Episode 46 - Liverpool/Manchester
A few days of much-needed R&R
In his wonderful list of his 50-best-travel-tips, Kevin Kelley explains that 10 days is the best length of time for an intense traveling trip:
“We’ve also learned that this intensity works best if we aim for 12 days away from home. That means 10 days for in-country experience, plus a travel day (or two) on each end. We’ve found from doing this many times, with many travelers of all ages and interests, 14 days on the ground is two days too many. There seems to be a natural lull at about 10 days of intense kinetic travel. People start to tune out a bit. So we cut it there and use the other days to come and go and soften the transitions. On the other hand 8 days feels like the momentum is cut short. So 10 days of intensity, and 12 days in a country is what we aim for.”
I was traveling for two weeks now, and was feeling that “two days too many” that Kelley described. I was completely cooked from gallivanting around the Isles at this point, and needed to take a break from the intense travel.
Fortunately, I was in Liverpool by myself, a perfect opportunity for some R&R. Thank goodness for that!
If this is your first episode and you’re like “what in the world is happening”, start off here.
Monday, April 14th, 2025
Now that I’ve been traveling around for nearly two weeks, I’ve become quite the pro at going through airports and train stations. For my flight from Dublin to Liverpool, there was only one hiccup!
And that was that I left my contact lens solution in my bag (again), and the border force guards had to search my bag to make sure I didn’t have a bomb. Classic blunder.
After that fiasco, I got some super yummy dinner at the airport lounge, and made it quickly to the gate to make sure I didn’t get stuck in Dublin. Fortunately, I wasn’t stuck. Unfortunately, the plane was very delayed because they were unloading the previous flight1, but we were on board and in the air not too much later.
Read the entire flight over, and landed in Liverpool in 40 minutes. These short flights are crazy.
And pretty immediately, I could tell that Liverpool was a British city, not an Irish one — it was just nicer, cleaner, and had a lot more people walking out and about. Checked out the Apple Store, checked in my hostel with no problems, and got myself a large pizza for dinner.
In bed by 9 — this traveling stuff is hard work!
Tuesday, April 15th
Woke up at 9 feeling relatively well-rested, and got myself a coffee from the hostel to start the day off right.
The entire first half of Tuesday was me sitting at one of the hostel tables and just blogging nonstop for five hours. The only real breaks I took were to eat lunch (10£ for another large pizza and a Red Bull from the hostel restaurant) and watch some YouTube Shorts.
You know how it goes.
It’s actually crazy how long these blogs take to draft, edit, and polish into final form, and I’ve completely forgotten the time investment after months of not blogging at UCLA. But, as I have to remind myself, the time investment is 100% worth it to have a lasting memory of my trips. As I recorded in a voice memo to myself that morning, “No regrets there, but it's just like, damn, like five hours to write one thing is crazy.”
It was already the afternoon by the time I finished up the Bath/Bristol post, but fortunately, Liverpool isn’t that big and I totally had the time to explore the rest of the day. I took the bus to northern Liverpool to check out Anfield and Goodison Park (the two Premier League stadiums in town, really nice and fancy), walked around the nearby Stanley Park2, and explored the nearby neighborhood to see what British suburbia looked like.
It was actually so cute — just rows and rows of these little townhouses, all uniform and made of brick. Just like I imagined it, and quite similar to the vibe of Peaky Blinders.
The rest of the exploration was pretty chill — I biked over to the largest cathedral in the UK, chatted with a barista with a STRONG Scouser accent3, found a geocache along the waterfront4, and watched some locals play kayak waterpolo. Never seen that before!
And I have to say, I really loved the architecture of Liverpool and honestly, just in British cities in general — I think they do such a great job of contrasting different architectural styles and eras really well, like brick houses, ruins, cemetery, glass skyscrapers, office buildings, and homes, all very close to each other and even interconnected at times.
On my explorative stroll, I walked by a building that used to be like a warehouse for a shipping company and was now redesigned to have its inner courtyard as the entranceway. And though all European cities I’ve been to have tremendous history and architecture, these British ones do the best at integrating them with modern buildings. Well done to the UK!
I was pretty tired after all that walking around, so I decided to go ahead and take myself on a date. I got myself a ticket to watch The Amateur, smuggled in a Tesco’s meal deal5, and just had a lovely time. The plot was very predictable, but those kinds of movies are just what you need sometimes. Today was one of those days. :)
Wednesday, April 16th
Another chill day, another chill slay. I got myself some delightful breakfast at Tesco’s6, read a very interesting street-side exhibit on Liverpool hats through the ages, and was on the train to Manchester by 9.
The train was uneventful (I just read and blogged for a bit), and the train arrived just an hour later. And Manchester looked like…, well, pretty much every other British city I’ve been to, tbh.
At this point, they’re all starting to look the same to me.
The only things on my bucket list for Manchester were to visit Old Trafford and the Etihad7, so I walked over to Old Trafford first from the train station. The weather wasn’t too good, and to be completely honest, neither was Manchester. The walk was quite bland, but a nice stroll is always welcome.
Took some pictures at Old Trafford (Anfield was cooler imo), then took the tram up to the Etihad8, checked that out, and then was ready to call it a day. It was pouring rain at this point, and I was already ready to be done with Manchester. lol
Back in the city center, I walked over to the Apple Store to chill in a place I knew had free, fast WiFi. It was inside a huge mall9, so I got some beloved Five Guys for lunch because I was missing home. Sue me.
At the Apple Store, I called Joe and Federico, did some more Ireland blogging, and just hung out for a bit. Around 3, I walked over to the hotel I was staying at for the night10, checked in, and took a quick nap.
And at 5, I headed to the main train station in Manchester to greet two special guests — Brooke and Libby11! They’re on their own trip around the UK these next few weeks, but we were meeting up to hike in the Yorkshire Dales for the next few days with Libby’s family. How exciting!
Brooke dropped off her things at the hotel, then we walked across town to meet up with Libby and her fam for dinner. It was at a really fancy restaurant, which was particularly embarrassing for me as I was wearing the most non-fancy clothes — my clothes were being graciously washed by Libby at her sister’s apartment12, and the only clean clothes I had left were my beer pong pajamas and my Patagonia puffer.
Yikes.
Dinner was delicious, and it was really nice to meet Libby’s family (they’re so British omg) — the fish and chips were amazing (as was the pint of cider Brooke and I shared). Back at the hotel, we split some of Brooke’s Trader Joe’s bark she brought from America (omfg it was so good), and then it was off to an early sleep. Yorkshire awaits!
Thursday, April 17th
Thursday was a very chill morning — Brooke and I woke up around 8:30ish, went to Tesco’s for a lovely meal deal breakfast (some more pain au chocolats and coffee, of course), and walked around the very pretty University of Manchester campus for a bit.
We also popped into a local pharmacy and had simply the BEST and most British interaction with the pharmacist there, which greatly improved my overall opinion of Manchester.
As for why we had to go to a pharmacy, that’s nunya.
Nunya business. The Yorkshire Dales await!
Some more interesting anthropological observations:
To turn on the lights in a British hotel room, you have to put your key card into a little holder by the door. I didn’t know this, and spent the first hour in the room in disbelief that the hotel room we paid for didn’t have any electricity
British cities all kinda look the same, and once you see one, you’ve seen them all. They all have a modern central business district, some cathedrals, houses built in rows, a river, and tons of pubs. It’s pretty fun how many pubs there are. British people do love their pubs
Media appendix:
This experience confirmed that Ryanair operates on a point-to-point model, not on a hub-and-spoke one. In point-to-point models, airlines fly small planes between cities directly; in hub-and-spoke models, airlines fly small planes from minor cities into major ones (hubs), fly large planes between hubs, and distribute to minor cities at the destination on smaller planes again. Makes a lot of sense that Ryanair goes point-to-point, considering that it’s a budget airline
A lot of dudes were fishing in the lakes there, and rather unsuccessfully. The Stanley Park in Vancouver is way nicer tbh
British people say “cheers” instead of thanks, so to say “thank you very much”, I tried saying “Mega cheers”. Epic fail 🤦 —> had to get a chill 6 pm espresso after that, you know how it goes
It was very well hidden as a fake magnet at a bus stop
These meal deals are the greatest thing ever, I’m a huge fan. Joe, you were 100% right about them being so wonderful
This was another delightful meal deal, where I got 2 pain au chocolats, a coffee, and a sandwich that was literally 5£
Manchester United and City’s stadiums, respectively
The fact that there’s a direct tram between the stadiums of these two fierce rivals is honestly quite funny to me
Which honestly felt way too consumeristic and American, didn’t like that
On the walk over I visited the Manchester Art Gallery, but it was kinda a bust tbh
Brooke’s English friend from UCLA
The last time they were washed was in Richmond, before I even left for Bristol 🤮
“British cities all look the same” - a man who has not yet beholden the aesthetic delights of Edinburgh