Simone Reddington

This weekend I re-visited Liverpool for my first mini-holiday since I left the city at the beginning of lockdown to move back in with my family, six whole months ago.

I had lived in Liverpool for just over 4 years, and in that time I matured from an innocent 18 year old fresher to a more stressed 22 year old graduate who experienced my fair share of ups and downs in the city. I made many friends, but also lost some. I fell in love with the world around me, but also became familiar with heartbreak. I graduated with a degree and succeeded at many things, but I also failed at others and certainly did not feel ready to leave when I did. When one of my best friends invited me to stay at her home for a couple of days, I immediately took up the opportunity. I wanted to make the most of my freedom now that the lockdown restrictions were lifted, and I knew that it was best to go before the winter and this was the last weekend before the local lockdown in the North West begun.

On Saturday lunch-time I arrived at Lime Street station feeling like Serena van der Woodson in the first episode of Gossip Girl except I wearing a face mask instead of a glamourous wardrobe. I was curious to see if the city’s vibe had changed in the six months that I’d been away but, apart from all the masks and 2m floor markings, it still felt like Liverpool and the contagious feel-good atmosphere was still there. I forgot how amazing the energy was in Liverpool city centre on a hot sunny days, as it was still the bitterly cold winter when I left. People were out and about, smiling and enjoying their weekends. It felt good to be back in my second home.

My friend met at the station and we got a taxi to her gorgeous flat, which is just a couple of miles away from the city centre. After a cup of tea while catching up with each other’s gossip, we got ready and headed into town. My friend is a vegan, so we went to a restaurant called ‘The Veggie Republic’. It was the first time I had dined in the restaurant and I was very impressed with both it’s cosy and relaxed atmosphere, and delicious menu. It had such a broad range of choice on the menu and I was spoilt for options. I eventually decided on dough balls for a starter and a pepperoni pizza for main course. Delicious.

I was fairly tired so we went home after we ate our meal and finished our drinks. The next day, I arranged to meet up with a couple of my friends from uni. One of them has since moved to Chester since graduating so we decided to meet there, since Liverpool FC were playing a match that afternoon so the city centre would most likely to be packed and it would be more difficult to find a free table and socially distance outside. My friend took us to her favourite pub in Chester, which had a stunning beer garden where we could enjoy the evening’s sunshine before we went for something to eat. We ate at an amazing Chinese restaurant where we stuffed ourselves on mouth-watering prawn toast, spring rolls, chicken wanton, salt and pepper wings, and so much more.

On my last full day, I wanted to meet another friend from uni so I met him on this afternoon. We had a lovely chat and bought some ciders from the local Tesco and drank them while soaking up the beautiful views at the Pier Head. Despite all the disappointments and heartbreak I may have experienced while living in Merseyside, nothing will ever change my love for the city and I will always treasure the extremely happy memories I have of Liverpool. It’s a place that is extremely rich in history and culture, and the scousers are some of the friendliest people in the world who welcome all visitors with open arms. I may not be from there, or live there permanently, but it is my favourite city in the world.

I returned home after staying three nights at my friend’s place and the breakaway cleared my mind and did me a lot of good. I didn’t realise how much I needed a change of scenery and a chance to catch up with old friends who l hadn’t seen since the world was turned upside down. After moving back in with my parents, I haven’t been able to socialise with many people my own age and it was so good to escape to for what felt like an oasis of normality in these extremely worrying times. The tourism industry has taken a massive blow as a result of this pandemic as people are now unable to explore the world and visit exotic locations with the freedom that we had taken advantage of for so long. While I do miss being able to go abroad (and I have every bit of sympathy for those people work in the aviation industry and are financially struggling) I do believe that this pandemic has given us the opportunity to appreciate what we already have. As lovely as flying abroad is, it’s not the five-star holiday resorts or 40 degrees weather that makes our holiday memories priceless. It’s the feeling of freedom from the grind of every day life, the quality time that we spend together with family, the chance to restore ourselves mentally in a place different to home. My three day stay away in Liverpool did exactly that for me last weekend.

As the UK prepares for a possible second wave of coronavirus, there was definitely a sense of the party being over as the summer draws to a close and the government announces more social distancing restrictions. Both Liverpool and County Durham (where I am from and call home) have now been put in local lockdown and it is definitely as important as ever to take care and look after each other, particularly our more vulnerable members of society. Personally, I am happy to stay inside again as the weather gets colder and we begin to prepare for the dark nights, but obviously this pandemic is going to affect us all differently. For the moment, I am now considering myself to be very fortunate that I was able to see all my loved ones once again.