Long Ride

Day 11
Right after my free breakfast at the Hatters Hostel of bread and jam I headed off to see the world, well, Manchester. I attempted to walk to the Imperial War Museum, but got really lost once I was off the map. So I switched modes and sprung for public transportation.

The first display in the museum was on George Rodger. He was a war photographer during WWII. His first pictures were on pre-war Britain. Right at the outbreak of WWII he was sent to Africa to photograph post-colonial countries. By the time he returned D-day was upon the allied forces. Rodger documented the D-day battles as well as others. He was there when Dachau was liberated. After WWII he continued to document crises around the world. I really don’t know how he dealt with so much suffering, I was having problems just looking at his photos.

The main exhibit was on all the wars that Britain has been in for the last 100 years or so. The exhibits focused more on the long term effects of war than on the immediate ones. For example, after WWII food rationing in Britain continued until about 1954. The section they had on the blitz was also very well done.

Both Imperial War Museums are quite good and I definitely recommend visiting them.

The last place that I wanted to make sure that I saw in Manchester was the art museum. The collection was small, but quite good. There was a large section on local artists that I had never heard of; there was even a local impressionist. The most interesting part was on art restoration. There were tons of before and after pictures, plus you could watch the restorers at work on a very large picture of mermaids.

I had a few more hours of day like so I wandered around just seeing where it would lead me. I ended up at Manchester Cathedral. I think it was an older building, but wasn’t that interesting. However Manchester’s version of the London Eye was pretty cool.

I killed my last few hours at the hostel playing Uno with some German girls. I thought that my bus was at 10pm, but they switched me to another one, a direct bus, that didn’t leave until 1:30 am. It was a very very long wait. The bus ride was a bit long as well, but really quite uneventful. I think I slept through most of it.

When I woke up I was in Edinburgh and it was Easter Morning.

Made in Manchester

Day 10

Manchester is known for its industry and not for its stellar appearance. It’s a good thing too, because this is not a very attractive city. It’s rather dark and dirty.

I was still pretty tired as I got my act together. Some very drunk girls were not quiet when they came back to the room the night before and I hadn’t slept well. On top of that someone had actually taken my pillow. I didn’t want to start anything when the lights were off and people were sleep, but I could tell in the light that it was the girl sleeping in the bottom bunk that had taken it.

Despite my cranky mood I headed off to see Manchester. I had a pretty crappy xeroxed map from the hostel, but luckily there were big colorful maps every few streets to help me get around. It was no problem to find the scant Roman ruins in the middle of the city. After checking those out I headed to the Museum of Science and Industry.

As it was Friday (I asked someone because I wasn’t really sure) and a bank holiday the place was packed and overrun with kids. I tried to check out the displays, but every time some kid would bump me or somehow get in the way. The part that I liked best was the one with old trains and planes. Still, the place was too crowded and I needed to find some quiet.

I had wanted to visit the Imperial War Museum (a branch of the one in London); however I just wasn’t in the mood to fight a crowd over there as well. So I kinda coped out and went to see the Other Boyln Sister. It was pretty good and I would definitely recommend it.

After the movie it was too late to go to a museum so I decided to just head back to the hostel. It was there I met the pillow thief. It turns out that her name was Morgan and she was from Australia. She apologized many times and in the end we went out to grab a couple of drinks. We had a good time.

I called it a day pretty early; I wanted to make sure I would be able to hit all the sites I had missed because of my lazy day.