Liverpool

As school only started on the 16th, Topo and I wanted to make the most of our break and travel before the dreaded routine of readings + lectures started again - and so we decided on Liverpool and the Lake District! 

Liverpool was quite a disappointment :( We should have done more research before booking our airbnb for 4 nights because by the 2nd day, we had ran out of things that we wanted to do and see. The highlight of our trip was finding Busaba, a Thai restaurant which had a 50% offer for the duration of our trip! The food was simply amazing (and of course affordable because of the generous discount) and it took no longer than 10 minutes to come - and we found ourselves having lunch there every single day!☺

I got a vegan pad thai - I can just remember how amazing this dish was looking back at it  

After lunch, we headed to the Tate and Maritime museum both of which we did not particularly enjoy (especially when we had to lug our suitcases around in the Maritime museum as the lockers were too small)

Wee bit of mismatched architecture 

One of my fav photos, sunsets are just gorgeous ♥

Headed back as the sun was setting, but before getting on the bus back to our air bnb, we did a food shop at Tesco and had a curry for dinner that night! 

The next morning, we did The Beatles Tour - just in case you didn't know, The Beatles originated from Liverpool :) 

This one was definitely more interesting than the museums that we visited the day before and prior our visit, we listened to a playlist of Beatles songs on Spotify just to prep and get in the zone hahahah

Back at Busaba for a red curry this time!! Was soooo flavoursome and creamy - a perfect combination with white jasmine rice that would soak it all up, but unfortunately we did not check the fine print on the discount card and realised that the discount was only valid from Sundays to Thursdays and so we had to pay the full price for it. But no regrets because boy was that curry delicious 

The restaurant looked lovely as well! After lunch, we walked around for a bit more and then headed back and had left over curry from the previous night for dinner! 

The next day, we lazed around in the air bnb till about 11am till we decided that we should probably head out. We headed to the waterfront just to have a look around and as we were walking, we were playing the 'Guess the capital of the country' game which I really enjoy! It makes you feel knowledgable (if you do know your capitals) and also makes you want to be more knowledgable about countries who's capital cities you are unaware of :) (My dad started this when we were younger and I always got so excited when we played this game and Justina and I would just be in awe of how much he knew :') ) 

We managed to catch this breathtaking sight of sunlight just peaking through a thick band of clouds (and 2 seagulls symmetrically on 2 lamp posts) - it was almost glorious 

After this we headed to - you guessed it, Busaba!!! 

I had the same vegan pad thai I had on the first day and this time we shared a side of sweet potato fries which was a perfect accompaniment to our delicious food! I love the hints of lime that you get amongst the sweetness of the noodles and crunch that comes from the peanuts ☺

We then headed to the World Museum and the Walker Art Gallery after lunch. The World museum was really more for kids but the exhibitions were still rather interesting (Topo really enjoyed it!!) and the Walker Art Gallery was - ok. We called it a day and headed in the direction of the bus stop, but cheekily stopped by Five Guys and shared a packet of small fries. I almost did not feel guilty because the fries were really quite good and it made me so happy after another not-so-exciting day in Liverpool. At the end of the 2nd day I was already counting down to the day that we had to leave for The Lake District - it was that bad. 

So anyway, we decided that since we've exhausted our options of things to do, we'd go cafe hopping the next day!! (well just to 2 cafes, but it still counts ok) 

Went to the Brunch Club which had a lovely interior design

The 2 black looking patties are their home-made falafels which were delicious!

Lunch here was really good and I absolutely loved the atmosphere

We stayed at the cafe after eating for about an hour, just chatting and relaxing and I found myself finding so much enjoyment in doing that. I guess when you're on holiday you don't always have to have activities planned and for you to be out and about all the time, which is something that I'm really used to and almost conditioned to think that if I wasn't doing just that, then I wasn't utilizing my time wisely because you have to see as much as you can whilst you're in a foreign place. However, I'm definitely more open to the idea now that sometimes it's a lot more exciting to just go somewhere with no concrete plans in mind and see where that takes you (Thank you Topo ♥) ! In this case, we were brought to The Brunch Club and it was honestly my favourite day of our trip!! 

After the Brunch Club, we headed to Rococo for tea and to read - I was reading The Pilgrimage whilst drinking hot chocolate and Topo was reading Catcher in the Rye whilst sipping on chai tea ☺ I may have fallen asleep on the sofa for a bit but I had such a great afternoon that day!! It felt amazing to just go to a cafe, have a drink and read, amongst the buzzing conversations that other people were having and the sounds of clinking as people stirred their drinks. 

I honestly felt so contented and in my mind I was thinking 'This was by far my favourite day of our trip', and with that we headed back to the air bnb and had pasta with potatoes in a curry sauce mmhmmmmmm

The next morning - HALLELUJAH it was time for us to leave!! We headed to the station and hopped on our 9:06am train to Oxenholme, Lake District!