This week has been absolutely crazy busy!! My colleagues will all be in the States next week for American Society of Criminology conferences in Atlanta, so this week has been a rush of last minute preparations for papers/presentations to be given at the conferences. This also means that next week will be a bit of a relaxing week for me! Yay! I'm going to try and wrap up the papers I have due back home and take a small little trip to Oxford I think, we shall see!
Anyway, backtracking to last weekend in Manchester...
I seriously had the most fun weekend I have had since arriving here! I got into Manchester Friday night and met up with Craig and Jen, at an apparently shady pub, which I had no clue about, it was just close to my hostel, so I wandered in there thinking it woul
d be easy to find to meet up! Oops! Then we left to meet some of Jen's friends, then Craig and I departed on my Friday night whirlwind pub tour of Manchester! Craig took me to this really cool underground, cave-like pub with all sorts of geeky sci-fi decorations everywhere! Next was a bar called, Space, where downstairs is the typical nightclub, but upstairs they have a huge cosy outdoor patio bar with funky tables and fire/candles. We met some outrageous folks at this bar! We then ventured onto Canal Street (as seen here on the right), Manchester's gay district! It's hugely popular and has quite a scene. I saw some of the best drag queens ever! Then capping off the night we went to a more posh upscale bar for one last drink. It's impossible to see all the pubs in Manchester in one night, but I think we had a pretty darn good highlights tour!
d be easy to find to meet up! Oops! Then we left to meet some of Jen's friends, then Craig and I departed on my Friday night whirlwind pub tour of Manchester! Craig took me to this really cool underground, cave-like pub with all sorts of geeky sci-fi decorations everywhere! Next was a bar called, Space, where downstairs is the typical nightclub, but upstairs they have a huge cosy outdoor patio bar with funky tables and fire/candles. We met some outrageous folks at this bar! We then ventured onto Canal Street (as seen here on the right), Manchester's gay district! It's hugely popular and has quite a scene. I saw some of the best drag queens ever! Then capping off the night we went to a more posh upscale bar for one last drink. It's impossible to see all the pubs in Manchester in one night, but I think we had a pretty darn good highlights tour! Saturday I took in Manchester's Northern Quarter...and didn't get any further than that! I think it's really all you need! Manchester is too impossible huge to cover in one day, so this is the perfect spot for some hip, funky shopping! I went to half a 
dozen record stores that put Vintage Vinyl to shame (and I love Vintage Vinyl...)! There's also an indoor market type building called Affleck's Palace, where most of my time...and money...was spent! They have all sorts of crazy things, handmade jewelry, clothing, music memorabilia, a tattoo parlor, a cafe, etc! There were these awesome mosaics all across the sides of the building and this funky sculpture just across the road (pic on the left, for more pics click HERE). I fell in love with the Northern Quarter!
dozen record stores that put Vintage Vinyl to shame (and I love Vintage Vinyl...)! There's also an indoor market type building called Affleck's Palace, where most of my time...and money...was spent! They have all sorts of crazy things, handmade jewelry, clothing, music memorabilia, a tattoo parlor, a cafe, etc! There were these awesome mosaics all across the sides of the building and this funky sculpture just across the road (pic on the left, for more pics click HERE). I fell in love with the Northern Quarter! Then I met up with Jen and her friend, Shawna, and we took the train up to Craig's house in Preston for the fireworks party! It was quite a show! We had TONS of fireworks and I was amazed at how quickly they disappeared! All of Craig's friends were really cool and we had lots of musical interests to share and discuss, which was awesome!! I really had fun meeting all of them and we'll hopefully get to all hang out a few more times before I go home...there are at least a few good shows coming to go see! Craig also made "parched peas" in honor of Bonfire Night, which weren't half bad! They looked disgusting though! So after a whole lot of laughing/fireworks/wine, the party dispersed and Craig and I stayed up watching Jonah's DVD, reminiscing about our Jonah adventures! It was really a lot of fun! It's unbelievable to find someone in a country so far away with music tastes almost matching those of my own!!
Sunday after cleaning up from the party and having a nice strong brew, we headed out on a short tour of Preston, originally called "Priest Town", which has something like the most churches of any other city. They're quite impressive and you can see a church in any direction you turn. We had traditional Sunday lunch and enjoyed a couple pints before my departure back to Cardiff! It was an awesome weekend...almost!
I caught the train at half past five...and arrived in Cardiff at 10:22p...missing the last train home to Trefforest by 15 minutes! Oops! No buses, no more trains (it was a Sunday!)...so I had to catch a taxi home, which cost 30 quid...I won't do the math for you...I'll just tell you I could have bought a whole lot of records with that money! Oh well, you live and you learn and I won't make that mistake again!!
1 comment:
Hello sister!
Glad to hear you are still having so much fun, mom said you got the itenerary ready for us. I'm super excited. My car broke down tonight though! Bummer for me! Not sure what's wrong hopefully I'll find out in the AM! Talk to you soon, maybe on skype? Let me know when you are around. Love ya!
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