Home Sweet Home... at least for now.

The big red door -- welcome to the Embassie Hostel. This is the front door to the place that I call home. It's a well hidden hostel that lies on the top of the hill in a place called Falkner Square....and it even has palm trees in the front yard! This place is often difficult to find, but worth while once you do -- they joked with me when I had first checked in. They sang hotel california to me and said I could check out but never leave. This has become to be the not only the reality of my life, but of so many others. Travellers come back to visit from time to time, sharing stories that reach back sometimes as far as 10 years ago.

Each morning when I walk down these stairs from my shared room upstairs, it isn't uncommon to find a new face working at the front desk. Past guests know how it is all too easy to offer your time at the reception in exchange for a free bed during their stay. Things are very laid back here, to say the least. It's like a time warp once you walk through the front door -- there are no computers, no reception -- just a big wooden kitchen table with benches and all the free tea, toast, & coffee that you can ingest. The bookings are kept in an oversized daily planner and as one of our long term guests would say, "daa-zit".

This is the "reception"...

-- and this is the view from my post when working over nights... sometimes it's blury... something like the photo, especially when my manager gets the better of me and puts me on the drink.

Othertimes, I can see clearly and just sit back and take it all in...as I was trying to do in the above photo. On the night that the photo below was taken we has a Noreweigan group spending a few nights while they were here doing a gig and they had taken it upon themselves to get some practice time in through the night -- it was fantastic. Coupled with the Norway crew were a large group of Spanish who were on a trip to Liverpool as part of their course in learning English. I had a kitchen full of entertainment that kept me awake until half 5 in the morning ... the energy in the room was just amazing, and it reminded me again just why I love to travel so much.

Me & one of the Spanish Dudes -- Maneul.

There are a few of us who live here in the hostel as "long termers." It's become somewhat of a little family away from home. There is Luke, who, admittedly, loves to flex his muscles and isn't the least bit camera shy. He's from Ireland and is a rapper, if he could say anything to you at the moment it would be, "Chou Tube" ... "search C4 and give us a listen." In a very heavy Dublin accent. Trying to hit Luke over the head with a bottle is Adrian... a very quiet Australian who is also around for a while.

Where there is one Aussie, you'll most likely find another. Below is fellow long termer Matt on the left and Kev Senior to the right of him. Kev Sr. is the manager here and Matt... well sometimes he likes to think he is. This is taken in the free tea, toast, and coffee area.

Kev Sr. is full of life. He loves the Beatles and boasts of how many times he'd seen them even before they were famous. He greets each guest with the same stories time and time again with the same amount of enthusiasm as the first time he's told it. His most famous for his terrible jokes, signing around the hostel, and talking about how his band out placed the Beatles in a battle of the bands contest back in the day.

... there is my roomie, Sally. She's been here for a little longer than me and had been a past guest. She's absolutley full of life, it's fantastic. She loves 60's dress and has amazing style....did I mention that she loves the colour pink?? She even drives a pink mini, fantastic. In this photo is Adrian the Aussie and Owen who also lives here. A little ways down, you'll find Owen telling me that I'm number one... after he and I did a pub crawl on our own which consisted shots of Jagermeister chased with Red Bull and topped off with a shot of Tequila. He was in quite a state... and to be fair, as was I. Being the experienced drinker though, was able to hide it more -- or at least so I thought. There I am, smiling obnoxiously with our new roomate from Ireland, Sara.

And of course, there is Andy, or Bo-J. He's Jamacian and he knows his stuff. One of the wisest people I've come across. The kind of guy where you just sit and listen and suddenly you're entire life comes into question and by the end of it you're slightly more confused than you were at the beginning of the conversation -- but eventually it all comes into place. I love listening to what he has to say. He tells it. And he tells it in such a slow manner than you find yourself glued to every word -- then his speech lowers to a whisper and you find yourself leaning in waiting for what words are about to come out of his mouth -- like he's telling you a secret. It's captivating. That's just the way it is. A self suffiecient man. Lately, I've found myself comparing people in my life that I've met to disney characters -- and for him, he's like the wise Rafiki in the Lion King.... he just knows.

There is a lot that goes on within' the walls of this hostel. More than I could ever write about. We all manage to co-exist and get along as a family, welcoming new people both in and out of our home. Like any other place, it is the people who make this place what it is -- Sometimes in the run of a busy day I forget that I really do love it here and that I am, in fact, living in Liverpool, England.... strange.