First of all, a quick walk around the city centre. I thought it would just be another mundane and ordinary gloomy UK city and my first impression proved to be correct. I failed to understand how it can be European City of Culture in 2008. But......
I soon sensed that this was no ordinary city. The buildings look that little bit nicer than Manchester and it had a river!!!! I am a sucker for rivers. Most of you would have been bored by my numerous pictures of rivers in Paris, London, Prague etc. So shall not bore you all anymore. The Mersey river (is that its name? Please correct me if I am wrong....) is not that nice, but still saw a lot of couples sitting on the benches beside it... now that's nice :P
Liverpool's position beside a river meant that its history was inextricably (is there such a word? My English is failing me..jia lat) linked to the river. But due to time constraint I could not visit the museum.
Yet another name synonymous with Liverpool is The Beatles. I have not heard many of their songs, think only heard of Yesterday before. They had a museum dedicated to the Beatles at the Albert Dock area beside the river. But again, I decided not to go in due to the lack of time. It was about 230pm now....
At about this time, I received a call from the guy whom I was supposed to pick up my match ticket from. He was supposed to be at the stadium by 2pm to meet his friend and I was supposed to meet him before the match to collect the ticket. But screw up again!!! He was stuck in traffic on the stupid motorway (should be called SLOWWAY) and he is scared that he might not be able to make it on time. But he also didn't want to dua me. So he said he know that tickets were still on general sale (a lot of returns apparently, but pathetic Liverpool. Ordinary league match also cannot sell out.) and so he would phone the ticket office and book one for me and I can collect it at the ticket office at the stadium. Nice of him to do that, but that means I have to go early (because I am kiasu :P) to collect the ticket. Bummer. Got to quicken my footsteps now. But not before......
....I get to the most famous building in Liverpool! Well at least I found this out after I came back. The following description is from this website :
The Liver Building
Probably the most photographed and well known building in Liverpool. It is located at Pier Head and stands proud and majestic against the skyline of Liverpool and the riverfront. The building is made of reinforced concrete and was the first large scale building of its type. It was built in 1911 for the Royal Liver Friendly Society.
This impressive architectural masterpiece features a pair of clock towers from which shipping could tell the time as they passed en route along the river. The clock faces are actually larger than the clock face of Big Ben in London. In fact, they are the largest clock dials in Britain. In 1953 electronic chimes were installed to serve as a memorial to the members of the Royal Liver Friendly Society who died during the two World Wars. At night time the clock dials are illuminated.
A statue of a Liver Bird spreading its wings from the top of each clock tower enhances the glory of the building and its impressive features. The Liver Bird, the official mascot of Liverpool is a cormorant (seaweed bird) which in bygone times could often be seen flying alongside the Mersey River with seaweed in their beaks.
The Royal Liver Building is still the Head Office for the Royal Liver Friendly Society.
I noticed the 2 Liver birds from far and thought that the building looked magnificent and I just had to take a photo with it in the background. Only now do I realise the building in the foreground is not the actual building itself. Bummer...oh well, it was the only way I could capture the building with the 2 birds anyway since the building was so tall :(
Name of the nice boulevard in front of the Royal Liver building is:
Clearer shot of the clock facing the river:
With no time to lose, I headed straight to the bus station to take the bus to Anfield. A bus had to be faster than walking the 4km to Anfield right? WRONG. I reached the bus station at about 245pm. And waited until about 310pm for the bus when the poster clearly said 248pm and 256pm like that would have buses. God damn it, why put the poster there when it isn't accurate! And there were supposed to be 3 services running to Anfield. If the frequency is like that with 3 services, I shudder to think what would happen with only 1 service.
But oh well I should not be surprised by anything since I am in my third year. Finally managed to reach Anfield at about 330pm.
It felt very much like Highbury, in the sense that there are 2 storey terrace houses surrounding it, restricting its development. No wonder Liverpool are eager to move to a bigger stadium. But would they be able to fill it? :P After some quick photos I quickly went to queue to collect my ticket. And was I in for a big big surprise....
THE KOP END!!! THE KOP END!!!! My ticket was in the world famous Kop End!! The stand where thousands of Liverpool supporters stood on the terraces singing "You'll never walk alone". And me, a non-Liverpool supporter gets to sit there! How unfair life is :P (I had overheard some Liverpool supporters complaining on the coach that their seat was not in the Kop End but at Anfield Road Stand, where I think my original ticket is supposed to be. Hehe)
So with this pleasant surprise, my day brightened considerably (in contrast to the gloomy weather all day long in Liverpool...) and I realised I had about one and a half hours to kickoff. I quickly proceeded to...
Goodison Park...home of Everton FC. There is this long standing joke among Liverpool supporters. Liverpool has 2 big clubs: Liverpool FC and Liverpool FC Reserves. It's a dig at their rivals across Stanley Park, Everton, whose achievements pale in comparison to Liverpool's. But still it is a big club in its own right and my stadium fetish kicked in once again.
PS: My "take photo of myself with timer" skill not bad eh? :P
With that, I began to walk back towards Anfield, cutting across Stanley Park which I had read about numerous times.
Who would have thought such a tranquil park divided such an intense rivalry...
Goodison Park as seen from Stanley Park. That unmistakable shade of blue....
Finally had time to go around Anfield itself.
Statue of Bill Shankly, legendary Liverpool manager in 70s (I think?)
The inscription reads: He made the people happy
What it doesn't say: He made the people of Manchester miserable
Gate dedicated to Bill Shankly.
Hillsborough memorial. The day when people died when they were only supporting their football club. Sad....
Gate dedicated to Bob Paisley. Another legendary Liverpool manager in the 70s to 80s (again I am not entirely sure). He brought them 3 European Cups, as can be seen on the gate.
Kop End again.
Could not resist laughing at the T-shirt shown above. You've got to hand it to them, there's a certain amount of resemblance between Rooney and Shrek (both ugly like hell) and Van Nistelrooy and the Donkey (both look like horses). Really funny =)
And so it was on to the match itself. Think I forgot to mention the opposition was Charlton. But strangely enough, I did not even see a single Charlton jersey around, not on the coach, not anywhere around Anfield or in the city centre. Before the kickoff, the entire stadium sang their "anthem", "You'll never walk alone". Men and boys standing up, raising their scarfs, and singing in one voice. Pretty moving stuff. Thought that the atmosphere would be like this throughout the match but was pretty disappointed. The atmosphere was not any better than Old Trafford on an off-day. And they have the cheek to laugh at Old Trafford for being quiet. Bah... But got to see 2 excellent goals scored at my end. The one by Luis Garcia was an absolute beauty. I could see it was special from the field. But I was even more amazed when I saw the highlights. Seems like a good buy for Liverpool for now. More pictures (yes unfortunately its not the end of this post yet :P):
Above and below: The Kop End, with a ghostly figure in the bottom picture :S
Getting ready for the 1 minute silence in memory of Bill Nicholson of Tottenham Hotspurs who died, as well as Ken Bigley, the British hostage beheaded in Iraq.
Me in Anfield! Thanks to the nice old man behind me who helped me take this photo. He even offered to take a photo of me when Liverpool had scored! But his son was shocking though. Think he was about 8 or 9 years old but he was spewing vulgarities like twat, cunt, fuck and flying paper aeroplanes throughout the match. But think I am the least qualified person in the world to criticise other people for scolding vulgarities :P
Final score. And final photo of stadiums. *phew*
After the match, I had about four and half hours to kill. Walked round Anfield again while trying to wait for the guy (whom I was supposed to get the match ticket from) and pass him his Millwall ticket (which I had helped him collect from another guy. I am such a nice helpful young man :O) but could not reach him on his mobile so decided to heck care (that guy stays in London anyway...). And so back to the city centre.
Apparently there's this "world-famous" Mathew Street in Liverpool which is supposed to be the birthplace of Beatles. not sure how true it is but the touristy side of me surfaced and I went to take a look.
Banner reads: Welcome to Mathew Street, Birthplace of the Beatles
The street itself was not long, perhaps just about 100m++. But there were lots of clubs and pubs on both sides. I looked through some of them and saw some really HOT ang moh babes dancing, and they were dressing really *gulp* skimpily. Certainly raised the temperature despite it raining heavily :P
The street itself
One of the pubs
Isn't Liverpool just so nice at night? =)
Is that the end? Unfortunately no. Just as the coach was about to leave the station after everybody had boarded, well almost, two guys starting arguing with the driver. I suspect that the coach is full already and the 2 guys probably had one of those "open" tickets which does not guarantee them seats and so the driver could not let them on. The 2 guys probably got pissed because they waited and so they started scolding the driver "You fucking cunt, don't say anymore. You bastard. blah blah blah...." And horror upon horror, 1 of them even started pushing the driver and shoved him to the ground. Not once, not twice, but three times. Nobody went to help the driver. I wanted to, but I was in the inner seat of the upper deck and..and...oh well yes I am humji also lah ok? But the 2 guys left after the fight had broke out for like 7 or 8 minutes and the driver phoned the police and so we were delayed yet AGAIN. The police siren was soon heard and after some time they apparently caught the 2 guys hiding in the bushes somewhere. Well, violence never pays..... and so I finally left Liverpool at 1215am (supposed to be 1140pm). It's been a long day...and congratulations on managing to read until the end =)
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