Days 6,7 and 8 - To Manchester, Liverpool, and Back

The Main Stage

This weekend away from my home away from home was truly incredible.  Early Saturday morning some of my friends and I caught a train to Manchester.  Our main reason for visiting Manchester was to see one of our favorite bands, Muse.  I have seen Muse before in Phoenix, but that was nothing compared to the show that they put on here.  The concert was held in an outdoor soccer arena with 80,000 screaming fans and was truly incredible.  Muse is incredible popular here because they are from here and they really went all out for the concert.  There was a fabulous lights display, actors on stage during the songs, giant balloons  and amazing displays in the areas around the stage that can be seen in the picture.  It was probably the best concert I have ever been to.  After the concert, we went back to our hotel on the other side of the city to get some sleep as we were really tired from a day of traveling and the concert.

My Friend Matt and I Before The Concert

On Sunday morning, we got up fairly early once again to catch another train to Liverpool.  Several of us on the trip were tremendous Beatles fans and we figured that since we were going to be so close, we might as well stop and see the place where they grew up and got their start.  Once we got to Liverpool, we proceeded directly to the Beatles museum, which for what it's worth, is the only museum in the world to be completely dedicated to the Beatles.  The museum was truly spectacular and there was a ton of information that I never new about the Beatles, especially about how they got their start and the early evolution of the band.  I never knew for example, that the band was originally called the Quarrymen before they changed their name to the Silver Beatles and then finally just the Beatles.  While I love the Beatles, I obviously didn't live through the height of their popularity so it was really cool to see how much of an impact they had on the world and music.

Once we had finished the Beatles Museum, we stopped for a quick lunch before heading off to see the Tate Liverpool Museum.  Like the other Tate Museums in London, the art was incredibly modern, and while some of it made absolutely no sense to us, some of it was actually quite amazing and interesting.  From the Tate Liverpool Museum  we returned to the train station to wait for our late night train back to London.  By the time we took a bus back to our apartments, it was late and we were all incredibly tired, but the trip was well worth it.

Today, we returned to class, before we headed off to the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare shows are performed, for an acting workshop.  Unfortunately, there was an issue with the scheduling of the

The View From St. Paul's Cathedral

workshop, so it was canceled, which basically left us with the afternoon completely free.  My friends and I decided that since we were so close, we would visit St. Paul's Cathedral.  The architecture of the building is astounding and includes a 356 foot high dome that we were allowed to climb.  There are a total of 528 steps that lead to a balcony on top of the dome.  It took us a while to make it to the top, but once we did, the view was truly spectacular.  Unfortunately, upon making it to the top, we realized that we had left our cameras with one of our friends who didn't want to climb to the top because of a fear of heights, so we had to walk back down to get the camera.  Needless to say, we were incredibly tired after walking up and down twice, but it was more than worth it for the phenomenal views of London.  After completing our journey to the top of the dome, we stopped for some afternoon tea, which I must say is a wonderfully relaxing tradition.

I am incredible tired from what has been a very long few days, but they were spectacular and worth any amount of tiredness.  Hopefully I can catch up on sleep a little bit tonight.