WEEK 51: Manchester Madness!!

Happy (belated) Easter to everyone I have not yet communicated with since the event. I hope you all had a wonderful four day break! For me it was off to Manchester for my first solo trip since arriving in the UK.

After a much welcomed short working week I was up bright an early Good Friday to catch my coach to Manchester. A little nervous about the bus ride taking forever, due to the easter traffic.

Here we go!!!

The roads were packed to say the least, due to this the driver fore-went a pitt stop to gain back some of our lost time and we arrived into Manchester about half an hour later than scheduled - not too bad.

The beautiful greenery along the way

This being a budget trip for me meant it was a hostel stay. Upon arrival I made the short stroll from the bus terminal to the Hostel - Hatters on Newton Street. Nothing glamorous, but it'll do. After dumping my things in the room a set off for a stroll around the Northern Quarter.

Manchester selfies, before exploring

A bit of browsing through some vintage stores I spotted a cute cafe/interiors store where I stopped off to grab a coffee. If I had my own permanent place in London I definitely would've bought something for my place. Everything in this shop was so beautiful.

The cute cafe/store

After a bit more exploring I headed back to the hostel to change for dinner. Where to for dinner, who knows?! In the end I settled on a pub, where I was hopeful some locals may come chat to me. It worked! I met some locals who proceeded to take me on a bar crawl of manchester. I didn't get back to the hostel until the wee hours of the morning.

Beer for one at table 1.

The following morning, sporting a fairly sore head I ventured out of the hostel at around noon in search of some sustenance. Arndale shopping centre did the trick - a little different to the Arndale in Adelaide.

I did a little shopping and treated myself to a massage - turns out catching a 6 hour coach and sleeping on a dodgy spring bed can provide a lot of knots in your back. Due to my lack of sprite-liness I didn't take any pictures throughout the day - sorry folks!

Along with a hangover comes cravings, mine are almost always Japanese inclined so off to china town I went where I found a lovely little Teppanyaki restaurant. Large wine order stat -

Manchester's China Town

Throughout the meal I got to know two lovely ladies seated next to me, in town on a girls trip.

The girls had spotted the Karaoke bar next door and were keen to check it out after dinner, would I like to join? Why yes, yes I would. And so my Saturday night started with a Japanese feast and ended in a cozy Karaoke room with two almost strangers - didn't see that one coming!!

Easter Sunday I was up bright and early due to the noise of the hostel - pretty standard. After breakfast I facetimed the family to wish them all a happy easter.

Sadly it was then time for me to leave Manchester and head home. Thanks for a whirl wind adventure Manchester, I'll be seeing you. x