BIG CITY LIFE

Natalia: Next day, we made a new friend Denis, from Canada, who from the start loved us enough to change his ferry ticket and continue his trip with us for next few days. With him and another two girls from hostel we went to the free walking city tour in Liverpool. I really recommend these tours because they are free and funny and you only tip the guide in the end if you find the tour interesting (99% of the time). They are almost 2,5 hours long but we got lucky and our guide had a great sense of humor. Hence it wasn’t a boring experience even for the people hating history classes. The interesting fact about Liverpool is its name. It really comes from two distinct words, liver and pool, where the liver part is not referred only to the body organ and its color but also the muddy ground. As far as the weather goes in these parts of the world, the name perfectly suits the place. The liver is also a fictive bird of the city and it resembles a hybrid of duck and seagull.

Denis: One of the greatest parts about traveling is meeting new and interesting people. For one very tired Canadian one fine afternoon in Liverpool that meant meeting two incredibly awesome Slovakian girls. When I entered the dorm room right away Susanna and Natalia were quick to strike up a conversation with impeccable English! I knew instantly I was going to be in for an interesting and adventure filled couple of days with the newly formed Team Oliver. From pints in the infamous Cavern Club, to hitchhiking with two professionals, or hiking to the tallest point in Edinburgh the couple of days I was fortunate to spend with Natalia and Susanna were some of the most fun I’ve spent traveling. Best of luck in the highlands girls and I’ll see you guys again someday!

Shoshana: For me, the most interesting part in Liverpool was the new cathedral that resembles the Red keep from the Game of Thrones TV series. It looks majestic from the outside and spiritually gigantic from the inside. The expression that our friend invented, was that „her camera is satisfied“. Well, mine was too. Top of the day was the Cavern Club where the Beatles band was born in the 70-ties I would get goose bumps all over my body if there was not 40 degrees of hotness from all the people being inside the cavern. We forgot it was Saturday, and it was obviously the only day when you have to pay the fee. But you have to go there, maybe the last chance in your life.

Natalia: At first it was boring in the club, only sweaty people all around, and no place to stand by and drink a beer. However, after a while, a live band came up the stage and started to perform the old Beatles songs. The goose bumps eventually came, and we couldn’t leave the cavern any time soon. We felt like we were really in sixties and the Beatles were playing. The imitating band did a great job.

Shoshana: After an amazing day, we started to worry where we are going to sleep. The hostel we stayed in was fully booked as it was Saturday we didn’t have time to get ourselves to Edinburgh where we could find some place to stay in. Fortunately our friend Denis, knew about a website http://www.sleepinginairports.net/ which describes sleeping conditions at the airports. Together we decided it is our best option and for the price of 4 pounds on the return bus ticket, we had a rough sleeping place on the airport floor, at least we had a roof above our heads.

Natalia: I already slept at the airport before, but this was the first time I went to the airport just to sleep there. We checked the outbound flights and decided we are flying to Dublin at 6 am in case somebody asks. I felt even more tired after sleeping than before but it was nothing that the Starbucks coffee couldn’t deal with. As trained hitchhikers who don’t take this as a fun, we woke up early at the morning and went to the road straightaway.

Shoshana: As experienced hitchhiker, I was a little worried about three people trying to get a lift, it is more troublesome for some people that would normally take us. On the other hand, I was a little relieved and felt safer with a boy travelling with us. As it turned out, we got to Edinburgh before the sunset, pretty impressive first-time hitchhiking for Denis.

Natalia: Our hostel in Edinburgh was literally made of containers and was called “The containers”. The atmosphere was great, it was a very chilled place which changed to a party gathering at night.

Shoshana: It is situated on the border of Edinburgh but when you get inside you feel like stepping into a different galaxy. Even though it is the cheapest hostel we stayed in (7£ per night), the services provided were the best we had during the trip.

Natalia: They have a barbecue three times a week! And it was actually Denis who told us about this legendary place, thank you!

Shoshana: When you are in Edinburgh, you feel like the whole city should be under UNESCO preservation. It’s a very historical place, each building has its own story. We could learn about the Scottish history, we are so addicted to, in a great national museum in the city center. The museum is so huge that you need at least two days to discover it whole.

Natalia: Near the museum there is a cemetery where J.K. Rowling was going to when she was longing for an inspiration. An orphanage school next to the cemetery is suspected to be also a source of influence on her work.

Shoshana: Event though, it was a cemetery, there was so much energy in the place, I would return there every day if I lived in Edinburgh.

Natalia: We stayed in Edinburgh for two days. The first-sightseeing, the second-recovering from the crazy party including a naked French girl going to and around Jacuzzi (yes, they have a Jacuzzi too!) in front of us and about twenty boys. Nice evening show!

Shoshana: Next day, we were so tired, we decided to plan our trip to Highlands. We found out that not only hostels there were fully booked but also very expensive for our low-cost travelling (20 £ and more). Jack from the hostel proposed ASDA supermarket as a great place to buy tents.

Natalia: Lucky bastards as always, we found out they had exactly one tent and two matrasses that would be perfect for our (almost) comfort in the wilderness. We were ready to go!! It didn’t go without small problems as usual though and we ended up making a new friend out of a supermarket shop assistant, Kerr. He had to help us so many times, as we couldn’t figure out how the automatic cashiers work, or we had to return to the supermarket to change the wrong batteries we bought for our torch. With a smile on his face and his adorable accent he said to us: “So many troubles in the supermarket.”

Shoshana: We said farewell to the Edinburgh, left our teammate Dennis on his way to Ireland and went for our adventure to Highlands. Since then whenever we had rough time on the road I smiled at Nata and said “So many troubles in the supermarket”. This simple sentence kept us going even in the hardest and coldest moments of our trip.