A Day in... Manchester

Second stop of our little trip through the North: Manchester!

Day 1

After the shock of Leeds and totally exhausted from carrying our bags around all day we arrived at the coach station in Manchester. We all agreed to go straight to bed, only problem: Because I booked after my friends, they had a double bed in an ibis budget hotel and I was in a hostel not too far away. So we said goodbye for the night and went into different directions.

I had a bed in a mixed 28-bed dorm. And honestly, the first night was totally fine! There was only me and three other guys and we managed to spread out so I couldn't even really see them. Only negative things: the shower in the basement is freezing cold because the ventilation didn't stop and the lights in the room didn't turn off until midnight.

After a short breakfast my friends and I met up at my hostel and walked to the National Football Museum (I mean, it's Manchester, come on) which is free and explains a lot about the sports history, developments and aspects like tragedies, women's participation, LGBT+ members and famous footballers. Not only football fans will find something worth looking at in here.

Next point on our list was the second largest China Town in the UK, which was... really disappointing. When you are used to the tourist attraction that is London's China Town the normal looking part that we walked through just looks like any other. The archway was cool though!
At this point we were so hungry we went into a buffet restaurant lust opposite of the arch and made our way through everything they had including dessert. The guy at the counter was really nice and it was cheaper than a single meal in any of the other restaurants we walked by so check it out.

If you are in China Town you just have to walk a few minutes to get to the Manchester Art Gallery. If the weather is bad or you need to go somewhere where you can stretch your legs for a bit a museum is always the best option and this one actually has nice paintings. It also has an entire level dedicated to modern art which is not really something I enjoy in most cases. Like, ok, that a picture of an empty vase. Nice. Ok. Next!
One exhibition my friend was looking forward to in here, and me too when she told me about it, is the Imitation Game. Apparently it's about how an AI can 'grow' and develope by learning. You ask it a question, it learns from it... somehow. I say somehow because it didn't work when we got there. It was set up and you could tip in your question, but it just didn't react. Disappointing, but nothing we could do about it.
For all those who are still kids in there hearts, one tip I can give you is to play "If I were you..." in a museum. The possibilities are endless, there is almost always someone around who would be scandalized by the ridiculous dares you can come up with and if it gets out of hand declare it an art project! Perfect.

And because we were not finished with culture for that day we did a quick stop at the gigantic beautiful library that you can actually see from the museum. It's one of those old ones where you are afraid to breath too loudly in case a stern looking woman with glasses shushes you. I love it. Makes me really excited for university and the unavoidable question 'why am I doing this to myself, I could just start as a stripper'.

Because we still had time to kill we walked through the gigantic Arndale shopping centre and then headed towards the ibis hotel. I just wanted to take a shower in a place where I wouldn't have to freeze to death as soon as I turned out the water. And hell, the showerhead even shone in different colours! And they had a TV! I almost didn't leave.
I wish I hadn't when there was a problem with the room and who has to go into which bed until the manager, with a guest list in his hand, figured out that two guys slept in the wrong room. At this point every bed was occupied and I was still the only girl. A+ logistics, really. Good thing I was too exhausted to really care.

Day 2

Day 2 started out by going to yet another museum. This time, it the People's Museum next to the river where I met my friends. Again, it is really cool, with a temporary (?) exhibition of old photografs from the very beginning of this new technology. It shows workers and how they lived, worked,  looked like. Really interesting, to look at all those faces of people with history, families, problems and to not know anything about them and what went on in their heads. It makes you feel small and unimportant. One day, our photos and selfies will be hanging in museums and people will stare at us und try to figure out how we lived. It's easy to get lost in thoughts like this when looking at blurry,  washed out grey-and-white pictures of strangers.

On the second floor a history of wars and revolutions leads you through the centuries all the way up to the Second World War (what else?). There are several interactive computers that show you the history of several generations of one family as well as dress-up stations. Just don't get lost!


After a more or less quick lunch outside, the sun came out at last!, we went on our way again. Our original plan was to go to one of the universities, only did we figure out we were on our way to the wrong one halfway through so we turned around and gave up on that plan in favor of going to the Northern Quarter.
Or, well, I did and my two fellow au pairs went into the shopping centre once again. To be fair, we knew the Northern Quarter are supposed to be more of a hipster vintage part of  Manchester which is my style, not theirs. It actually has a really nice second hand book shop, vintage shops that sometimes wanted more money than I could offer for a skirt and a forbitten planet. There are also all kinds of coffee shops that look like the cutest little things, god I love those.
Actually, one of those coffee shops was our next destination. We made it our mission to have an actual tea time at least once and this was it. We orders tea and scones for my friends and magnificent madeleines for me. as I mentioned, it looks really cute and lovely with small details you wouldn't even think about. The cake table was hugh and the tea really good. Plus point out of luck: my madeleines didn't come in time, no idea why, so they gave me two and said I had to wait another ten minutes for my food because they were freshly made. It wasn't ideal, but whatever, at least they will be fresh. They tast like vanilla and are eaten with whipped cream by the way.
And in the end, my whole order was on the house, so I didn't even have to pay one cent! I honestly didn't expect that and would have been ok with waiting, but I also won't say no to a kind gesture like that. It's called teacup kitchen and I can definitely recommand it (because of  the food and the service, don't worry).

I felt like I couldn't eat anything anymore for the rest of my life.
From there I went to pack my back at the hostel and straight to the train station where we met up once again to get train tickets to Liverpool. That's just a lot more comfortable than a coach and faster. With the amongst of travelling we would be doing that week we sure as hell deserve some comfort.

So off we were, on to our final destination.

A Day in... Leeds

Day 1

One thing you get used to as an au pair in England, especially with kids that go to a private school, is that they have a lot of school breaks. Since the kids have two to three weeks of holiday again, two friends and I decided to go on a little trip around the North of England. Well, they pretty much planned it and I was too chicken to admit I had the week off, too, until almost a month later. Ups...

Anyway, the first stop on our tour was Leeds. The bus trip was almost 4,5h long that I spent reading Game of Thrones, maybe one day I'll even finish it. Once we arrived we still had a few hours until the check-in which we spent sitting in a park eating lunch. The weather was nice for a change and we knew it wouldn't last for long - another thing you learn quickly here. When we gathered our luggage to find our hostel we didn't know we were on our way to hell.

The place we were supposed to stay at is called Russell Scott Backpackers, is outside the city centre and privately owned. We joked around that the picture on the internet looks like a small, old lady will open the door and fuss around. Instead we had to call the reception to even get into the building in the first place. While waiting there we also figured out that I booked the next bus at the wrong time which means I had to cancel and rebook. The woman that came to open the door for us let me use her PC and then we were off on our way our rooms.
We lived in another building down the street. Not only were we not able to lok the front door or the door to the first room we were let into but the whole place was dirty and unsave - the fire alarms were not activated, anybody could have walked into the house and our room, the floor was loose in some places and the whole thing smelled like nobody opened the windows in ten years.
We were brought to a new room which had a double bed on the first floor. My room didn't have a key, so I decided to go into a 4-bed room were another girl was in apparently. We wanted to meet up with an ex-au pair so we left our things behind and left.

Since we still had an hour we went into the Leeds City Museum at the Millenium Square which has a nice exhibition about the LGBT+ community and past in the city as well as a short overview of the history. When we meet our friend in front of the building we decided to get a drink since the three of us really needed it at this point. SHe showed us a little pub in a side street with cheap drink and nice looking locals and we catched up on how we were and what we did. After that we went to another bar that was more 'public' and then went for a burger at Five Guys. It's weird to see how laid back the city is after living in the rather hectic London and looking after kids most of the time. All of us were exhausted and it was obvious we just wanted to sleep, so we said goodbye and left rather quickly.

However, going back to our hostel wasn't exactly relaxing. A guy that lived in our house as well was turning weirder and made us more uncomfortable with every minute we talked to him to the point were I actually took a knife with me upstairs cause I wasn't sure he wouldn't be dangerous - he made enough jokes about it anyway.
Needless to say I didn't get a good night's sleep.

Day 2

After an aweful night and a unsatisfying breakfast my friends and I packed our bags and left for the reception to give back the key.... and complain about the state of the building. We had to wait a few minutes for the owner to come to the house, but once she did and we told her evrything that was wrong, including the meeting with the gay and how unsafe we felt, we managed to get a refund. In better spirits, we took our luggage into the city only to find out we had to carry them with us because the lockers were way too expensive.

We spent most of the day strolling through shops (where I actually found two jackets I could use for my Harley Quinn cosplay for comic con next month - yeah!), avery cool modern shopping centre and getting something to eat. We walked through the Corn Exchange and Kirkgate Market but we weren't able to find something we all wanted.

In the end we went to a place called "Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen" that was recommanded to us by our friend and where they sell cheap but amazing pizza (first two pieces half-price!) and that had a hipster vibe going on. Apparently they do music and movie events, too, you should really check it out! I think I could spent our there.

Anyway, the only museum we were really interested in was across the river so we headed that way. The Royal Armouries Museum is big and more interesting than you would think when you hear the name. They even had lockers were we could leave our bags for a little while. We came just in time

for a little tour by a guy in costume who explained different weapons and how they were used at the time. Great thing, the only problem is that is closes at 5pm already. Later we went straight to the coach station to wait for our bus to Manchester without having to carry all of our bags around again. It hurts your back after a while.

All in all, the hostel and the bus dilemma put a strain on the whole Leeds-experience, but thanks to our friend Megan (it was nice seeming you again!) it wasn' totally aweful. I think the laid-back mentality and the little bars and secrets in every corner actually put it pretty high on my list of 'possible semester abroad places'. If you are more of a tide-up person you won't find it very endearing, but for me it sends a don't-give-a-fuck vibe that's very appealing when you are used to stress about everything.

Windsor Castle

Most people know Windsor Castle because it's the resistance of the Queen for, according to the audio guide, most weekends. It's actually rather easy to get to Windsor. There is a train from Waterloo passing Clapham Junction as well that goes straight to a lovely little train station from where you can see the castle when you look left.

Just a walk up the hill brings you to the entrance. It's 18 pounds for students – my run-out student card from school still works since no one really takes a closer look once they see it's German. If you get a signature in the end you can come back for free for a whole year though, so it's definitely worth it if you don't have enough time or want to see a section that not open all year long. And the prize includes audio guides!

The castle is hugh, just to warn you. At the end it's actually hard to pay attention or care about whose portrait it is or how old the china is. You can see the guard change if you arrive on time (and only on Sundays I think), visit the state appartments, Queen Mary's Dolls' House which is probably worth more than my future university education as well as the St. George's Chapel unless it's a Sunday. There is also a little part where you can learn more about Shakespeare and why Windsor is an important place for the historic play writer.

It's really nice, especially the garden you can see around the Round Tower, including a little waterfall, don't cease to amaze. Just watch out for Guards shouting when you get in there way as we had to find out ourselves.

Luckily the grounds are so big that you don't feel cornered. And if you are lucky and the sun is out, you can get some really good looking photos.

After a few hours we left and went to get lunch at the Nando's across the street. The Guy taking my order was red-haired and called Harry, I don't even wanna know how many jokes he has to endure. Also, who the hell manages to eat an entire chicken, I only had 1/4 with hot sauce, spicy rice and sweetcorn and I was full.

The rest of the afternoon we spent making our way through the shopping street and having a little walk along the Thames. We would have probably spent more time there, but it was getting cloudy and we could feel the first raindrops falling. I'm sure it would have been lovely if the sun had shone though, it all looked very peaceful.

The train ride back was rather uneventful apart from my very first ticket inspection in the UK so far. So there are actually keeping track of illegal passengers.

Lumiere London

Last Saturday was a really, really cold day. Warmer than right now, but cold nevertheless. So when I met up with some of my friends at the Old Spitalsfield Market in the East End, I was really happy to grap a coffee before doing anything else. Not to forget the three nice girls giving out 'free hugs' with big smiles on their faces.
Even though I've been here for just about five months now (puh...) I've only been to the East End once before. I was there a few times in 2013, but that was two and a half years ago! It's quite far from my part of the city, so I never really bothered.

Now, I'm happy I was there again. Old Spitalsfield market is not the most interesting, but the food is so much the better. One thing I can really recommand is the Beef and Vegan Combo Mix from Habesha Ethiopian & Eritrean Kitchen, which is a bit on the spicy side and is a mix of everything you could want in a meal.

When you leave the market and go past the Ten Bells pub and then turn left, you will find youself in a street with great shops and restaurants and will soon arive at a market hall. Sadly, we were too late and everything was already removed, but I got my watch there two years ago and they have a lot of delicious food stands, too. One shop you should definitely visit is Blitz, you just haave to turn right into Hanbury Street. It's a vintage shop with a coffee shop within. I almost got myself green Doc Martens, but because they were too big I went for black leather converse - for 5 pound! They were on sale, don't expect everything to be that cheap, but it's worth a try.

Lumiere London is a small events over the course of a weekend that features several light shows all over the Central city. Starting at 6:30pm you can walk around from one point to the other - fight your way through the mass more likely - and see big floating fishes at Regent Street, a light garden illuminating Leichester Square, light-stickman making a show out of robbing a store and many more. It's not as wonderful as we all were led to expect by the posters, but it's worth a shot. Definitely avoid the most famous places like Leichester Square and Picadilly Circus of you can't handle too many people, but other than that you just have to be patient.