Liverpool and Wigan – Surprisingly awesome.

I arrived in Wigan and was immediately impressed with the size of it. I assumed it would be some tiny little village, but found that it was a proper little city. The bars and clubs in the city centre were mostly in the old English style and as I made my way along the road to my hotel, I saw that it would not be a bad place to go out, as the town seemed to have plenty to do.

By the time I got to my hotel I was happy to be able to sit down for a bit and chill out. I tried to call my cousins on the number Mum had given me, but unfortunately it didn’t work. Therefore I spent the next few hours on family history websites trying to get an address for where my Dad grew up. I did manage to find my Grandma’s extract from the 1901 census, but unfortunately this did not have an address, so I accepted that I would probably not find the house on this visit, and went off to explore the town instead.

The next morning I got on a train to Liverpool and although I was eagerly awaiting the trip to Anfield on Monday night, I can’t say I was terribly excited about going to Liverpool, due to the towns reputation of being ugly and unsafe. When I got there it was bigger and prettier than I had imagined. Certainly much prettier that Manchester and seemed to have a lot more history to it also. I walked around the city centre for a while as I waited for Richard to come and pick me up from the train station.

When Richard arrived he took me on a quick tour of the town, showing me the restored port area and shopping precincts before we drove out to Anfield to have a look at the stadium (and Goodison Park). We did the stadium tour and went inside the ground where I was able to sit in the Kop and hear storied about the ground and the clubs history. After leaving the ground we went through the Museum and saw more about the clubs 117 year history.
That evening we went out for a few beers and a meal at a pub near Richard’s house and watched Chelsea beat Manchester United. I would’ve preferred a nil all draw, but it is always nice seeing Man U lose. We then went out into the city to meet Jack and Nick at some University party thing called ‘Carnage’ that Nick was involved in due to him being a student at Liverpool University. Jack and Nick are two of the three guys met for about 30 minutes outside the five story nightclub in Prague on my first crazy night there. So while it was a bit weird to see them again, they are good lads and we had a top time. The night definitely lived up to its name as I got belted and apparently disappeared for over an hour before Richard managed to find me and get me home. The next morning I woke up feeling perfectly fine, but then went back to be and woke up a few hours later with the worst hangover of my life. I guess that means I was still drunk when I woke up the first time.

I finally dragged myself out of the house around noon and made my way into the city. I walked all around the city and made my way down to the port where I just sat in the sunshine for a bit and enjoyed the lovely view across the Mersey river. Down the river I could see a thick fog rolling in like a giant white wall, and within half an hour the entire city was engulfed in the whiteness and about 10’ colder. It still wasn’t raining though, and was really beautiful as I walked back to the train station through the gardens and museum district.

It was a Monday night game and Anfield with Liverpool desperately needing a win as they lined up against the lowly Birmingham, who they had not defeated in the last 5 years. We got the first goal but then a lack of defensive pressure let Birmingham go into half time 2-1 up. It was an absolutely freezing night, but the last halve was doing its best to keep us warm. Liverpool attacked mercilessly and every time the ball go close to the goal line we would all stand up in anticipation, with all that standing and sitting keeping me quite warm. Midway through the half Liverpool got a dubious penalty and Gerrard slotted it, however we were unable to get another goal and found ourselves coming away with only a draw. Oh well, there’s always next year.

The next morning I said farewell to Richard and caught the train back to London. I will definitely miss Liverpool, its culture and beauty was not what I expected and I will definitely go back some day, and possibly even live there. After all, I’ve got to see a Liverpool victory…