Category: Adventures

Hmmm, what to do when there are no lectures? Right, day trip to see some more of the UK. Well, honestly I am sitting around in Manchester a lot but we don't always have off together so planning something is sometimes a little tricky. The choices were Chester or York. We thought, maybe the weather in Chester is better as it is more in the south... Haha, it's England, so the weather does not care. At all.

Further discovering, we saw the cathedral and decided: Let's go in there. It's quite huge and so many nice windows and all this black wood. It even has a small patio with a fountain and trees and flowers. It just looks a little like in the Harry Potter movies... The entrance to the cathedral is free but if you want to go on top of the tower, they want you to pay so, poor students that we are, left and just enjoyed it from the outside. Funny story though: Inside, they build the cathedral with Legos!!

After walking, enjoying the sun (!!!) and some lunch, we came across this beautiful park which was occupied by thousands of squirrels and birds. Strolling around and being in no hurry, guess what happend: It started to pour. Really badly. Oh man, that was so unfortunate, the animals were coming so close, perfect picture material. At least I got some of them. But we quickly had to head back to safety and on the way back to town, we found this other church/cathedral and just walked in. It isa very old own and build on ruins of a church dating back to around 1000 A.C., inside though it was so strange because there was a little bookstore/café and the books lay on the benches... And they have a thing for hawks/eagles there, I don't know why but in either church they had some big sculptures of them.

Another Easter holiday trip: Dublin. Kind of a must go, it is so freaking cheap. Just under £20 round trip, even sleeping there costs more. 

Being so cheap there is some catch which is the punctuality at Ryanair. We took of about 30 minutes later than scheduled yet almost made it in time to Dublin. We just only needed around 40 minutes time instead of 1 hour so at least that... Getting from the airport to the city is extremely convenient as there is a shuttle bus operating very frequenty. And on the ride we drove by a bridge designed by my favourite architect. I guess I took around 20 pictures (oh, did you say photos of Dublin) of this bridge alone. To my defense, the sun was shining in my eyes and I did not see the pictures I took.

From the bus stop to our Airbnb was just a short walk and there it did not look like a busy city at all. Nice neighbourhood with houses around a little park. Out host was very nice as well as she gave us some tips for the evening and the next day.

But apart from the weather, we learned some interesting facts about Dublin and while walking trough the city I found som every interesting street signs. I have no idea what some of them want to tell us and some are just amazingly funny... (No bikes on the grass. Ha, well, how am I supposed to get on the grass with my bike when there is fenced?!)

After the tour we just walked around the city a little more and ended up in the park next to St. Patrick's Cathedral and we like this place the most in Dublin. I was a little green oasis and beautiful architecture. Later I went to the Jameson distillery to do a 'whiskey tour'. I was rather disappointed as it is very commercialised and not good enough for the price. The tasting at the end was three different whiskeys, obviously their iwn one, American Jack Daniel's and Scotch which I liked the most.

Easter holiday and the question: What to do with 3 weeks of free time? Answer: Short trip to London!

The next day, we planned to see the tower of London first and then see, what the day would bring. And what happened was the best weather we could have hoped for. Sun with almost no clouds. So we started at the Tower of London where the gardeners got some new turf in place and made our way over the tower bridge to the other side of the river Thames. And yes, we played tourists, taking as many photos as possible from the famous landmark. Well, my photos of London in general do look a little different...

So we spent our time enjoying the brilliant weather while walking towards the Millennium Bridge in the direction of St. Paul's Cathedral. As this is quite some distance, we decided to get the world’s oldest subway, the London Tube, to get to the National Gallery. Admitting, I don't really understand anything about art, I can't judge the paintings there but I can cherish the work put into them even though I personally liked very few of them. Yet, the culture programme was not finished, as the National Portrait Gallery is next door and was waiting for us to be explored as well. So now I can say: My demand for art in that way is very low. :p

The day ended with China town, some dinner and the mandatory pint.

The third day was also already the last day of the trip. With the bus leaving in the afternoon, we had to make use of the first part of the day. And, of course, how else could we spend it than in a museum. This time, the British Museum which was one of the top things to do on my list. Why? Well, first of all, the building is stunning and most importantly, they have a huge Egyptology section. So, it combined two of my obsessions, architecture and ancient Egypt.

Apart from this section, there is so much more to see though and one could probably spend days in there and has not paid attention to every detail. But London is only a 'short' bus journey away so I might come back...

As we all know, culture makes one get hungry so it was fish and chips time (Yes, I ate fish!) before I had to do another very important thing on my list: Go shopping... for tea! (I had the false pretence that in the country of tea, finding loose tea should not be a big problem but I could not have been farther from reality. Even in restaurants or cafes, they sell the cup of tea with tea bags. What a shame!) After my excessive shopping it was time to head back to the station but not before eating a typical British ice cream...

Now, one could say: Oh, that was not that much you did but after over 63,400 steps and about 38km, we were just happy to come back home...

I heard a lot about the reputation of Manchester regarding the appearance of city before I came here. I have to say that Salford may not be the nicest place I've ever been to but the Manchester city centre is really nice and new. There are a lot of renovations going on and for me it looks not very much like an industrial shaped city. There are defenitely some nice corners to explore.

There will be some photos, and I really hope to share more over time, which are supposed to show what I can see here. On some it might not look so great but that is mostly due to the weather as the photos are not manipulated ;).

The first few pictures are from Chinese New Year. There was a dragon parade through the city that day and we were expecting a magnificent dragon. What we got, well, see for yourself... at least it was sunny.

Here in the UK, almost all the museums are free so when I went to explore the city for real for the first time and walked to the cathedral I happened to come across the National Football Museum and well, I just though why not. If it is bad I will just leave but well I am still a football fan so what were the odds of this beeing a waste of time?! And the building has a very nice architecture too.

After this experience I wandered around a little, the day was sunny and it wasn't too cold. From the museum it is just a short walk to the Manchester Catherdal. Unfortunalty there is a construction going on in the inside so I could not really capture the building as it probably deserves but I will come back later on the year so see if I can share a new photo.

What I really wanted to do that day though was seeing the city library and the John Rylands Library. The latter is part of the Manchester University but open for public and for me as a lover of books, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. They have a collection of one of the oldest books in the world and it looks just like I would imagine an old librabry to look like. You are just not allowed to take pictured in most parts of the building, so just come here and have a look for yourself. This defenitly is something everyone should do when coming here even if books are not your cup of tea, just having seen this is worth it. The most astonishing thing about this library though is that it appears to be a church on the outside and even on the inside, so it is kind of mindblowing.

Going back home I walked by the town hall. I have not been in there but just the outside is already sublime. It is a Victorian, Neo-gothic style building and the clock tower looks a little like the Big Ben in London.

And then there is MediaCity where I have class sometimes too. This looks so nice and new and I already talked briefly about it. There is BBC and iTV and then there is shopping mall. This area of Manchester of more accurately Salford is also called the Quays (say: Kies ;)) which also host a theatre and gallery complex calles the Lowry and there is the National War Museum which is still on my list to see.

Yes, a day trip to Liverpool. It's already been a while ago I just never sat down and wrote the post.

So, it was March and as we are in the north of England, what do you expect weather-wise? Sun, of course! And this time, we were lucky, one of the nicest days so far. We planned the trip to Liverpool as it is soooo cheap. Imagine taking the train from Würzburg to Frankfurt and paying (now it's time to guess) £3. Yes, that's it, quite remarkable as taking the train into the city is (single ticket) £1.90. So off we go...

The start of the day was probably a little bit rocky, some of our group being out late we were rather tired on the train. Yet, arriving there with the sun shining made us all smile. Our train went to Liverpool Lime street and stepping out of the station gives you a view you would not expect. Huge buildings with Roman inspired architecture surprised even me even though I know that the Romans had some influence in the north of England (Thank you 7 years of Latin in school). 

This post is dedicated to my first visit to Old Trafford and the first football games I saw there.

So one of the very first things I did when I came here was go to the stadium my team plays in. I know it is just a stadium but finally being here after being a fan for more than 11 years without having seen my team live is incredible. I did the stadium tour and became a member on my third day in Manchester and I felt like a little child in a candy store...

So what is there to say about the stadium? Well, if it is sold out, there are over 75.000 people cheering for the team and the atmosphere is truly magnificent.

The first game I was attending: The U21 from Manchester United against the U21 from Norwich City. It was at Old Trafford and it was free (We can go to MediaCity with our student ID which is about 15 minutes and from there it is a walk for about another 15 minutes). So I went there with my flatmate Graham and we experienced a night we won't forget so fast. I would estimate that there were around 2.000 people and the atmosphere was already great so what will it be when the house is full?! (I will get to that...) The game was, well, I am missing the words here. ManU won 7:0 and I got to see my favourite player (he will stay anonymous) so not even the cold and the rain could dampen my mood (at the end of the game I could hardly feel my feet anymore).

My next game was the under 21 again. This time I went to the other side of the city and saw a derby between Manchester City FC U21 and Manchester United FC U21. The result was not so positive as we lost with one goal but watching a game in the 'enemy' stadium for £3 is worth it anyway. I got to admit that I was a little scared at the beginning because I went there on my own and I chose a bad seat as all the singing fans surrounded me and I slowly moved al the way to the right to be out of there 🙂 (When they are singing it could be English or ... not because I can hardly understand anything). The weather this day was even worse than on my first game as I was soaking wet when I came home but I enjoyed it so much just to be able to go and se a game of football.

And then came the Europe League game. It was against FC Midtjylland and the team lost the first leg so I though either this is going to be a great night or everything goes bad. And at first it looked very bad for the team as they fell behind but they turned the game around in the second half and won 5:1. So you can imagine, the atmosphere was really tense until late in the game but when the goals came, it was just incredible. I could describe how it felt to be there and exyperience this night I would not be able to tell someone who has not been part of something like that and those who have don't need a description, so... Let's just say I still get goose bumps by merely remembering the evening!

University started with a few induction courses, the need for some of them is still a mystery to me. Well, some were interesting, especially because the grading systems works a little (or should I say extremely) different than I am used to: We have two and a half days of lecture and then we have to prepare for an assessment two weeks later. This could be a group work, an exam or a single work. So far, I already had a group work which was not really a group as three of five people were perfectly fine with doing nothing, but I will not go too far into details as it would take to much time and space. Right now I am preparing for an exam in one and a half weeks and after that the next module will start.

On the first day of the induction I met this amazing group of people from all over the world and as we got along so well, we arranged a cooking night at my place in the first week of classes. Since then, we have spend quite some time going out and having fun together. 

My first module is thaught at the Salford Quays, next to BBC and iTV and the building is very nice and modern but we have something like BER too here, the one building which should be finished in January looks, well, not finished. Next to this construction side there is the library, open 24h where you can live chat with people working there should you have a problem, and an automatic borrowing system. And you can just go in with all your stuff and don't have to leave your bag and jacket in a locker but you always have to scan your student ID to get in, which is ok, but also when you get out, in case of well I don't know... The library is a place for fun too, as I already experienced an evacuation due to a fire alarm because some very clever people thought that smoking an electric cigarette inside a building is a good idea. So, all the people were cramed in front of the library, at least after everyone left it with great enthusiasm... (Apparantly firealarms are very trendy here: one in the library, one in the student accommodation I am living in and one in a restaurant I was out eating with my friends)

I am here, finally.

I was so excited before coming here and also a bit nervous because I didn't know what to expect. A lot of people who I told I would come here were sceptical as they were convinced the city isn't nice. And when I arrived at the airport it wasn't the prettiest sight and I feared for the worst as the weather was already very British but well, the people were wrong. You will see more pictures as the year goes by but we start with a few...

So after getting my phone set up it was time to head to my flat which is not so very far from the Manchester City Center. (It actually is in Salford as I am attending the University of Salford.) We left Manchester in the bus and the weather looked OK but on the way it started to rain. And that is the understatement of the year, it was pouring! So having to walk about 5 minutes from the bus station to the building I was soaked. But well, you have to get used to that here...

Arriving at my flat, I was so lucky because I met a girl who became a good friend. But my flatmates Graham and Britta are very nice too and we too had some adventures together already.

And even though my room, the kitchen and bathroom are not too bad, the view I go to bed to is sometimes still keeping me breathless. It might not be so nice when the weather is gray and rainy (well, what looks good in these conditions) but in the night with all the lights it is just beautiful...