For those handfuls of jobless people who make it to this page, first of all, thank you. From here on this blog offers you more. Because now, the game goes international.
2 days after reaching my parents’place in Birmingham, I set out to see Manchester. This time on the tour, I would meet Robel, a long-lost school friend, after 10 years. He was coming from Stoke on Trent, which happens to be midway between Birmingham and Manchester. The plan was to meet at Manchester, but miraculously he joined me on the same coach and I happened to recognize him. Thanks to facebook. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have even known about his whereabouts, leave alone recognising him.
So we reach Manchester by 1130. Unfortunately, my health and the weather are not on my side. Once out of the coach, we hit old Trafford stadium, the home of Manchester United, as per special instructions by my brother, Nitin, who’s a Manchester United fan. This was just two days after they won the FA title. Unfortunately the official merchandise store was closed. So I settled for an unofficial Manchester United scarf. We take pictures there and plan to hit Peter’s square next.
At the centre of the city, Peters square has a huge central library which resembles the pantheon and many huge medieval structures on all sides. Manchester as a city is a good combination of modern and medieval buildings. The city has old cotton mills and many museums. There’s nearly a museum for anything. Perhaps your grand children might find the watch you’re wearing right now in a museum at Manchester. But lack of time and my fever would not permit us a visit to the museums.
We next head for lunch after a lot of failed attempts at converting Indian Rupees to Pounds. There we meet up with a Manchester united fan who happens to see the Manchester united scarf kept on the table. Elated to see a foreign fan, he approached us with a local newspaper supplement. More than half of it was on Manchester United’s victory. He enquired about my whereabouts and if I would be going to Rome to watch them play EUFA. Finally while leaving he said “It’s a good time to be a Manchester United fan” asking me to keep the supplement as a souvenir. This off course, was way before the UEFA finals at Rome.
Later on we head to the Manchester Eye, a cheap imitation of the London eye, also considering the fact that Manchester doesn’t offer as much of an aerial view as London. I recall a British gentleman who once told me that you can’t say you’ve seen England if you’ve seen London. I don’t know if he was talking about interior England but as far as the cities are concerned, if you’ve seen any one city, you’ve seen it all.
So later on to kill time and to seek refuge from the atrocious weather which was taking its toll on my health, we head to one of the million starbuck coffee shops there. As we enter the café, the rain stops and resumes after our 2-3 hour stint in the café. Left with a couple of hours and with a not so favourable weather, we spend the last one hour or so in the coach station.
To sum it all up, Manchester seems to be the most liveable city in England. As cosmopolitan as London, yet not as expensive. Also not ill-reputed like Birmingham. If you like the British architectural magnificence or if you’re a die hard Manchester United fan, do plan a trip to Manchester.
2 days after reaching my parents’place in Birmingham, I set out to see Manchester. This time on the tour, I would meet Robel, a long-lost school friend, after 10 years. He was coming from Stoke on Trent, which happens to be midway between Birmingham and Manchester. The plan was to meet at Manchester, but miraculously he joined me on the same coach and I happened to recognize him. Thanks to facebook. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have even known about his whereabouts, leave alone recognising him.
So we reach Manchester by 1130. Unfortunately, my health and the weather are not on my side. Once out of the coach, we hit old Trafford stadium, the home of Manchester United, as per special instructions by my brother, Nitin, who’s a Manchester United fan. This was just two days after they won the FA title. Unfortunately the official merchandise store was closed. So I settled for an unofficial Manchester United scarf. We take pictures there and plan to hit Peter’s square next.At the centre of the city, Peters square has a huge central library which resembles the pantheon and many huge medieval structures on all sides. Manchester as a city is a good combination of modern and medieval buildings. The city has old cotton mills and many museums. There’s nearly a museum for anything. Perhaps your grand children might find the watch you’re wearing right now in a museum at Manchester. But lack of time and my fever would not permit us a visit to the museums.
We next head for lunch after a lot of failed attempts at converting Indian Rupees to Pounds. There we meet up with a Manchester united fan who happens to see the Manchester united scarf kept on the table. Elated to see a foreign fan, he approached us with a local newspaper supplement. More than half of it was on Manchester United’s victory. He enquired about my whereabouts and if I would be going to Rome to watch them play EUFA. Finally while leaving he said “It’s a good time to be a Manchester United fan” asking me to keep the supplement as a souvenir. This off course, was way before the UEFA finals at Rome.
Later on we head to the Manchester Eye, a cheap imitation of the London eye, also considering the fact that Manchester doesn’t offer as much of an aerial view as London. I recall a British gentleman who once told me that you can’t say you’ve seen England if you’ve seen London. I don’t know if he was talking about interior England but as far as the cities are concerned, if you’ve seen any one city, you’ve seen it all.
So later on to kill time and to seek refuge from the atrocious weather which was taking its toll on my health, we head to one of the million starbuck coffee shops there. As we enter the café, the rain stops and resumes after our 2-3 hour stint in the café. Left with a couple of hours and with a not so favourable weather, we spend the last one hour or so in the coach station.
To sum it all up, Manchester seems to be the most liveable city in England. As cosmopolitan as London, yet not as expensive. Also not ill-reputed like Birmingham. If you like the British architectural magnificence or if you’re a die hard Manchester United fan, do plan a trip to Manchester.
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