hills dotted with trees on the other side. A paradise.

Ode to the northern quarter, Manchester

 Goodbye Mani. Goodbye to very slow trams that I grew to like because it showed me the city. 

Goodby northern quarter. You are one of those run down neighborhoods the cool kids find. They start going to the pubs and making them hip. They open vintage clothing shops. Coffee places start popping up. Little funky businesses rent shops that are dirt cheap. For now. 

Pretty soon the artists and cool kids start renting the cheap apartments even though the neighborhood is still iffy. Because it looks rundown, it still keeps a lot of people away. For now.

Street art starts appearing, a lot it is really good. Music spots start opening. More people are showing on weekends. It becomes THE place to be. 

Other people start finding out about this quirky, funky neighborhood. Weekends start to be really busy. More and more “normal” shops appear. It is written up in the paper as the next trendy place.

Then it happens…tourists appear with their iPhones taking selfies in front of the David Bowie mural.

 The northern quarter is now TRENDY. Uh oh.

UK Train fiasco # 129 in which I tear half of my hair out

Sit back and get your popcorn , this is a long story.

 The UK train system is expansive and efficient if you know what you are doing. We don’t know what we’re doing.

We decided to make the 27 mile trip to Liverpool. It’s one of those places everyone has heard about because of the you know who’s. 

So okay, no big deal. We’ll go directly from Eccles to Liverpool. Eccles train station is very small consisting of 2 platforms on either side of two tracks. There is one guy in a very small ticket booth. 

So I had bought what I thought were two tickets online the day before. For some reason I couldn’t get an e ticket so I printed them at another station the day before. I got two tickets or so I thought. Ah,no, it was a ticket and a receipt. Called them and they told me to call another number to straighten it out. I decided to buy another ticket instead and print it at the station. It wasn’t that much money.

So tried to print it and it didn’t work. Went to guy in the booth and he printed it. We asked him what side we go to and he said platform 2. Went that way and there was a “to Liverpool” sign . Great.

Go down the stairs and notice an electronic sign says train to Liverpool is at 11:37 but our ticket is for 11:15. Huh? We asked a person there does this go to oxford road, our first stop and they said no, it’s across to the other side. Well it’s like 11:14, so we rush up the stairs, down the stairs to the other side just as the train pulling in. Turns out our train goes into Manchester before going to Liverpool. 

Now for some reason there are two train changes on this 30 mile trip. First one goes smoothly. Have 9 minutes to make the change. The train is 3 -4 minutes late (ding ding ding warning!) So we come to the next change and pull in late. We get off and notice people start running in the direction of our new platform. So we start moving quickly the half mile(!) to the other platform. As we are coming down the four flights of stairs the train pulls in. We barely made the train.

So okay La dee dah spent a few hours in Liverpool. We have etickets for way home. We go to the place where we scan into the station. Doesn’t work…. Ask staff there WTF? They tell us we have to go to another station a few blocks away. We drag our sorry butts over there. 

It turns out that even though our tickets were from Liverpool Central on the itinerary, we were supposed to walk to Lime street station from Central. Who in the #%~$&@ has walking as part of the ticket?!

We were way early, having had more time because the original time on the ticket gave you 20 minutes to get there to Lime street but it was a 5 minute walk. So we got on this train and there were no train changes home and we lived happily every after. The end.

Moral of the story: look at your tickets closely before using them.

Beatles rule Liverpool and make people a few bucks too

 So today we went to Liverpool, home of “Ladies and gentlemen the Beatles!” (Their first appearance on Ed Sullivan show in 1964). I was nine when they played on Ed Sullivan.

This is Beatles town. There are Beatles stores, Beatles restaurants. There are Beatles bus tours called the “Magical Mystery tour” in which you can visit where they played before they were famous, John, Paul and Ringos childhood homes, where they went to school, etc.  I hear they stop where Ringo used the toilet once. Har.

There are Beatles museums. I imagine there are old guitar,

lyric sheets, clothing, etc. One place has an ashtray with a cigarette that was actually smoked by John Lennon on May 6, 1965.

Here’s an interesting fact; “ After a 2008 topiary tribute to the Beatles was unveiled in Liverpool, Ringo’s leafy head was cut off after he said he missed nothing about his hometown”.

You might think I don’t like Liverpool. I loved it! Especially the waterfront. Oh and I love the Beatles Who doesn’t?

Manchester Temple bar is in the toilet

 Manchester is the greatest place! It is down to earth, funky weird. It would take a long time to explore it all. 

Here’s a unique part of the city. It’s called the Temple bar. It is an underground bar (literally). It looks like you are going down into the subway but it’s a bar. The thing is this was a Victorian toilet for 100 years! 

It’s very popular, especially with musicians. It’s very small and intimate “encouraging you to make friends and talk to people near you”. Two dozen people can fit in here and that’s pushing it. It supposed to have the best jukebox in the city, many songs from popular local bands.  According to local reviews “it’s not crap”. Bada bing.

There is a unisex toilet. They say you don’t have bring your phone in there because the walls are covered in graffiti to keep you entertained. Only in Manchester.

Mens hair is fading in Manchester

 All young men here seem to have the same haircut. It’s kind of like the are in a cult or something. It’s called a fade. It consists of shaved hair on the sides and longer hair on top. 

So some men have straight hair that is fairly long that that use gel or something to have combed back. It stays like that! That amazes me. My very short hair is fine and thick. I lays flat. I always try to give myself sort of a ultra hipster tousled look on top. (!) It never works no matter what I try. It goes flat. Maybe superglue would work.

There are so many barber shops here. It seems like more than hair salons. Maybe they are just more noticeable, I don’t know. I guess mens hair upkeep is very important.

When we walk to the tram station every day, we pass a very small barber shop. It’s open 7 days a week. There is one guy. He’s there everyday. I guess he never takes a day off. Busy chap.

The world of hair is a very profitable one. From men and their fades,etc., to women and their braids, haircuts, highlights, baylages (really have no idea what that is but sounds good so I threw it in), lots of money is being made.

Las Vegas in Manchester England

 I found a place that could be found in Las Vegas. It is called the Trafford palazzo. It is a huge shopping center made up to look like a Roman palazzo. 

I’ve seen pictures of the Venetian in Las Vegas which looks a lot fancier but it’s kind of a similar effect without the canal. I’ve never actually been to Las Vegas.

Other than the theme of a palazzo it’s a regular mega mall. There is part of it in the food that is made to look like bourbon street in New Orleans. The mall has everything you would ever want.

Other than that we went back to the center to people watch at a table outside Starbucks. We did the same thing the previous Saturday and it was fun. So many different kinds of people going by. There are a couple of popular hipster bars down the block so it's busy. 

Groups of people come young women out looking for young men and vice versa. Couples all dressed up. A few rich people. A Lamborghini went by. It fun to see how people dress. Boring ordinary a running dress to punk to designer, you see everything. There was a hen (bachelorette) party of about 40 across the street.

Observing people is probably one of the most interesting part of this trip.