Sunday, February 2, 2014

Liverpool

This is Zai's favourite part of the whole trip for obvious reasons. When we planned the trip, we had to plan it in such a way that Liverpool will be playing at home ground when we were there. The tickets will only be on sale 3 weeks prior to the match which happened to fall on our wedding day exactly. Where got time to make a call to UK and book a ticket during our wedding reception right? Plus 8 hours time difference, that would be 8am on our wedding day. And they would have very limited tickets left after they sell it to club members first and VIP etc.

So we decided to ask the owner of the guest house we're staying at whether she could get us two tickets to watch Liverpool vs Cardiff City and fortunately, she could because she knows someone who's a member. I think her husband or something buttt, the tickets were overpriced. According to Zai, Cardiff is not a big club but doesn't matter to us cause we had no other choice since we could only be there during that weekend and as long as we get to see Liverpool play at Anfield, I think we don't really mind. Once in a lifetime only! I am not a soccer fan but I could feel his excitement haha.

Day 1 - We arrived at Liverpool Lime Street train station from London. We took Virgin trains. We took a cab from the station to our guest house cause the owner suggested that option since it'll only be £6 at most. By then our luggage was already super heavy so yeah we succumbed to a cab ride. Our first cab ride for the whole trip cause in Switz, Amsterdam and London we avoided cab at all costs. Also the first time we were not staying in a hotel but a guest house. The guest house was about 200m from the stadium. We had three beds and a toilet in our room. So the first thing we did was walk around the house to look at the various autographed jerseys the owner framed and hanged. Then we walked to the stadium and booked our stadium tour for the next day. Then we took a cab (again) to the shopping mall and Christmas market. Cost us another £6. Liverpool is small so with just £6 in a cab, it could get us to a lot of places. They don't have trains running through Liverpool either so it's either bus or cab. 


The guest house. It's called Soccer Suite.

Somewhere near the stadium and our guest house at sunset.


In memory of those who died during the Hillsborough disaster where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death during a match in 1989 due to over crowding. :/

Hot chocolate from the Christmas market. Mine was Cadbury and his was Crunchie. I vividly remember burning my tongue when I drank this. :/

The framed jersey in the guest house. I think that was Gerrard's. They have quite a number of them.


Day 2 - We started the day with the stadium tour and the museum. We got to see the news conference room, changing room, where the VIPs sit at the stadium, where the coach and players sit, etc. Then we took a cab to World Museum and the entrance was free. It was pretty good considering they have many floors of many different exhibitions. Then to Albert Dock where the Liverpool Eye and Beatles Story are located. Walked a lot and sat at this cosy Starbucks for a break.

Act only haha.



Fun fact: Every Liverpool player will touch that for good luck before running into the field.


World Museum and it's free!

Beatles Story at Albert Dock. We didn't enter though.

Albert Dock

Somewhere near the Starbucks we sat at. 

Day 3 - Match day! We walked to the stadium two hours before match started and there were already a lot of people there. I don't know what's the hype with soccer is but it was exciting to see all these men being excited over the same thing. I sat next to a girl who was with her boyfriend/husband and she too, was as clueless as me. When Liverpool scored a goal all the men shouted in happiness while that girl and I just hmm sat down and did nothing much. After a while I stood up too to show support la haha. It ended with 3-1, with Liverpool winning thankfully. 

Our own breakfast in the room. Tuna and porridge from Singapore haha!

Two hours before match.


Some hot chocolate and muffin before the game.

About to start!

Full house.

Luis Suarez!


After the match.

Then we had dinner at halal Nandos at the shopping mall before we got ready to take a midnight coach to Manchester Airport. Most of the things at the shopping mall were what we saw at London too. They have Primark, Dorothy Perkins, Forever 21 etc at Liverpool too. The guest house owner was nice enough to let us stay until it was time for our coach at midnight when we were actually supposed to check out in the afternoon.

Some tips!

Tip 1: If you really really wanna watch the game and getting hold of the tickets via phone or internet is hard, I think you can book a hotel which also includes tickets to the game, like a package. The tickets will be overpriced but that is if you really really wanna watch the game. We got overprice tickets too but Zai really wanted to watch them play and I really wanted to see him happy. 

Tip 2: Try not to go for the stadium tour on match day. There will be limited slots for the day and if you don't mind seeing a little less things because they need to get the field ready and the reporters and TV broadcasting people need to get ready etc. But other than that, usually you can get tickets on the day itself so there's no need to book in advance. The tour is every half an hour or every hour if I'm not wrong. Zai and I booked a day in advance.

Tip 3: If you wanna fly off to the next country, nearest airport is Manchester Airport, I think. That is if you wanna fly and not go by train. There's a coach from Liverpool to Manchester Airport at just £7 by National Express. It was a two hours journey, I can't really remember now. We booked this in advance. They have coaches to a lot of places. We took the coach at 2am so that we could just sleep in the coach and reach the airport early for flight. We saved on a night stay of accommodation too. Which our nice guest house owner had kindly extended our check-out time from 12pm to 12am heh.

And that's it for Liverpool entry. One last destination to blog about in the next entry! :) Sorry if you guys are bored already. Heh. 

4 comments:

  1. the chocolate drink looked super delicious! of all things eh, food catches my eyes. hehe.

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    1. Delicious! But too hot burnt my tongue sey. Haha.

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  2. In some of the photos you guys really look alike! Haha (hope you take it as a compliment cos they say couples who look alike stays together lol)

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    1. Yeah I heard of that too. Haha I'm gonna tell him this! I'm sure he'll give me a *really ah?!* face. Cause nobody actually said that to us before. Lolol.

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