England

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I have found it really easy getting up early here - which is brilliant because I'm shite at it back home. I guess it's a positive byproduct of not having the internet where I am, and of the jet lag.

I digress: Today we visited York, which is about 90mins on motorways (which are free in UK btw) from Warrington.

To backtrack slightly: I'm staying with my cousin Andrea (who's older than me owing to her being the daughter of my mum's late older brother Paul) in Warrington. Warrington is a town of about 300,000 almost halfway between Liverpool and Manchester. The majority of people in Warrington work either in the local community or in Liverpool, therefore there is a greater allegience to Liverpool FC not Man Utd/Man City.

But back to York...wow! We saw so much today I won't go into it all to save you from being either jealous or bored or both.

It's well worth a visit - we managed to walk around everywhere - the old city is walled and still has cobblestone streets, which I love! We started at the York Railway Museum, which has exhibits from the first locomotive in the UK to the latest in Japanese Shinkansen (bullet trains). It's great, especially with Andrea and Helen, who are both quite interested and knowledgeable about the railways.

From thre we went to have pasties (oh they're good!) in the town square, before I headed to the Jorvik Viking Centre (great for kiddies, not so great for us older folk), and rejoined Andrea & Helen for the York Minster - the impressive Roman/Saxon/Viking place of worship. We went to the Undercroft and the Tower as well, which gave us a great understanding of the history of the town and the Minster, as well as a great view.

Unfortunately we didn't translate this understanding of the topography of the city to our subsequent walk back to the bus stop, as we got hopelessly lost!

Dinner was had at the Trafford Centre. It's this great monstrosity of a shopping complex without a supermarket! It has 10,000 car parking spaces and services Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester. We had a great curry and watched a bit of the Germany-Portugal 3rd place match - thank goodness Germany won that one!

For photos of York, visit here

I'm not sure what most people think of when they hear the words "liverpool". For those of us Sydneysiders, you must remember this is the real one - the one ours was named after!

It's the home of the Beatles, the docks and the Liverpool FC football team - and never shall ye forget! Essentially they milk those three as much as possible - even though they were named 2008 European City of Culture and have loads of European money to fix up the city. So what do they do? Build a Beatles museum and a new stadium!

Anyways, living with Andrea is great - I can't believe we've never met before (She's my Cousin btw!). I have my own room and a hot shower and I love it! I met Helen (my Auntie) as well last night, and so we've had a good 'ol chat about relatives etc. Much more of that to come no doubt.

So our first stop was the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour on a great 1960s bus. It was total tack and never pretended to be anything else, which was ace. Really can recommend it as a way of seeing the city.

Got my UK mobile sim card (email me for the number if you're interested) and had M&S for lunch. M&S has really changed - the food is brill! M&S is Marks & Spencer - their version of DJs I guess. Or Myer with own brands (and nothing else) and a food hall.

In the afternoon we hit the Maritime Museum in newly-revamped Albert Dock. The museum itself was OK, but the sub-section on European Slavery was fantastic and really well done. They have recognised this and are completely revamping it soon to take up most of the museum!

Then went back to Warrington to meet Mark (my other cousin) and have tea (dinner). 'Dinner' is lunch, as in 'school dinners'. Anyway, had a great chat that focused mainly on the family - as we're all related - and the differences in opinions between the three of us of my Grandma (on my Mum's side).

Guiness here is grand.

Some Liverpool words for you:
ace - great, awesome.
dead - very
dead 'andy - convenient
butty - sandwich
chippy - fish and chips.

PS: For photos of this leg of the trip, click here