Liverpool Part 2 - Non Beatles Stuff

Liverpool Sans The Beatles:

Well, other than the Beatles sight-seeing we basically just did a lot of walking around, window shopping, pints and pubs, etc.

Luke pretty much told you guys everything, except what we did in Liverpool on Monday so here it is....

Monday we walked to Chinatown. On the way we walked by Europe's largest Anglican Church so we decided to stop and have a peek. It was stunning. Massive. The outside was incredible but the inside was amazing. From there we continued walking until we came to Chinatown. Liverpool has Europe's oldest Chinatown. They were presented with the gorgeous Chinese gate you see in the photos. Stunning. From Chinatown Luke and I walked to Dingle, Ringo's childhood neighborhood, because the Magical Mystery Tour bus didn't stop and let us off there. When we finally found our way to his street we realized why they didn't stop. It is the dodgy-est area I have seen - EVER, I think. Scary. We took a photo of the front of his first house and then ran into the Empress Pub where Ringo's mom worked for a coffee. When we walked in it looked like a regular, sketchy pub. It was early so we asked for two coffees. The barmaid (That's what they call them here girls...) told me that they don't do coffee BUT that they would do it for us. They even had to go upstairs to the apartment above to get milk! They were lovely BUT the patrons left much to be desired. Three people came in... One woman, her daughter and what seemed to be her daughter's boyfriend (The mother ended up kissing the boyfriend while the daughter was in the loo - which I might add - has a sign on the doors that says 'If you see anyone taking or selling drugs please inform the bar staff') They seemed in bits and proceeded to have a drink and then put on music.... Enrique - Hero, at 11:30am. It was creepy. As soon as we were finished our coffees we thanked the bar maid and were outta there! We then ran a block to take a photo of Ringo's second house and then ran out of the neighborhood. Back to the city centre where it was safe! On the way we cut through the church grounds, which was full of old headstones and overgrown plants. It was lovely. (Well, except for the teenagers shooting up in the corner of the place. Not so lovely. Rather depressing, actually).
After that we walked around the shops and grabbed ourselves a Starbucks warm drink and then continued wandering. After a late lunch we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then check out. We made our way to the airport by bus and then passed the time before our flight at the airport pub until we had to go through security (Which I set off, of course... I always do...). The flight was fine though Luke and I are not loving flying anymore. Quite terrifying really. We've taken way too many planes in the last year.