Passport to Good Times: Thanksgiving in Liverpool

This year was my first time away from home for Thanksgiving. I was kinda sad because I love to share this fantastic holiday with family and friends and I of course love to stuff my face with too much food. But since I couldn't be home for Thanksgiving, what better place to be than in Liverpool?!?!

So here is how my very non-traditional Thanksgiving festivities unfolded. My fellow Traveler Jocelyn and I woke up early in Cardiff, Wales and then hopped on a train to Liverpool. Once there we hike up a hill to our hostel which was just past China Town. The guy who ran the hostel was an old excentric man named Kevin. He loved to talk and he loved people and he also loved to tell people about his many encounters he had with the Beatles, who were just starting out. Anyway, once he gave us an orientation to the city, we set out and went to Albert Docks where I got my ticket for the Magical Mystery Tour!!!! On the tour we saw the houses where all of the boys grew up, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Elenor Rigby's grave and The Cavern club where the Beatles performed over 200 shows in the early years.

After the tour, I went to The Beatles Story Museum which was super cool! This museum of course tells the story of The Beatles from the beggining to the end. Then after I splurgged a bit in the gift shop, Jocelyn and I went in search of a restaruant to have a proper Thanksgiving dinner. We never found tukey and mashed potatos, so we went to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaraunt and had some amazing pasta. Then for dessert we had lemon tart and a chocolate brownie. Sounds like a good day huh? But its not over yet!

After dinner we went back to the hostel and met up with Kevin for a free Beatles walking tour around town. It was fun and he showed us the old record store where John and Paul would come sample records in order to figure out wich cover song they would do next. We also stopped for a pint at one of Johns favorite pubs. And on this tour, Kevin told a lot of personal encounters he had with the boys. He would see them around town all of the time, and he saw them perform at the Cavern dozens of times. And that is where the tour finished, in The Cavern. And that night we got free admission to see The Mersey Beatles perform some of the classic Beatles songs. They sounded great and they looked the part, so it was a jolly good time. But being there in The Cavern made me want to rewind time so I could be there in its heyday and stand feet away from the Fab 4.

But my Thanksgiving away from home wound up to be pretty great, and I even got to skype my family a bit. So here are some pics from my epic holiday!