Trip to Liverpool

I made a trip to Liverpool last weekend with Owen and Winson. We stayed over at Owen's in Huyton, which was about 10km from Liverpool.

I have come to associate Liverpool with football since I was young. Coming here finally replace the childhood image with the experience of being there.

A photo taken to intimidate my dad who's an MUFC

Liverpool is an international port city. It is also a city named as the European Capital of Culture.

European Capital of Culture

For a while I couldn't figure out what makes a city a capital of culture. Then I saw weird buildings like a roofless shopping mall called Liverpool One and its funny staircase. I thought, hmm...could these be what they meant? Oh well, maybe it could be other things. One of the pride of this city, other than the football club, is The Beatles. So that's probably them as well.

The Beatles

Roofless concept of Liverpool One

And the weird staircase. Looked like the staircase in Hogwart's School in Harry Potter

When we were taking the train from Huyton to Liverpool, I've only paid £1.45 for a day return ticket. This is the cheapest I've ever paid in the UK. I can't even take the tube with this price! The cost of living in this place surprised me.

When I was in the train, I immediately felt out of place. All passengers in the train were white people! There was not even a black person.

After a while in the City, I soon realised there were many dilapidated buildings in the city. I also remember reading once that Liverpool has one of the highest unemployment rates in the UK! It's really true. Perhaps the main stays of the city are the universities, football and tourism. Other than that, it's quite deprived actually.

I thought this arch is better than the one in London

Okay, the happy stuff. Most of my time in Liverpool were spent going to cathedrals, an exhibition and two museums. When we were at the Liverpool Cathderal, we went up to the top of the tower to have an aerial view of the city. We spotted Blackpool from there. Blackpool is another city north of Liverpool that is known for entertainment.

Liverpool Cathedral

We went to the Metropolitan Cathedral too. It's a Roman Catholic cathedral. It's one of the most modern churches I've ever come across. The interior reminded me of the Shah Alam RC church, only more rounded in this one and the experience just didn't feel "Catholic" at all.

Metropolitan Cathedral

We then proceeded to an exhibition of Le Corbusier. He was a controversial Swiss (then French) architect whose work has influenced many of the things we see today. I can imagine those Pekeliling and San Peng flats that we see in KL are some of those influences of Le Corbusier. Those are the hideous looking flats. There are also uglier ones like a church he designed in Firminy, France which was so disastrous it looked like a pig's snout! When I saw it, I thought, "OMG, what a crime he has done to France!"

After the exhibition, I concluded that anything that's an eyesore is possibly a Le Corbusier!

One of the ugliest things I've ever seen. A church designed by Le Corbusier

We've also visited the Merseyside Maritime and Slavery museum which were at the Albert Dock. I had quite an enlightening tour in the museum. I learnt that the White Star Line which created the Titanic has also created its two twins named Olympic and Britannic. In fact, Titanic is the "second child" in the triplets.

All three of them suffered the same fate. They suffered a tragic death. All were sunk either by war or accident or both! All of them sank just a few years apart from each other. If this is not what we call as "jinxed", I don't know what else to call it!

Owen's parents treated us well. We made a trip to Crosby Beach with his parents on Sunday. It is famous for its one hundred Iron Men figures lined up along the beach and the wind turbines at sea. When I first saw the sculptures, I thought it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen! Naked iron men sculptures standing on the beach and in the sea. How much weirder can that get??

Crosby Beach

One of the iron men in the sea guarding the wind turbines??

The Iron Men

We ended the trip with a lunch at home. Owen's mom cooked us chicken with herb stuffings. The stuffing was really nice and I am trying to find a recipe online to see how to make it afterwards.

The trip was relaxing and entertaining.