FOOC Paris in Liverpool...
Due to my sister getting married to a Liverpudlian I have just spent four days in the lovely town of Liverpool.
I originally come from the South so naturally I have always thought of Liverpool as a grey city where everyone paints themselves orange, wear pjs in the street and talk in a comical way. So it was a wonderful surprise to discover this lively, fun loving, creative, dynamic and deeply human place.
I stayed in a trendy apartment at the business end of the city centre which seems to be where lots of people in their twenties like to hang around looking cool, being cool and living their lives to the max!
Liverpool city centre is very beautiful! The new shopping area is surrounded by fountains and is half covered which makes it less clostraphobic than my local Quatre Temps at La Defense. I believe it has been built using money from The Capital of Culture budget - which seemed a bit odd but in Liverpool part of the culture is the fab experimental fashion seen on every street (quite impressive for a girl like me - used to conservative Paris) - so why not build a line of shops to buy these exciting, fun, vibrant clothes in? Seems a good idea to me!
In contrast to the new fun shopping centre the old buildings are beautiful and rightous looking but have much less proud funding. Liverpool was built on the money of selling and buying slaves. These palace like buildings are a sad reminder of the UKs more shady past and humanity at its worst.
Interestingly, almost to balance the story of inhumanity hidden behind the facades of these old buildings, dotted around the entire city are many interesting sculptures that often tell of very human struggles. Whether it be the plight of slaves, The Blitz, people traveling through Liverpool to start a new lfe in America or the famous super bananalamb that I couldn't help but smile at they all pull at a heart string here or there.
What is also deeply striking is the friendliness of people. In shops people chat with strangers with a warmth people in Suffolk or Paris prefer to reserve for their nearest and dearest.
It was lovely to be so impressed by somewhere I expected to be unintersted in. Like noticing a butterfly on a concrete step.
Ontop of that I was beside myself with joy when at 9am I noticed a lady walking down the street in her pjs, and two women turned up at the wedding in mini dresses with bright orange skin and when I found myself nodding and smiling at a man, with shocking yellow hair, whom I had asked for directions because his accent was so deliciously thick I had no idea what he was saying!
Something different in Liverpool to Paris and Suffolk (the places I know the best so use as a refernce points) is this.... People just live in Paris or live in Suffolk and it is just a matter of life. Nothing to be 'proud' of. While I really felt that people from Liverpool are proud to come from such a special place. There is a sense of comradeship with other 'Scoucers' and as a result other people full-stop - a feeling of the human race moving forward together.
On a wall near the museum someone had scratched "'08 Scousers rule de World" - Perhaps a bit of an overstatement but they are at least are having a go at making sure the people who live or stay in Liverpool, even for just four days like me, realise that they are part of something big and fun and worthwhile - we are all part of this overwhelming multicolour thing called life with every colour of good and bad and all the shades inbetween.