Julia’s Journical

After leaving the Ferry from the Channel Crossing we caught a train to London. We had had about 4 hours sleep each. Our hostel was near Kings Cross station. The station that is famous for Platform 9 3/4.

We were going to go through but there were a bunch of teenage muggles hanging around running at the wall and we didn’t want to draw attention to oursevles.

Our hostel was Journeys Kings Cross, and was terrible. Our room was about 12m square and had 17 people in it in triple layer bunk beds. There was garbage all over the floor and no space to put baggage. Our friends, Cassie and Jimmy stayed at the hostel, in the same room as us. The common room was a basement with really low ceilings, nasty and loud radio being pumped through the speakers and a horrible musty smell. Don’t stay there.

Lindsay was at a conference most of out time in London. As was Cassie. She took one afternoon to give me a guided tour of the British Museum and educated me on the ways the museum has acquired certain pieces. I was blown away by some of the dirty things that the museum had done but also by Cassie’s amazing amount of knowledge of ancient history!

she translated this for me, Cassie! what did it say? I forgot!

On our last day in London Lindsay and I caught a ferry from Tower Hill Pier to Greenwich so we could check out the markets.

It was a hot day and lovely out on the water

we passed under the Tower Bridge

The markets were awesome, so many beautiful things which we wanted but didn’t need. We bought some yummy food and went and had a picnic. Blueberry iced tea

and coconut mousse
which lindsay found challenging to eat

Attention Time Team Watchers:
Did they do a dig in front of this building?

After eating we walked up the hill to where the median line is
The view of London was pretty amazing,

Lindsay was overwhelmed

We observed Japanese girls run screaming down the hill

Then walked over to huge line of people waiting to have their photo taken in front of the big round thing with the pointy bit

We didn’t have time to wait…sad panda

Lindsay and I made it back to the Ferry with only minutes to spare!
Once we arrived back in London we made our way to convent garden to meet up with Tess. Lindsay made friends with her when his plane was delayed in LA last year. We went with her to an Arabian nights themed cafe where we drank delicious mocktails and talked about our crazy families. (yes mum, you are crazy, its true) It was lots of fun and Tess was really really nice.

The next morning we caught a train to Liverpool. We had seats booked on each leg. On the 2nd part of the trip we boarded the train and found a man had stored his suitcases on our reserved seats. We asked him politely if he would move them, upon hearing our Australian accents he gave us a dirty look and continued to send us greasys the rest of the trip *Awkward* I suggested that Lindsay wink at the man suggestively. 

We arrived in Liverpool, the home of the Beatles. We found our hostel, Hatters, the rooms were awesome! With very comfortable beds.

The view from our room

With no kitchen we had microwave food. We then made friends with the American guy in the room next to us. He told us how wonderful America is, we told him how wonderful scotland is.

Our first morning in liverpool Lindsay and I walked up to the Liverpool Catholic Cathedral, it was designed and built in the 1950s-1960s. Our new American friend told us his theory that the cathedral was designed by someone on LSD, we could see his point. 
From the outside, it looked rather unusual.

The inside was breathtaking.

It was quite modern in its design with lots of stained glass creating a magical light. It almost made me want to go to church again. Almost.

We the made our way past this concrete sculpture of the Beatles Luggage.

Our next stop was the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral,

on the inside it looked like your average cathedral…but with wifi and a cafe!? and this interesting statue which I found…interesting…

Lindsay and I spent the afternoon and next day at the Liverpool Maritime Museum. It was warm and dry inside the musuem.

They had exhibitions on the slave trade, immigration, border control, customs and Titanic. Also a large exhibition on the war for the Atlantic, the navy’s involvement of WW1 and WW2 as well as the underground gay sailor community. It was fascinating.
They had an old cannon which Lindsay insisted on sitting on for a photo. (when I say he insisted, I actually mean I forced him)

Our last evening in Liverpool I was sitting alone in the Dining room when a man I had spoken to on our first night came over to me and started talking to me. He had a heavy Irish accent and spoke very fast about anal tracking devices, vaccinations causing people to enter a game where they can win billions of pounds. He handed me a pamphlets and said I could show 5 people OR everyone that I know. Evidence of my ability to attract mentally unstable people. My ever supportive mother said “crazy attracts crazy” cheers mum.