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Day 23: Liverpool Friday, 11th April 2008
From the perspective of Hak Liang, Alwyn and Chun Yang. Day number 23 of the trip, the day which the three of us have been eagerly waiting for, to visit the football club that we have supported for many years. Our day started very early in the morning, the 3 of us planned to meet at 5.15am at the main entrance of the hostel, to take the first train to Euston train station. Hak Liang, who overslept the day before, managed to wake up on time, but got a surprise when he went up to Chun Yang and Alwyn's room at 5.15am to find them still asleep! After a quick wash up, we were soon on our way, jogging all the way from the hostel to Gloucester Road Station, which was a 10 minutes walk away. Luckily, we still managed to catch the first train. At Euston, we took another train, this time a 3 hour long and boring journey from London to Liverpool. Finally at 9.30am, we arrived at Liverpool Lime Street, where we took took a bus to to Anfield Stadium, the home of Liverpool FC. It was on the bus where we first noticed the distinctive Scouse accent of the Liverpudlians, coming from the bus driver. ![]() Upon entering the stadium gates, we see the statue of one of Liverpool's greatest ever manager, Bill Shankly. ![]() The tour group consisted of mainly Liverpool fans, but had one fan each from Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, and the tour guides, who were 2 ladies, had fun teasing the Arsenal supporter throughout the whole tour over Liverpool's dramatic victory over the Gunners in the Champions' League just 3 days ago. After entering through the players entrance to the stadium, our first stop for the tour was the home team's changing room. Just like many other football clubs, we were told that the away team's changing room were specially designed to affect their opponents in a negative way. One thing that Liverpool did was that the floors of the away team's changing room were smooth and polished, to increase the chances of their opponents slipping when they walked around with their boots in the changing room. Whereas the home team's changing room had stickier floors to prevent slipping. ![]() ![]() One interesting thing is that the door to the home team changing room is smaller than the door of the away team changing room, this is to make the Liverpool players look bigger sized when their opponents see them coming out from their changing room. ![]() After taking a few photos at the changing room, we proceeded on to the stands, walking through the tunnel, and touching the famous "This is Anfield" sign, which the Liverpool players touched before every match for good luck. ![]() The stadium and stands may not be as big as the Nou Camp which we visited at Barcelona, but it was still very beautiful and filled with very rich history. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() After the tour was over, we continued with our visit at the museum, before going down to the club's store to do some shopping. ![]() Istanbul 2005 ![]() After lunch, we walked around Liverpool City Centre while waiting for our train back to London at 8pm. Initially, we intended to visit the Liverpool FC Official Store, which was located near the train station, just before going to the train station. But when we went there at 5.30pm, we were surprised to find out that it just closed! That was when we realised almost every shop in Liverpool closed at 5.30pm. Having nothing to do all the way till around 7 plus, we had no choice but to sit in Burger King and wait. ![]() It was another 3 hour long and boring journey back to London, but I guess it was all worth it. ![]()
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