Manchester: another day of walking

After we finally got on our way after the bus delay, the ride went smooth. It was about 1 1/2 hours. The delay worked in our favor because things didn't start opening until 9a-10a. We ended up getting in a little after 8:30. We had originally planned on visiting Manchester the day before but decided on an extra day in Liverpool. Once we talked about it, Manchester was just to close not to go. Even if it was just a day trip or stop on our way to Oxford. After finding out the tickets from Liverpool to Manchester was only 4£ ( about $6) for the both of us it was a no brainer.

We had been hoping the bus stop had lockers for us to store our bags while we wondered Manchester. No such luck. We headed over to Arndale shopping centre across the road. We sat at the food court and had our breakfast while figuring out what places to go.

Mark had to deal with a bs situation with the local bank before anything could be done. As he was getting off the phone we walked out of the centre. Right in front of us was the Manchester Cathedral. We figured it was a good time to visit and take a moment to relax and reflect.

I am always amazed by the detail work in detailed work in these older buildings especially the cathedrals. After talking a few minutes and touring the cathedral we headed to our first destination on our agenda, an old library.

It is an old library that stored, ready for this, old books. The library is owned by a local university and has a study areas on one of the floors. Again this building had so much detailed moldings throughout.

Once we left the library with luggage in hand, we walked by the courthouse. Soon to be the home of Mark's finest work. We headed a few blocks to the People's History Museum.

The museum was about the UK history of workers and unions. We only spent about 20 minutes at that museum. We didn't like it much, clearly.

Next we walked to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Luckily this place had lockers for us to store our luggage. This museum was really unique. It was composed of 5 historic buildings hosting different parts of the museum. Some of the museums themes were power, computers, textiles, trains, recycling, cameras, planes and bikes. Kodak had a display which is neat because Kodak is out of Rochester. I liked the train and airplane displays. I also really enjoyed the model of the first computer they had on display.This museum also had a few groups of students visiting at the same time.

Right when we decided to go, it started to pour down rain. Mark had just said how he was surprised we hadn't really seen any rain. Go figure.

We ran back over to building one. Once we walked in they said everyone had to leave because of a fire alarm going on. We both looked at each other and said o'well. We ran through the rain and found a place to eat some lunch, hoping we will be able to get our stuff once we finish.

We ended up at a pub called The White Lion Manchester. We ordered a beer to start. For lunch I ordered Ox tail and Mark decided to be English and get Fish w/chips (fries). The food took a while to come but was well worth it.

After collecting our stuff from the museum we headed back to the bus stop. On our walk back we saw a road was blocked with a car at the end of the road. It looked funny because they had little evidence tags on the road. Kind of like you would expect from bullet casings (thank you first 48 for that visual). We had to walk by the car and it was a mess. I felt a moment of sadness over what I was looking at. No bullet holes but just a bad crash. I will leave it at that.

Our bus was running late due to traffic partially caused by that same accident. At this point Mark and I were about ready to pass out from lack of sleep. We also had walked an average of about 4 miles a day (my estimates). Our next bus ride was a long one to Oxford. Of course this was the bus ride that was the worst. It was bumpy, loud, and uncomfortable. The guys in front of us decided to drink on the bus. One got sick (bumpy ride) and threw up in the toilet. I fell asleep and woke up I don't even know how many times. Not to mention I am sure I was that annoying guy snoring. I was so tired I didn't even care......Next stop Oxford.

Most of my pictures for Manchester are on my other phone. Here is what I got for know.

Liverpool

I was going to do a video post for this but I am riding on a bus to London right now. I am sure no one wants to hear me.

Liverpool was just as fun. I rented an apartment in the city center for this part of the trip. We caught the bus to Liverpool from the place we stayed in Birmingham. The trip was a little over a 2 hour ride. The bus stop was in sketchy area. We found a map and started walking to the hotel and got a little lost thanks to my great. Aviation skills. After asking a nice lady how the hell we get to this road we continued our walk to the hotel. The area was deserted. Mark and I talked how disappointing what we had been seeing was.

We finally found our hotel. We went to check in and the lady was like you are at the wrong location (jaw dropped). She gave us a nice map (not the little bs I got a the bus stop). It was another 5 minute walk away. She also gave a good idea of all the good locations for entertainment in the city. which happened to be closer tithe place we where staying not the place we showed up. We also found out that a soccer match was on (explanation to deserted streets).

We got to the hotel and the journey was well worth it because the place was really nice and literally across the street from everything. We settled in and made out our plans: eat dinner, go to a bar, wake up and go sightseeing ( Sunday and everything had already closed).

We drank bottle of wine and talked a while before getting out the door. We walked around a few block area and decided an Italian place for diner. It was like a family restaurant. We just chatted mostly about Fantasy football . It was about 8pm uk making it 3 Us. About the time the early games are entering the 4th quarter.

We headed two blocks over to the bar club area and settled on a restaurant bar called Lloyd's for our destination. We got a couple bottles of wine and went up stairs. It was a sunday night and didn't expect much. Drank and people watched. The people were drunk and dancing accordingly. It was just a chill evening. We decided to call it an early night at around 1am.

As we walked out the bar we ran into a few girls and started to talk to them. We all ended up heading to a club across the square. We talked and had a few drinks and enjoyed some decent music. After that we headed to grab some food. While waiting for someone food we ended up at another club for a few dances. We finally made it back to the hotel around 5 am w/ plans of getting up a 8a. We had plans to check out go sightseeing and head to Manchester.

As you can guess that didn't happen. We got up at 10. About 1 hour before check out. After a few minutes I decided we should stay another day. I went to Tesco (grocery store) and picked up some food. I made some breakfast, got dressed and headed out.

Our first stop was the Walker art Gallery. Along the way we stop at a memorial park and ran into Occupy Liverpool. The art galley was amazing. I loved the gallery with of the work from recipients of the Walker Gallery award. Mark & I went off on our own (as we did in all the museums/galleries).

We headed over to the Museum of Liverpool. It was a four story museum. I enjoyed the Egyptian and cultures of the work exhibits. I missed out on the Jungle and Dinosaur that Mark said was nice.

We walked through the shopping centre to the Echo wheel area. Took pictures of some of the buildings before taking a ride on the echo wheel. It had a nice view of the city lights. It was getting real cold do we headed back to the hotel.

After relaxing and goofing off for a little while. I cooked up some pizza and chicken. We ate dinner like true bosses. After eating dinner we decide we couldn't leave Manchester out of our plans and had to go.

Next on the agenda was another night out. We ended up at this place called camel club. It had a nice vibe. A good crowd. All the people seemed to be coupled up. So we just chilled out and had a drink. The DJ played some nice tunes but they just don't know how to mix songs or transition out here. We ended up talking to a few girls but they had come with someone. We called it an early night at 1. We had to get up at 530a for our next stop to Manchester. Mark went to sleep around 2a. I Stayed up booked our travel tickets, packed and looked at things to do in Manchester.

I made breakfast to go while Mark packed. After saying goodbye to our lovely apartment we headed to the bus stop. We found it a lot easier then anticipated. after we boarded it turned out our bus driver got played and his relief never showed up at his last stop so he had to take a break. After sitting around for 40 minutes we took off to Manchester.

Liverpool was another great destination. Deciding to stay an extra day was well worth the good time. Sorry for any errors I don't have time to edit this :)

UK Stories & Pictures

This is my last UK post... For now at least. Here are all the pictures I have from my trip (all the way at the bottom). Also some random items from the trip.


I was been burned a few times in the UK. Here are a few UK stories.

- A guy asked me if I spoke English and said yes. He asked me a question and I said what. He walked off with an attitude. My friend was like you should have said no you speak American (burned).

- I was asked if I would like my food for here. Me: Can I have it to go. The guy at the counter: 'what'. Me: to go. He looked at me confused and asked me if I would like it 'Take way'... umm yeah.

- I asked a bartender at a club where the restroom was. Bartender: What. Me: Bathroom Bartender: What. Me: Toilet. Bartender: oh, upstairs on the left.

- Mark: I wonder what they do in there. Me: I am sure they have offices in there. Mark: I wonder what they do. Me: IDK How em i suppose to know. whatever it is they do in a fucking palace....? Both: lmao

-toilet/bathroom are separate rooms

- don't use preservatives. Bread taste great

- No added crap to foods. Crisps (chips) ingredient list: potatoes, sunflower oil, salt.

Reading words and thinking they are spelled wrong or weird: use the toilet, mind the gap ( instead of watch your step) Colour, TK Max, Chips (fries), Crisps (chips), Baguette (Sub), fussy, cheers, yeah, naughty, centre

I am sure I missed a lot of things but I am sure you all get the point. I had a blast and the UK was fun.

Random UK Videos
Squirrel

Oxford Singers

3D Glass Image

Occupy Liverpool

Liverpool Apartment 

UK Pictures. Mark has most of the good ones but here is what I have.

London I


Birmingham


Liverpool


Manchester


Oxford


London II

Birmingham UK

Post Club & Bar

Birmingham was very nice and very modern. After missing our bus we had to wait around for 2 hours for the next one. Mark was already at the station when we finally arrived. Once we go into town we headed to the hotel. We had to catch a train to get to it. After settling in so late we decided to just hang out at the hotel bar. Being the smart guy I am I forgot that UK has a different power plugs. I used the business center computer to charge my ipod and 2 iphones while we enjoyed a bottle of wine. We mostly caught up on what has been going on and Fantasy football. Manas hung out with us to and just listened. We ended up staying up all night and walking over to the airport (across the street) to get some food. We went to bed at about 6a.


We got up at 10a to head into town. I lost my voice somehow and had a hard time talking all day.  We started by going to a popular shopping area (look up BullRing). This place was crazy. We ran into some festival that was going on called Frankfurt Christmas Market & Craft Fair. Of course we had to join in. We got a beer and a Frank

After partaking in the festival we whipped out our handy map (how I miss google maps)  to find the local museum (Birmingham Museum and art gallery). After browsing around that for a while we headed to Nando for dinner before heading to the hotel. The chicken was great.

Once we got to the hotel we crashed out but had been planning to go out. Determined to experience the night life we decided to take the leap (we did not know what time the pubs closed). We walked over to the train and found out we had missed the last one into town. Still being determined to make sure we went out we manage to track down a bus that was still running. We ended up wondering around the club area but mostly found nothing. Next thing we know we hear a nice tune and decide that was our choice. It was a Caribbean/African club called Post. After crabbing a beer we just chilled to the music. The place was LIVE!!! We had women walking up to us.  A guest performer showed up. We ended leaving at like 4 am.

All the buses and trains don't start running until 6-7a. We wondered around for a while before deciding just to take a cab but we didn't want to pay the £30 the cab was trying to charge us. I decided to just walk up to one of them and say all I have is £20 to get me here (handed him the adress to the hotel). He said it was £30 to go and I said that was all I had. So we started to walk off. We got about 50 feet and another cab driver said I'll do it.So we got home and save  a couple of £ ($$). We got up early to catch the bus to our next destination. Manas went back to London and Mark and I went to Liverpool. I will make a video post for that trip. Until then enjoy some pictures.

I will have to post more pictures up later. Pictures from one of my iPhones won't upload. I will likely do just a photo album post. Time to go get some sleep (which has been one thing lacking in this trip). Enjoy!

Mind The Gap

Central London

Waiting on our bus to Birmingham

Bus to Birmingham

Mark & I in Birmingham

Sunglasses and Advil. Last night was mad real. Sun comin up, 5 a.m. I wonder if they got cabs still

I wish I had more time to write a long post but I got to check out and catch a bus to Liverpool. I will post a longer update of what happned here in Birmingham along with some pictures. It was a lot of fun with no sleep. The first night we got to the hotel late so we just chilled at the hotel bar drinking wine and catching up.

 The next day we shopped (look up BullRing). This place was crazy. They had some kind of Festival going on and it was packed. The whole area was nothing but shopping. We went back to the hotel rested and went out. We cuaght the bus to the city. We found some random Caribbean spot. It was live. We had women walking up to us. Left at like 4 am and caught a cab back to the hotel (this is a stoy in itself).

Just booked a crazy spot in Liverpool. Ok, I have to go check out but I will update this later and add some pictures.

Day one and some

I landed in London yesterday. The flight was ok but my sinuses are horrible. The plane food was worth forgetting. It was a good thing I decided to buy some before takeoff.

After landing and waiting for my friend to meet me I got my first ride on the"tube". (I thought of you Nicole when the voice said "Mind the Gap"). We went to his house dropped off my stuff and hit the streets.

First up was business. Went to the bank to get some £. Followed by a trip to get a sim card ( on the UK grid officially).

We didn't do any sight seeing just walking around Central London. It is crazy how so many of the things in London remind me of NYC. A great public transit system and a large amount of people to start with. The shops (although different brands) and atmosphere are very similar. People singing in the underground (subway). It is clearly different when it comes to other things like they drive on the other side of the road and a lot of the public busses are double deckers not too mention the people talk funny (lol). People here also seem to be nicer.

While wondering the streets of London I got a couple souvenir shot glasses. I also went to look for Elmer and Wilbur the elephants for a friend. The first store we walked into had the books but not the stuffed animal :( I was looking for. We also stopped by the chemist to get some sinus medicine.

We headed back home after that. After 48 hours with only about 4 hrs of sleep I was ready to catch some Zzz. To bad my sinuses kept me up.

Today is just rested and spent sometime with my friend's mom. We are heading to Birmingham to meet up with another friend to start some real fun. To bad we missed our original bus and have to wait 2 hours for the next one.

Hopefully my entries will be a little more exciting going further. As of right now the plans are go out tonight, shop tomorrow, go out tomorrow night, travel to Liverpool, sight see, go out again, head back to Oxford or London and do more sight seeing. Check out some pictures so far.

Oh and Baby Cam is here. Congrats T!! I can't wait to meet her.

Trip To London.

So, I am going to London for A week. I am sitting in the DC airport with a 6 hours layover waiting for my  departure flight Heathrow. I feel like I should be more excited about it. Maybe it is because I am not looking forward to the 7 hours flight. Maybe it is because I don't allow myself to get to excited about somethings. Maybe it is just because I now feel that is isn't about the places you go but rather the people you meet the people you spend time with that matters. This coming from a person that wants to travel the world. I know I will have fun especially because I will be seeing good people who I haven't seen in a while. Once I start to experience my journey I will be excited I just need to get through this layover and looonnggg flight.

I decided I am going to use my blog to keep a journal of my trip. I am going to try and post as often as I can while I am on vacation. Check back and see how my exciting journey progresses. Hopefully I have lots of fun stories and great pictures.