Liverpool, England

Last week Jason and I attended another football game, and this time it was in Liverpool, England. They played the Tottenham Hotspurs from outside of London. We were able to get these tickets from the same teammate who we went with to Manchester. Jason and I drove in early for the game to check into the hotel and see part of the city. Liverpool is on the western coast of England and a little further south compared to Newcastle. The trip took about 3 hours to get over to Liverpool.

Driving into town was pretty interesting. When we drove in there were several streets we drove down where all the houses were boarded up like you'll see in the pictures below.

What was nice about it though is someone had gone through and painted pictures on the boards. Though the city still looks pretty rough and run down.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn down at Albert Dock in Liverpool. It was a nice hotel that had been redone from an old warehouse. This is the view from our window.

Just outside our hotel down at Albert Dock. If you look closely there is a ferris wheel between the red buildings.

Another view of the docks.

Jason enjoying his huge Peroni beer before dinner.

We took a public bus to the game because it was alot cheaper. Like £6 total for us compared to a taxi ride which maybe would have cost £20 each way. Plus we got to mingle with the locals!haha yeah right, we're in Liverpool (this is a rough city from what I've been told!)

Here's a picture right outside the stadium. It literally backs up from all sides right into neighborhoods. So we really couldn't get a picture of the whole stadium from the outside.

Everyone was taking a picture in front of this statue. Pretty sure this is an old manager for the club. The sign said Bill Shankly "He made the people happy." I must say my pose was the most creative compared to the others :)

We met John the Tottenham Hotspurs fan at this local pub before the game. This pub is known as the away team pub before Liverpool games. And let me tell you it was crazy in there!

The pub was called Arkles Pub.

Inside before the game.

This pub was jam packed with people. You could hardly move around as you can see.

We found a huge group of guys busy throwing back Carlsbergs and

chanting all these Tottenham Hotspur chants. It was hilarious to listen to, but at the same time very difficult to understand at times. Crazy I know but sometimes I need an English interpreter to understand people over here! Here is a CCTV van. Might not mean anything to you all, but they love this stuff over here. You always see signs like you're on CCTV camera! Watch out!

Inside the stadium there were some huge banners being pulled around the stadium. Cool to look at, but not sure I'd like to be under it! :)

These banners were HUGE! Did I tell you that?!

Both teams coming out onto the pitch, that's British talk for field.

Kick-off, Liverpool in red and Tottenham in white.

More views of Anfield Stadium

Jason and me, and some random guy...can you get out of our picture!

After the game. Liverpool won 2-0. We got to see a penalty shot too right in front of us. Great game to see, but second game we've seen Tottenham play and they've lost both! Starting to think we're bad luck!

Outside the stadium after the game.

The next day we walked around town to see the sights. Liverpool Bay is behind us and it feeds out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Another picture of us.

There were a bunch of free museums to go to around Albert Dock. This place showed what a wartime house looked like during WWII and how they had to hide during the air strikes. Liverpool was a hot spot to bomb because at the time England relied alot on importing and since this was a big shipping area, it was bombed frequently.

Another museum we attended. Jason the former Mona Shores Sailor was excited to take his picture with this anchor. Apparently this was once used on a ship in Liverpool.

That's British for duck!

Jason trying to blend in with the props! This museum had several different areas, but this room showed us about how Liverpool was also a major city where immigrants left out of to travel over to the US. Here is what the inside of a boat would look like for the immigrants. Very bare and not private what so ever.

There also was a Titanic museum that was very interesting. The Titanic was actually built in Belfast, however there are many ties the ship has to Liverpool. Most of the crew including the Captain were all from Liverpool (about 1 in 10). Also the famous musicians who continued to play to try to calm the passengers down were also from Liverpool. (That was not just a part in the movie, but actually did happen!)

Albert Dock

We also went to the Beatles Museum. Liverpool is home to the Beatles!

The museum included audio and told the story of how they met and their journey over the years.

The tour included a bunch of neat exhibits. Here is Jason taking the flight over with the Beatles the first time they came to the States.

The Yellow Submarine!

Belfast, Northern Ireland

This past Sunday the Vipers played the Belfast Giants, so Carolina and I decided to head over with the boys to see their game and see Northern Ireland. We took an easy jet flight that cost £40 pounds round trip, so around $64 round trip. Not bad!

Arriving into Belfast Airport.

Belfast city hall and another ferris wheel here!

Inside one of the oldest pubs in Belfast. It's called the Crown.

The pub actually had individual booths with doors to make it more private. And back in the day people would be in these booths, ring the bell behind us and the waitress would come and take orders.

The outside of one of the booths.

The booths were labeled A-J and when you rang the bell your letter would light up indicating which booth needed something.

Outside the pub.

The Europa hotel, and also the most bombed hotel in all of Europe. And no we didn't go inside. Kept our distance. :)

It's the most bombed hotel because it's very nice and expensive and where many politicians and famous/important people stay when they visit Belfast. And with all the fighting going on over here, it's an easy target. During our black taxi tour our guide told us that the IRA are usually the ones to bomb it!

Another old pub with Titanic memorabilia in it.

Inside the pub. The walls behind show some of the items saved from the Titanic.

Carolina and I at the rink in Belfast.

Jason's team actually only played with 11 players because of injuries and people leaving the team! So going into the game we thought we were going to get killed. You can see our bench was pretty much empty!

You can see the difference in bench depth! Plus Belfast is a really good team, so we weren't sittin' very pretty!

Since the odds were so against us, Carolina and I made a little wager that the boys were going to lose by at least 2 goals. We thought we were actually going to win that bet when at the end of the first period we were already losing 0-3. However, going into the third period we had come back a bit and were only losing by one goal. Then in the third period we scored to tie it up thanks to Ryan Mahrle Carolina's husband. We then went into overtime and won in shoot out where Jason scored the winning goal! We were so excited and surprised by the outcome, and learned a very important lesson. Don't ever bet against your husband because in the end they'll (pardon my french), but "F" you over!haha

I must say I was worried to tell Jason that I bet against him. However, he wasn't mad and actually said he would have taken that same bet! All the Vipers fans were so excited after the game!

The team's man of the match usually gets a case of beer for after the game, and the Vipers gave the fans their winning case of Carlsberg beer, how nice!

After the game we met the boys at this cool hockey pub that is owned by a former Canadian hockey player who used to play for the Belfast Giants.

Carolina on her tip toes because yes she's alot shorter than me and I always have to bend down for her in pictures!The happy Jason after the game!

Big fish we walked by on our way back to the hotel.

The next day we took a black taxi tour of the city of Belfast. Our tour guide's name was Joe and his tour of the city was very eye opening and educational. Joe is Catholic so his tour was told from his point of view, however, after the trip we realized how interesting it would then be if we could have that same tour but with a Protestant tour guide. The tour began by showing us murals painted around the city depicting how the Catholics have been treated over the years.

More murals on the street with barbed wire over the top.

Inside one of the many remembrance gardens the Catholics have built for all the lives lost over the years due to the unrest in the city.

You can tell you are on the Catholic side because you will see Irish flags flying. Another way to tell is if you see the colors green and orange, which indicate the Catholic side. The Catholics want to be with the Republic of Ireland, so that's why they fly their flag overhead. Northern Ireland, however, is still part of the United Kingdom.

A mural painted outside the Sinn Fien of an important man who died during a hunger strike. The Sinn Fien is related to the Catholic side.

Another Catholic garden that backs up to the Protestant side.

This is a Catholic house backing up to the "Peace Wall" dividing the two communities. You can see the huge fence about 20feet tall and how their house is barred and protected in case someone throws something over the fence.

Another view. You can see how close the Catholic side backs up to the wall.

We are now on the Protestant side and you can see there is a wide space from where the houses are compared to the wall.

People started writing things on the wall and put where they are from and Carolina found this...thought it was pretty funny, and notice how someone also put in Obama, but then it got crossed out!

Another view from the Protestant side. This fence is 3miles long.

Now over on the Protestant side. They have murals painted on their walls and sides of houses as well. Our driver took us across to the other side, which he is allowed to do, but you could tell he was more nervous compared to when we were on the Catholic side. He also would not get out of the car when we made stops. He told us that he only comes over here for tours, and other than that never. People stay on their side because if they come over trouble could start for them pretty quickly. He said if he went into a bar alone on the Protestant side someone would recognize right away that he is not from that neighborhood. They would ask if he was waiting for someone and if he was and could name a Protestant person he could stay, but if not they'd ask him to leave immediately. He said there used to be signs on buildings on the Protestant side saying "No Blacks, Irish, or Catholics allowed."

More murals. And notice the British flag on the right. The Protestant side will fly the British flag and display the colors red and blue.

Our tour guide also pointed out how much more violent their murals are compared to the Catholic ones.

The Protestant murals were scarier and displayed pictures like this. This sniper is painted on someone's house! And no matter where you walk it follows you...

Pretty creepy!

They paint these murals to show people their history and they want others to see them so they can understand what they've been through. It was so interesting to see all these.

A garden set up on the Protestant side to remember people on their side that had died.

Still on the Protestant side.

More murals with gunmen.

Heading back into the Catholic side. This is one of the streets that crosses through the communities. If there is any trouble that starts up. The first thing they do is close these gates.

One last memorial we went by that shows more Catholics that have been killed by the Protestants. This wall was covered with preople's pictures and under each person it says Murdered in big red letters. Really sad to look at.

After our tour we decided to get some lunch and hang out. We took the boys to where we had eaten lunch the other with the Viper fans.

Carolina really liked this sign so another photo shot!

We took the boys back to the Crown pub, and here's Ryan testing out the doorbell.

Here's creepy looking into our booth! :)

Inside our booth.

Dinner time! I know the picture looks gross, but it's Irish Stew and so good!

Jason, Carolina, and Ryan

Carolina and me

On the bottoms of our seats in our taxi were signs for Mississippi! Can you believe it, we travel all the way over here and out of all the states they are advertising for MS!haha Shout to all those reading this blog all the way down in the Sip! Miss you! And you can see the Biloxi lighthouse.

The Mahrles, Joe (our tour guide), and the Tejchmas