Lernin Meself Scouse, and Other Adventures

'lo all! I'm in Liverpool, celebrating Christmas. Here's a brief recap of my trip, part one:

Getting There

So, to get to where I am now I had to 1) take a train to Bremen, 2) fly from Bremen to Manchester, and 3) drive from Manchester to Liverpool. I'm like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles ... except without the John Candy. So, I'm on the first leg of this trip, the train from Braunschweig to Bremen. I have bought my ticket with the 50% discount that I get with the BahnCard 50 that I bought back in September. Only I don't technically have the card; I have the voucher saying that I've bought the card, but my actual card never arrived in the mail. However, I've used the voucher before and it's worked just like the card. So I get on the train, thinking everything's all good. Around Hannover the ticket taker comes to me. He says, "Ticket please (in German)." I say, "Here you are, my good sir (in German)." He looks at my voucher and says, "This is no longer alwkrhejkhfdjsbcfdsrt (in German)." Now, I don't know what alwkrhejkhfdjsbcfdsrt means in German, but I get the gist of it. My voucher no longer vouches. Wish I had figured that out sooner. So, what do I do? Well, the ticket taker suggested that I get off at the next station and buy a full-price ticket. Strongly suggested. As in, saw me to the door of the train at Hannover and watched me get off the train. Wow. So I had to spend half of the cash I had on me to buy another ticket. Bum deal.

Once I got to Bremen, though, it was smooth sailing - er, flying. I flew with RyanAir, which is super cheap because they cut out pretty much every extraneous thing they can. No free in-flight snack. Flights to only a limited number of places. Awful advertisements for little trinkets over the intercom during the flight. But the people were nice and they were speaking English, so I was happy.

Caroline and her guy picked me up from the airport Manchester and we drove to her house in Liverpool. That was my first taste of England: listening to people talk with foreign accents, watching people drive on the wrong side of the road, and eating prawn cocktail-flavored potato chips. Yum yum!

So, as soon as we get home we pretty much turn right around and leave again. Where, you ask, are we going? To the pub! I really like England, but English people can drink more than any collective people I've ever known - and I've been to Germany. I've been here since the 22nd, and do you know what my time has been spent doing? I'll break it down for ya:

Dec. 22: Arrive. Beers at The Brookhouse, followed by more beers at Bumper.
Dec. 23: Wine and lunch at the Panoramic. Beers at Cain's brewery. Cocktails and beer at a Christmas party at The Flute.
Dec. 24: A beer and wine at home. Christmas Eve party - much beer - at The Brookhouse.
Dec. 25: Christmas. Presents, wine, and dinner.
Dec. 26: Boxing Day. Cocktails, beers, a cider, and more at Hannah's, The Peacock, Lago, and Heebie Jeebies. Whew.
Dec. 27: Coffee. Lots. And. Lots. Of. Coffee.

And now today! There is actually much more to say about these individual days, but I'm going to put that all in another post. 'Till then -- ta, lovelies!

xoxo, (which is what all the English people keep putting in their texts to me. That's hugs and kisses, right? What if I just want the hugs? Can I just have "ooo"?)
-Raychel