They only reason I ended up in Manchester was because Air Transat offered a flight there $20 cheaper than to London-Gatwick. Now after having been there, I would have paid the extra $20.
Manchester is a large industrial city in northern England known outside for pretty much one thing, Football. Home to the famous Manchester United Football Club and Manchester City Football Club. If you are a football fan, Manchester may be for you. If you’re not, Manchester is not for you.
There were hardly any tourists in the city. The majority of the people in the hostel were in Manchester for a specific reason: attending a class, conference, meeting up with an old friend. The only other backpackers I met were there for a single night because it also was the cheapest flight to Europe from Ohio.
However, one attraction caught my eye: The Imperial War Museum North. I’m always interested in war museums, the exhibitions looked interesting as well as the building itself. Every hour on the hour the entire exhibition area turned into a 360 degree panoramic sound and visual experience. The one I saw was “The Sounds of War” which was a 15 minute art composition with visuals and intense sound from gunshots to nuclear bombs. I am very happy that I went.
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I also learned what “Calling at” meant with respect to train stations. The train line from Manchester to the museum was the same rail line to Liverpool. The train I got on did not have a Calling At… or “service to” Trafford Park. I got halfway to Liverpool before realized that my stop was 15 minutes ago. I bought a ticket back to Manchester and ended up getting the museum, one and a half hours late.
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It was a nice, calm environment to get used to living out of a backpack, showering with sandals, sharing a room with 7 other people. I met this Australian couple on their 5th month of travelling and tagged along to Edinburgh.
I really enjoyed Trafford Park. I had an hour and a half to kill before the train came back from Liverpool to pick me up in Trafford, on my way to Manchester, so I went for a walk. I was really happy I did because it reminded of those cute quaint English villages you see on tv.
I probably wouldn’t come back here, I’m more into the touristy things. If you’re a football fan you would probably enjoy the football museum, going to a game or taking a tour of one of the many stadiums but I didn’t find there was much else to do.
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