As I now sit here in my living room home back in the States I cannot fathom that I underwent this experience. But, before I blubber on and on about how wonderful it all was in a tiny summary that will never do my trip justice, I'd like to say a word or two about the B.I.G's last few days in England.
The last night in Liverpool the majority of the group spent it rocking out to a great live musician in The Cavern Club. The acoustic guitar soloist, Jay Murray, had a splendid voice, as well as a hilarious, raunchy sense of humor. He strummed out numerous well known Beatles songs, and a couple of modern day covers, including the theme song to the hit TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Jay sang a happy birthday dedication to one of our girls, and then picked me out of the crowd to sing a love song to. It was fun to not only have the group there, but to have our wonderful leader, Tim, along with us, rocking out to the 60's songs with.
Our short spent one night stay in Manchester was the perfect amount of time. I may have wanted to stay longer given we go to a different hotel, but I cross my heart in saying that this hotel had to be haunted. My first clue was the fact that there were candles lit everywhere in the very dim lit building. Secondly, according to the staff members it was built back in the 1800's and used as a proper insurance agency for a very long while. Now rumor has it that working for such a prestigious place was of the highest honor one could have way back when, and stepping out of line for any little reasoning caused the employees to get canned, and if you lost your job from that insurance agency it was almost impossible to get hired somewhere else. And not being able to find a job meant no income, and meant there was no significance to your life anymore... I'll let you figure out what happened from there. After the hotel concierge enlightened me with this story, she took myself and a few others down into the hotel basement and gave us a very dim lit tour of where the less fortunate workers would slave away, and mind I say she did not turn the lights on when we came to the large ballroom which was also a good couple of degrees cooler than the rest of the establishment. The B.I.G's were probably playing a fair amount of mind games with ourselves, but I did not sleep a wink our last night because that place gave me the heebee-geebee's!
Awaking bright and early the next morning was no issue for me due to me being oh-so ready to get out of dodge as fast as possible, but upon arriving at the airport we discovered our flight had been delayed by about four hours giving us plenty of free time to kill. As I sat there in the Manchester airport, I spent my last few hours in Europe smoozing over all that I had participated in and had witnessed within my past two weeks.The significant historical locations that I saw, the interesting international people I got to chat with, the delicious foreign food I was able to taste, the music my ears embraced, the stylish fashions that others wore, I'd like to think I let it all sink in. This trip was a one of a kind journey that I will carry with me always, cherishing the friendships I created and the memories that I made. The rest of my summer shall be interesting because I know nothing will be able to live up to the experience I just had, an experience that feels as though "it was only just a dream."
