Liverpool

Suzie - Today was pretty fantastic!! We began organising our washing with a company called Fresh Laundry who picks up your washing, washes and dries it and delivers it back to you later!! All for £19 😀😀😀 Our hotel has a laundry but at £2 to wash and dry a pair of socks, £4.35 for a T shirt, £2.50 for a pair of undies...well you get the idea so I think not!!

Then we walked into Chester city centre, 10 minutes down the road with items to send back to Australia. Ended up being 3 packages in total which are on their way back! Then we did a little shopping at Mark and Spencer's (love that place, can we bring it back to Australia?!) and Boots.

Then we were on our way to Liverpool for brunch with other Eurovision peeps at this place called Brunchin in Williamson Square - best cheeseburger ever!! Then we explored the Cavern Quarter in Button and Mathew Street"s which are steeped in music history; it was where The Beatles began playing together and has been the site of so many performances.

Afterwards we caught the Liverpool City Explorer bus to explore Liverpool in comfort. Our guide Matt and driver Anne were fantastic!! Matt explained that the train line between Liverpool Lime Street station and Manchester is the oldest purpose built train line in the world, making Line Street station one of the oldest in the world. We saw so many sights including the bombed out church which was bombed in World War II, the Catholic cathedral named Paddy's Teepee given its appearance. We saw Liverpool's Chinatown and it's Baltic Quarter and learnt that the affectionate name for someone from Liverpool - 'Scouser '- comes from a Scandinavian dish 'lobscouse' which is similar to an Irish stew and has red cabbage and can be served with sour cream. It's delicious! So this dish was shortened to 'scouse', so Scouser 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀 The people are kind, warm and friendly. They will help you if you are lost and/or needing help 😀 Same with Chester. What lovely places to be!!

We then went back to the Eurovillage for the last time as tomorrow it's ticketed for the Grand Final. We met Eurovision royalty in Conchita Wurst who won Eurovision for Austria in 2014 and I even got to have a conversation with her which was lovely 😀😀 What an amazing person she is!!! We saw her perform her winning song 'Rise Like A Phoenix', along with Ruslana who won for Ukraine in 2004 with 'Wild Dances'. We also saw Katrina from Katrina and the Waves perform her winning song for the UK from 1997 'Love Shine A Light's and of course 'Walking on Sunshine'.

Ruslana spoke about her country and how the UK has helped Ukraine with their support. Everywhere we are shown which country this Eurovision is for and why. This needs to be shown - this is for Ukraine. I stand with Ukraine.

Nik - We had to take care of a few things this morning, sending our our laundry to be cleaned by a service before going into Chester to send home the gifts and souvenirs we have collected so far. Turned out it was close to 6kg worth and had to be sent home in 3 packages. I have a feeling we might have to do this again before the end of the trip.

We headed into Liverpool then for lunch with a group of fellow Eurovision fans. I don't really understand how Suzie found the group. Probably through Facebook, but even though we didn't really know them it was good to connect with other fans. It was funny though as the organiser was a HUGE name dropper, talking about how he had met this artist and that artist, showing off his photo's with them every chance he got. Made me laugh.

Then we explored the Cavern Quarter and saw where The Beatles made their start, and where many other famous singers have performed over the years. This history is amazing and I can just picture all the hippies hanging out there in the 60's.

Then we did the Liverpool City bus tour. If we had more time we would have done the one that takes you out to Strawberry Fields and other Beatles related sites...but we were far too pressed for time. Our driver spoke about this history of Liverpool and how many in the area have ancestry in Wales and Ireland. Listening to him speak I could hear twinges of the Irish and Welsh accents.

Then our last visit to the Eurovillage. Makes me sad to think we won't be back there again. But thank goodness we went cause we got to meet Conchita Wurst! Eurovision royalty right there. We heard her sing Rise Like A Phoenix (so iconic) which won in 2014 and also heard Rushlana with Go Wild Dancer, the winner in 2004 for Ukraine.Lue lisää