I've uploaded a lot of pictures of the Absolut Ice Bar, Liverpool and a few other random things for anyone who is interested.

The James Morrison concert was really nice on Friday. The concert was outdoors and only the stage and the first 20 rows or so were covered. A lot of people were having picnics before hand. There were a few tents set up selling food and alcohol. It was luckily a nice night and it wasn't overly crowded. There were two opening acts, both of which were excellent. It was kind of an amusing audience. No one stood until James Morrison came out, and even then they stood because he asked everyone to. Most people, except those in the front rows, proceeded to sit down for the remainder of the show. There were a lot of groups of friends and couples in attendance and a lot of men in business suits, still carrying their briefcases from work, meeting up with their wives. The show was over by 10:30. It was practically still light outside. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we get very little darkness here. It's usually light outside until tenish, doesn't become truly dark until 11ish and the sun is up by 4, blazing by 6. This wouldn't be so bad, but it gets to be really warm in the morning. My curtain just isn't dark enough to block out the light.

Kacie, Zach & I had to be at the train station by 7:30 on Saturday morning to leave for Liverpool. Our train left at 8, so it was a good thing that we were early because both Zach and I forgot our ticket reference number. Regardless, we made it on time. The ride wasn't bad up there. We got in around 10:50 and walked to our hotel, which was along the water.

The hotel was really nice. A much needed change from our student flat. The heated floors in the bathroom were a plus, but all we really cared about was the comfy beds and the television.

We walked to Albert Dock and had lunch at a place called Ha! Ha!. We choose it purely because there were couches at the booth tables. We walked around the dock area a little, which was full of shops and museums. Around 1 we got in line for the Beatles Story museum. It's in the basement of this building and the queue took quite a while, but it was definitely worth it. There was so much information not just about the Beatles, but about their managers, friends, family, etc. There is quite a bit of memorabilia there, such as the John Lennon's orange tinted sunglasses (valued at £1 million aka $2 million). We walked through the streets of Liverpool afterwards since it was such a nice day out. It was a pleasant change to not be in London. We could cross the street without fearing for our lives and the city is relatively quiet compared to London.

Saturday night we went to a pub for dinner and then to Mathew street to some Irish pub. However, after hearing "Rhinestone Cowboy" played, we decided that we would be better off at the hotel eating Hobnob cookies (amazing crunch oatmeal cookie with milk chocolate layer on top) and watching TV. Which is exactly what we did.

Sunday morning we went to the Conservation museum, which was essentially one room that featured a whole mix of things including how x-rays work. Then we went to the World Museum, which is an amazing building, but the material inside the museum is limited. It's kind of the same idea as the Children's Museum in Indy, only smaller. And slightly less interesting.

My friend Nick lives in Liverpool, so he kindly showed us around Sunday afternoon. We saw the Liverpool Football Club stadium and 2 churches. The Liverpool Cathdral (being one of them) is truly stunning. It is the largest cathedral in England, which can be measured not only by the square footage, but by the fact that there is a bar inside of it. We went into the cafe to sit for a minute and Nick informed us that there was a famous comedian/ singer sitting next to us. Ken Dodd? We were unfamiliar with him, but Nick assured us that he is massively famous and a Liverpudlian. Nick took us to the Cavern Club on Mathew Street. The Beatles played nearly 300 shows there right before becoming famous and it is really where they got their start. Talk about a dive bar. But the stage is still there, so it was an experience if nothing else. We had some excellent Chinese food before our train left at 8:20pm. We got back into London around 11:15, so it made for an early morning on Monday.

Kacie, Zach, Melanie & I are going to afternoon tea at Claridge's late this afternoon. We figured that we cannot leave England until we've participated in the tradition. They had better be some really good scones for £35/person.