So Tuesday Nov 29: I donated my bouquet of roses to the yha, I hope James is taking good care of it!! I went to st Georges hall first thing that morning after I checked out cause I was switching hostels for the night. It is very big and had nice Christmas lights on the front. So I went in and checked out the exhibits. It used to be a holding cell area, so I saw the cells, and the court and judges room. There was also a Liverpool parks photo exhibit, taken by local amateurs, for a photo comp. I hope Leeds has the same for their in bloom comp and mike and my photos are selected!! So as I was walking thru the halls some real weird guy who clearly had some screws loose kept talking to me, despite me backing away slowly. He was only being friendly, telling me about some local people and buildings and about new camera technology, but I wasn't in the mood to humor any crazies, so I just said I was going to finish seeing the hall and I went into the next room, then waited a few minutes and went back to the exhibit and continued where I left off. So the interior was really beautiful, but the tour route didn't lead to the concert hall so I went to the reception desk and asked if the hall was about to be viewed, and the cute guy said no because a show was going on. We talked for a bit more but then I left. It was really downpouring so I went back inside to put my rain gear on and I got biscuit (lunch) crumbs on the floor, so I asked hottie if there was a garbage pail. He Said "a what?" And I said "garbage pail" and he asked if I was visiting from America. So the convo started and I really wanted to ask him out, being as this was my last night in Liverpool but I thought it wasn't appropriate given he was at work. So I left, in the rain, and went back to the museum of Liverpool to finish the exhibit I saw on Friday. After that I went to the open eye gallery which has temporary contemporary art exhibits. The main one I really liked, it showed photos of how humans clash with nature in the USA, and how people in Ohio were evicted to make way for like a power plant or something, and they were paid to keep hush hush from authorities. It was real moving. So after that I went to the yha to pick up my stuff and then ride to the everton hostel which was outside of the city. Literally as soon as i left it started raining so I again went to put my rain gear on and it started to hail!! Luckily neither one lasted long. I did go the wrong way and had to stop and ask for directions, but I found it shortly after. When I checked in and went to my room I walked in on an Italian couple kissing. I thought oh no this is going to be a long night. I got talking to them and the guy used to be a competitive biker. They were real nice. So I showered and did my laundry finally!! It was free! So after all that I went downstairs to the tv room, there was a cute boy speaking to another boy in some language I couldn't understand, I thought maybe they were German so I asked where he was from and they were scousers!! That was a bit of a turn off but I talked to them anyway, and also to a guy from pennsylvania. I could tell scouser boy was interested in me, but he was drinking and smoked and was just a typical scouse so I totally wasn't interested. So after the man city game I went to bed early so I could catch an early train to birkenhead. I don't know if the Italians got up the anything but I was sound asleep the whole night! So to sum up Liverpool: the xmas lights were nice, the shopping center was a bit mad but not as bad as Manchester. The nightlife was lacking during the week days, and the whole time the weather was a bit crap cause it rained a lot and was always windy. They do have the most museums & galleries outside of london though, but overall I like Manchester better. I would have possibly preferred to have not met up with so many people from Manchester, that way I could have potentially made new friends in Liverpool, but either way I enjoyed myself so I don't regret it. Wednesday Nov 30: I got up pretty early to leave and catch the train to birk. There was a Spaceport center at seacombe dock and also the wirral museum in the town hall so I wanted to make the most out of those opening times. When I got to the lime st station I couldn't find birkenhead on any of the screens so I had to ask someone at the ticket counter where the train was. Apparently it had its own separate track, but there were no signs making it obvious. the trains ran very frequently so I got to birkenhead central in no time. I did however get lost going to seacombe but I found my way after asking for directions :-) after all the trouble I went thru to get there it was closed! I was "gutted" cause it looked real fun by their website. So I went to the town hall and there was a demonstration of sorts going on outside, not much of a turn out, but I'm sure the population of Birk isn't exactly comparable to london. So I enter the town hall but the guard tells me the museum part is closed due to the strike. So I ran out of places to see, so I decided to head to port sunlight, a small town where Michael recommended I go to. So I went there (left bhead at 11:33 am, already did 8.03 mi), it was quite pretty, there was an avenues of trees, sculptures and a park. I went to the museum, which was small but told the history of sunlight soap and its inventor, lord lever. The ticket price also included a self guided tour around the town so since lady lever art gallery was also closed due to the damn strike I did that tour. As I was walking around I heard someone on a megaphone chanting something, I assume it had something to do with the strike. About half way thru the tour it started to rain, my booklet got drenched and started to fall apart! Amazingly, I saw someone else doing the walking tour! He was from new Zealand. It was only a quick chat cause we were at different points in the tour so we went our separate ways. So at 3:04 pm I left port sunlight and made my way to Chester. This was the first time that it rained on me for a considerable duration of my journey. It had stopped by the time I left PS, but for the last hour or so of my trek, it rained, not too hard though. And of course once I got to Chester center I had issues finding the hostel, but my gps pointed me in the right direction. So I found my hostel, arrived at 5:35 pm, did 26 miles total, max 20.5 mi, avg 7.5 mph (11.43 mi on odo when I left port sunlight) and when the owner answered the door he was quite bewildered that I came on bike. He was like "what are you doing cycling this time of year!?" And I didn't feel like explaining so I just said its not as busy!! But he was nice, when I was in the kitchen eating dinner he and his wife were giving me ideas on where to go and how to get there. I had the dorm to myself which was quite a change from Liverpool so I was very happy not to be woken up by anyone but me!! So I went to bed a bit after and it was nice and quiet (other than the backpackers sign that was hanging right outside my window, which was squeaking when it was being blown in the wind). Ok ill call it quits now and hopefully tomorrow will be another productive night!
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