It's Been a Hard Day's Night

If you've ever seen my iTunes, you'll know I have a rather eclectic taste in music. Naturally this means I love the classics, so my play list would be incomplete without the Beatles. And even though I wasn't alive for Beatlemania, I've always been a big fan of the Fab Four and I jumped at the chance to visit their hometown of Liverpool this past weekend.

I woke up at an ungodly hour (here came the sun through my window at 6am, so I dragged myself out of bed. Give me a break — it's not like I'm used to getting up that early eight days a week). After sitting on a bus for about four hours, it was a good day, sunshine as we finally made it to the hostel. Bill took us on another one of his infamous walks before we went on the Magical Mystery Tour, which gave us a glimpse at a day in the life of the boys. We saw the birthplaces and homes of Ringo, George, John & Paul, the church where the group would come together, Penny Lane (the infamous long and winding road), Strawberry Fields (which went on forever), the cemetery where Eleanor Rigby was buried, the Hard Day's Night hotel (the only Beatles-themed hotel in the world) and even the Cavern Club (where the group played countless times). It was really interesting and we really lucked out with the weather too — it didn't rain at all!

When we got home to the hostel, we freshened up and took a quick power nap before heading out to Her Majesty's Philharmonic, a pub that the Beatles frequented. We had to wait for a table, but it was well worth it. I had trouble deciding on something, but I finally settled on a glass of white wine and the chicken and mushroom risotto, which was fantastic! Because we were only there one night and it's not like you get to go to Liverpool any time at all, we decided to head back to the Cavern Club for some drinks and dancing. We got a bit lost, but with a little help from our friends, we eventually found the club.

The night just kept getting better, as the music and atmosphere of the club didn't let me down. While we were listening to the band's guitars gently weep, we met some local Liverpudlians (seriously — that's what they're called!) and sang along to some classics like 'I am the Walrus', 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' and 'Hey Jude'. I'm a loser, so I knew every word to all the songs, but it was loads of fun. When he took a break, we kept chatting with the locals, but we needed help deciphering every little thing they said, as they had really thick accents. It wasn't long before the next band got up to play and with a devil in our hearts, we decided to act naturally and dance! We stayed for a while, but soon it was 1am and though it had only been a short while since we said 'Hello', goodbyes were in order. When we got home, we promptly crashed in our bunkbeds at the hostel. Not too much monkey business, but overall, we had fun and it was a good night.

Our alarms greeted us with a good morning, good morning around 7:30 and, after we fought for the shower (eight girls, one shower is a bad combination any way you slice it), we met Bill to walk to the Beatles Story museum. After a lengthy walk to the Albert Docks, we went inside and were each handed an audio set for a self-guided tour. There was a ton of memorabilia and some really interesting stories, including those of the two former Beatles: drummer Pete Best and bass player Stuart Sutcliffe. And do you want to know a secret? Even though I'm a big Beatles fan, I never knew about Sutcliffe before. The exhibit was complete with a huge yellow submarine, a life-size cut out of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover and a tribute to Lennon: his picture and glasses on a white piano with the lyrics to 'Let it Be' written on the wall.


Afterwards, a group of us went exploring around Liverpool: the Albert Docks, back to the Cavern Club and Pub (we wanted to get some photos) and stopped at a great panini place for lunch (the name of it is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't think of it right now). By 3pm, we had reached the end of our time in Liverpool and hopped back on the bus for the journey home. I listened to the Beatles the whole way home and even watched 'Across the Universe' yesterday just for kicks. But after all that and writing this entry, I'm pretty much all Beatlemania-ed out. And I'm guessing you are too.*

Cheers,
Kathy


*If you're not all Beatle-ed out, see if you can find all the Beatles song titles in the entry. I had fun trying to fit in as many as I could. (Hint: there are 45 total)
**Photos in this entry:
Top: The infamous Strawberry Fields in Liverpool.
Middle: The Cavern Club, where the Beatles played countless times.
Bottom: From left to right, Sara, Celia, Me and Randi at Penny Lane.