It’s grand final day! And indeed it’s also our final grand day here in Liverpool. Awww.

The day got off to a simple start, brekky downstairs at the hotel. Perry’s still feeling a little bit blah so he went back to room for a bit more rest. I figured it was as good a time as any to get another batch of washing done. It would’ve been great if I hadn’t missed the bus by a few minutes (to save maybe 20% of the journey) but slow and steady wins the race, and walked all the way to the laundrette.

On the way there was a big choir singing ABBA tunes so that was a lovely diversion. The city is laying so many cultural events and bits and bibs for Eurovision, it’s fantastic.

Washing on and it’s time to wander down to Costa a coffee for a cold drink. It’s only 14 degrees but it was warm in the sun! I had a a still (ie America style) lemonade, dunno why I was so amused that good part is drink is good old natural council pop – ie after the ice and flavouring he filled the rest with tap water. 🙂 Still tasted good though, and nice to sit down while the washing was busy getting itself all dizzy going around and around.

On the plus side, I was able to use the app to reserve a washer at the laundrette ahead of time – and when I got there I didn’t even need it, two of the three machines were free – nice!

Returning to laundrette I found all the machines in use, so yay for turning up when I did. The excitement of washing day, am I right 🙂

While that was doing its thing I took a stroll around on a gorgeous spring day and took photos of some nice old buildings.

The only downside was that the dryer didn’t do much of a job of drying so i had to lay everything out around the hotel and hope for the best (spoiler alert, it’s still kinda damp)

On one the quick rests I took on the way back, a gentleman asked if I was expecting anyone else on the bench and could his wife sit down – so I ended up having a conversation with a wonderful older couple, locals, well local enough. Back in the day he was an apprentice working on the ferry ‘cross the Mersey, so it was great to hear some of his stories from back in the day. Every local person I’ve run in to has been nothing but lovely , even our Uber guy ti the train station was all “thanks so much, you take care, and safe travels ok gents” – but, I think he actually meant it. There just seems to be this very deep seated sense of care that running through the heart of Liverpool. Sure some of the Aussies we’ve met who are staying out of town have some different stories, and maybe we’ve just been lucky, but everyone has been so ridiculously nice. More please!

Back at the hotel I packed as much as I could, knowing that we’d have to leave after way too little sleep. (It’s self inflicted bad travel planning). Perry has already headed off the arena nice and early to hopefully get a great spot to stand. Once packed I had myself a little disco nap to try and prepare for what was to come. Then I got ready (I even more something shiny), smashed down a Big Mac and then on to the show!

I was queueing with some lovely people from Huddersfield and Manchester that were great fun to hang around, it helped the time pass quickly, and soon it was in to the nownfsmilar routine of queue, wait, queue again, wait, and into the Arena. Pretty much everyone has stepped up their costume game – it was lovely to see everybody really going all-out for such a huge event. And one legend with a Hannah Waddingham mask 🙂

I found Perry pretty quick, right at the back of the room near the “Green room” area, and more importantly, at a barricade we could lean on for the next 6 or so hours. It was great to again see some the other Aussies we’d met up with on other days. (Hey Paul!)

Eurovision Grand Finals are definitely a marathon, not a sprint, a test of endurance where you have to plan rehydration, food, all that important stuff. I was really flagging about three hours in til I went off and grabbed myself a big drink of sugary lemonade. Energy restored, and trying to ignore my aching feet, it was on with enjoying the show.

Is it weird to say it was, in a way, slightly anti- climactic? At least at the start, seeing all the acts that we’d seen before, though of course was a treat to be again able enjoy songs from Croatia (bonkers), Austria (Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe), Belgium (very catchy), Finland (CHA CHA CHA!!!), and of course Australia.

The mid-show entertainment was nice, though to be honest it was marred a bit by fans of one country that had no interest in any of the goings on that didn’t strictly involve them. We were right near their green room so they spent a lot of time shouting and trying to get the attention of their act. It just seemed a little disrespectful to me to be doing that during a particularly heartfelt rendition of Liverpool’s unofficial (or official, who knows?) anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone. Nearly everyone in the arena was having A Bit Of A Moment, but, not all. I admit was a little bit happy when this country’s act did not win.

It was great to see so many previous participants returning for one of the interval acts – Netta, Sonia (UK 1993), and a joy that Dadi Freyer finally got to the stage after covid derailed them two years in a row. They didn’t disappoint. And of course Ukraine’s Vera Seduchka with her banger ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’, and I’m totally sure she didn’t intentionally mean for it to sound like ‘Russia Goodbye’. Surely not.

Also great was seeing the incredible camaraderie in the green room – countries visiting other countries, Kaarija from Finland serving drinks to the Australians, it was hilarious, and showed there was a lot of love in the room. Here’s some bits and pieces from the night.

Inevitably it was then time for the most important/stressful part – the scoring. Actually it wasn’t that stressful because we know Australian won’t win. But as always there were some big surprises along the way.

(Spoiler alert just in case you’ve been living under a rock)

It was a real thrill when I think two countries gave their 12 points to Australia, and I’m glad that we’d chosen to give our 12 points to Belgium. The atmosphere in the room was electric, perhaps the biggest shock of all was when Greece didn’t give 12 points to Cyprus. Eurovision will never be the same again.

To cut a long story short it ended up as a bit of a race between Finland and Sweden for first place. But when the jury vote was combined with the “televote” (ie votes from all the punters at home), there was one clear winner, and that was the favourite all along: Sweden. I would’ve like Finland to win, but Sweden deserved it.

Other happy things: nobody received the dreaded ‘nul points’, though Germany came pretty close with I think 3 points. This also means the UK didn’t come last, though they didn’t do very well at all this year.

After a somewhat gruelling but incredible 6 hours in the arena it was finally time to head home, knowing we’d only get about 5 hours sleep — we didn’t want to take any chances so we left tons of time to get to the station the next day knowing things might still be a bit random after todays train strike.

But, that’s it – Eurovision done and dusted! What an incredible experience to be a part of, hard to describe and definitely hard to beat. I’m so incredibly glad it finally came to be.