Onward to Liverpool

I was slightly nervous that my route was too complicated to pull off in such a short amount of time.  I’m not referring to the traveling featured on TV shows and magazines.  I’m talking about the often stressful voyages from Point A to Point B that involve waiting in train stations and rushing to connecting flights.

First I had to locate the bus terminal.  My GPS worked in the hostel equipped with Wi-Fi, but since I didn’t activate my phone I couldn’t use it when I was out and about. To decrease my room for error, I scouted the place out the day before and memorized the fastest route.  At the terminal, an American couple, Kim and Chuck from Phoenix, asked me if I was going to the ferry.  I said that I was, and I confirmed this was the right stop by asking an older Irish gentlemen who earlier had sat in the terminal at the crack of dawn.  Hoping we could trust the advice of strangers, all of us foreigners banded together with our uncertainty. 

As the old man promised, the bus delivered us to the ferry’s doorstep.  At the ticket station, I discovered——or the ticket guy told me rather——that I could buy a single ticket for a ferry ride across the Irish Sea and a train that would take me from Holyhead, Wales to Liverpool.  My anxiety immediately dissipated.  I thought I’d have to take a bus to catch a ferry to catch a bus to catch a train to catch another bus, but the English rail system is mighty convenient. 

 

Traveling by ferry is a much more comfortable method than flying.  The only deceiving part of ferry travel is that the salt packets look just like sugar packets, and this mistake really ruins a cup of tea.  

Other than that, there is so much space on the boat.  You can walk around, shop for souvenirs, use the restroom without contorting your body, have breakfast at the café with no need to balance your steamy cup of coffee that with each jolt threatens to spill in your lap.  There’s no one kicking the back of your seat or hogging the armrest or boring you with the details of their mundane professional lives.  In fact, you can sprawl out on soft cushions and take a nap.

If you so desire, you can even venture outside to the observatory deck.  I peeked my head outside to see what the fuss was all about.  When I opened the door, a strong gust of wind whipped me in the face and nearly knocked my glasses off my nose.  I cautiously approached the railing.  The wind was so powerful it filled my clothes up with air so that I looked as though I were wearing a fat suit. 

 

Jack must have been crazy for standing on the edge of the bow in The Titantic.  The sea must have been calm that day, or surely he would’ve fallen into the ocean sooner rather than later. 

The American couple ran into me before we disembarked.  They were going to London and then Amsterdam to see the flower festival.  I explained my background and current peregrinations, and Kim urged me to take as much time as possible before settling into a career when I’ll be too focused on 401K’s to be planning my next voyage. 

“Looking back on it,” Chuck said. “I wish I took some time off to travel before I started working.”

Kim urged me to teach English in Asia, somewhere like South Korea or Japan, where I’d be paid about $30,000 a year plus health insurance and sometimes room and board. 

“You can wait tables anywhere, anytime,” she said.  “But now when you’re young you can take time to really explore the different parts of the world.”

They crammed in as much advice as they could while the bus from the ferry carted us to the station.  They asked me about my trip and I explained my frugal strategy to save money while buying food.  I took advantage of free or cheap breakfasts at the hostel, loading up on as much food as I could eat.  If the meal were free, I’d sometimes wake up early just as service was beginning and stuff my face with carbs and fruit.  Then I’d shower and get my bag ready for the day, and before heading out the door I’d have a little snack and maybe sneak an apple or two into my bag. 

In the afternoon, I’d buy fresh fruit from a local stand.  I usually bought apples because they’re generally more filling than berries or bananas.  Also, I can store them in my bag without making a mess.  But when I eat the apples, I eat all of them, including the cores.  I told Kim this, and she felt so sympathetic to my meager budget that she rooted through her bag and handed me packets of cookies.

 

I thanked her for her motherly gesture and was humbled by the couple’s immediate friendliness.  I had just committed the ultimate sin mothers often decry:  Don’t take candy from a stranger.  Yet, even though I had only spoken with them for a few minutes in a bus terminal and then on a bus, we didn’t feel like strangers. 

I was doing what they had always wanted to do, and they advised me to avoid certain futures.  Running into them was pure chance, but these seemingly trivial encounters can effectively alter the course of your life.  Due to Kim’s advice, I started researching opportunities to teach English in Asian countries, and now I have a clearer idea of how I’d like to invest in my future.

Before we parted ways——they for London and I for Liverpool——Kim implored me to enjoy my youth.  It was the kind of advice that could be shouted in a bus terminal——succinct like a well-packed snowball.  When one gives advice of this caliber, there is not enough time to dissect the details, so generic pleas will have to suffice.  But there is no need to explicate the reasons not to seize the opportunities of youth.  I have talked to several of my elders who have advised me to play as long as I can before I have to get serious.  As I listened to the origins of their life-long careers, all I needed to hear is the tone of regret.  That is enough to persuade me.