I went on a little holiday (part 3)

Welcome back to the 3rd instalment of 'I went on a little holiday'. 

It really wasn't a little holiday though. A holiday that involves 25 hours of plane travel & leaves you drained with cankles bigger than truck tires is never 'little'.

So it was a biggish holiday. But not for nothing would I fly to the other side of the planet. I was here to finally experience my favourite annual event in the flesh.

IT"S SO FREAKING EXCITING!!!! (even with eggheads big nog in the way...)

We are huge Eurovision fans. And when it was announced last year that the UK would hold the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 on behalf of 2022 winners Ukraine, my BBB Vicki sent me a cheeky message saying, "So you're coming to England then?"

I mentioned it casually to Bear and he said, "Sure, let's try and get tickets!"

As members of the Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision (OGAE is the international official Eurovision fanclub), we were able to secure a ticket package to the afternoon preview shows for semi final 1,2 and the grand final. We didn't know we were able to get this package until early March, so from that point on we had about 6 1/2 weeks to plan our trip to the U.K.

This was a massive week. How can I condense this?

I don't think I can. Soz. This is a long post folks!

Tuesday Semi final 1, we arrived early to find a lot of people already starting to queue before the gates opened. I was pretty excited. Everyone was. Behind us was a mum and dad with their young, teenage son.  The mum shrugged and said, "We're just here because our son is a fan." and kind of looked embarrassed. I told her, "We've flown 17,000kms to be here because we're also big fans. So your kid isn't alone!" and I gave him a wink. 

We had good seats, but at the gate the ticket guy accidentally gave us wrist bands that allowed access to the floor.

As we walked into the stadium, not many people were on the floor so we gave many jumps for joy and walked straight up to the front of the stage!

This dudes bald head and a camera were the only things between me and the stage...

My phone camera photos aren't perfect, so I apologise for the photos as they aren't good quality. 

My favourite artist for SF1 was Loreen from Sweden singing Tattoo. I have adored her since she won Eurovision in 2012 with Euphoria. Whilst the 'postcard' for Sweden is shown on big side screens (they are just before each performance on tv), the stage crew wheeled her out on her massive box.

The crowd went wild cheering and she happily waved back at us.

Rita Ora

At the end of the show this lovely girl with a big hoopy skirt who is married to New Zealand actor/ director Taika Waititi sang some songs. She's quite good.

We also bloody loved Käärijä from Finland. The whole stadium was a seething, boiling pit chanting CHA CHA CHA .

If you can't see this guy without thinking 'CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA!" then I highly recommend you jump on the google and look for Käärijä

After the show we headed to a bar somewhere in Liverpool (I can't remember where google maps dragged my weary feet to) where other Aussies as well as Irish members of the OGAE were meeting up for drinks. Some of us had just come from the afternoon preview show and others were soon to head off to the 'live' show. It was a great chance to meet everyone and share our thoughts on the acts.

The next day we took ourselves on a little tour of Liverpool. It's famous for a few things...

The Eurovision village was on the banks of the Mersey River near the Tate Museum and around this famous statue of The Beatles.

We wandered around in there for a little while and sampled a local famous dish called Scouse. 

It's basically a beef or lamb stew with bread and pickled cabbage on the side. This day was cold & windy so a bowl of stew seemed like a good idea. It was freaking delicious. It was just perfect! I've already made it once since we've come back home and I'm trying to make my own pickled cabbage as the local supermarkets don't seem to sell it. I should have bought it while I was there!!

After warming our bellies with bowls of Scouse, we set off to explore more of Liverpool

This replica of John Lennons' Rolls Royce takes tourists on private tours of all the Beatles landmarks. While we were driving around, we knew we were getting close to a landmark as we would see this gorgeous car nearby.

We visited the Cavern Club on Mathews Lane.

It isn't the original Cavern Club that the Beatles performed in, however it was reconstructed using many of the bricks from the original Cavern Club. You can read about the history here and here.

Mick hanging out in the girls loo.

We had a walk around famous Sefton Park.  We didn't know it was a well known landmark of Liverpool. 

We were driving around looking for a toilet. 

I found a park on the goggle maps that had one. We found it (much to our relief), but it didn't have any paper (sigh). 

And then we saw SQUIRRELS! 

"GAD! Not more Australian tourists!!!"

Once we solved the loo situation, we caught a glimpse of the big yellow rolls royce, which we started following and it lead us to Penny Lane!

And at the end of Penny Lane we found the actual "...shelter in the middle of a roundabout..."

And then had a walk around the lovely gardens at Strawberry Fields.

We finished the day in a pub close to our airbnb flat in Hoylake and had the most delicious fish & chips (Sorry Mollymook Golf Club 😞).

The next morning as we set out to watch Eurovision Semi final 2, I saw my 2nd ever robin red breast and he sat long enough for this rather gorgeous photo. Thanks mate!

We weren't lucky enough to get floor access this time. Honestly though, not being able to sit for hours on end is nasty on the old bod. At the end of that day Bears back was stuffed and my arthritic knees and bursitis-y hips were hatin' on me something fierce). So seats were a relief and our view was really great!

We were really looking forward to seeing Australia's entrant Voyager perform. And they did not disappoint.

I didn't take any photos when they were performing. I'd like to say I put down my phone and soaked up the moment. But I actually video'd it. Then played it back later and realised my whiney out of tune singing was coming thru as well! It sounds like I was drunk. Nope. No excuses except exuberant enjoyment.

Hannah chillin'

The next day we went on another sight seeing excursion.

To North Wales.

Canaerfon Castle.

Canaerfon village.

And then Conwy and Conwy Castle.

On Eurovision Grand Final Day we did something I had wanted to do for years. 

We caught a ferry. Across the Mersey.

They even play that song on the ferry. Because there's now tunnels under the river, there's really only one reason why people catch the brightly painted ferry.

As it was the afternoon preview show, the hosts weren't in full costume, but everything was exactly the same as the live show later that evening (except no voting yet!)

Go_A who sang Shum in Eurovision 2021 sang some of that song during the Flag parade at the beginning of the show. This was a few minutes before the start of the show when they were patiently waiting. We were calling out to them, so they turned to blow kisses and wave back.

Graham Nortons head. I'm a bit conflicted about Graham. He's funny. I don't mind his show, BUT he really doesn't like Australia being in Eurovision and did make a few disparaging comments about it during the show. 

It's called Eurovision Graham, not 'European'... 

My favourite performers of the night were:

Australia (of course), 

Finland (song: Cha cha cha) , 

Sweden (song: Tattoo), 

France (song: Evidemment), 

Norway (song: Queen of the Kings) 

Austria (song: Who the hell is Edgar)

United Kingdom (song: I wrote a song)

Portugal (song: Ai curacao)

and Belgium were another one of my favourite performers.

Are we Good to Go Martin Osterdahl?

Sam Ryder. He was performing in the back room of the Cavern Club when we were there. I could hear him singing from the main room. Amazing voice.

A little bit of autocue. Even though the voting didn't officially take place until the end of the televised show, they still did a fake run through using fake results. We, the audience treated it like the real voting tally announcements and cheered when each country results were read out.

Phew! That was a long post. 

It was a big week! Are you still with me? 

Importantly, there were frequent reminders of why we were here instead of in a beautiful Ukrainian city such as Kyiv.

Alot of Ukrainian culture was demonstrated and celebrated throughout the city and in the show.

My favourite were these gorgeous Soloveiko Songbirds – nightingale in English – which are the national bird of Ukraine and a symbol of song and happiness. There were 12 scattered throughout the city.

After a massive week in Liverpool we packed up our little Fiat500 and hit the road...

To Yorkshire...

Louise

🎸 Red Haired Amazona 🎹