Fantastic final week in England!

My first evening in Manchester, I went out to a unique bar with an Aussie girl named Emily I met at the hostel. The tiny bar was in a converted underground public toilet. We walked down the stairs right from the sidewalk of the street. It was pretty clever. Later we met up with a French guy named Julien I had met earlier, but most of the pubs seemed to be closing around 1 o'clock so we decided to rest up to go out the following night. On Friday, I went to the Manchester Art Gallery to see some British and European art. I also explored some of the buildings downtown, including the town hall and Chinatown. I went back to the hostel and met up with Emily. We found a bus to take us just outside the city to Old Trafford, where Manchester United's stadium is. The stadium was built in 1910, yet is very impressive and looks fairly modern. We went through the trophy rooms and history, then took a tour. We got to walk out to the pitch and into the players' lounge and dressing rooms.

On Friday evening, I made myself dinner at the hostel, then found Emily and Julien. Before we headed out, we met a German girl at the hostel, Maren. The four of us found a bar/club called MoJo I had heard about. The place played really good music and we stayed the whole night at a booth and the dance floor. My rain jacket was stolen when I left the booth for a couple of minutes which was annoying, but I still had a lot of fun. On Saturday, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry with Maren and Julien. We didn't have very much time there, but managed to check out several exhibits on textiles, engines, and airplanes. We rushed back to the hostel in the rain so that Maren and I could grab our things. We walked down to the station just in time to catch our bus to Sheffield.

I had looked up a few places for accommodation in Sheffield, but hadn't booked anything. There are no hostels in the whole city, which is crazy considering the size of it, 700,000 people or so. I guess it is not much of a tourist destination. Maren and I found a bed and breakfast which was full, then found a hotel which was also full. At the hotel, they told us everything was booked because there were several events happening in town that weekend. We were starting to get a bit desperate, so I used my backup plan. I called Emily, who had gotten to Sheffield that morning and was staying in a hotel room she had booked months in advance. She said it was alright, so we got on the tram and snuck into her hotel room. The three of us got ready, then headed to the Sheffield Arena for a concert, the reason we were all in Sheffield. The Arctic Monkeys are a really cool Indie rock band that are actually from Sheffield. I could have seen them a couple of days later in London, but decided it would be much better to see them in their hometown. Emily had bought her ticket way earlier, I bought mine the day before, and Maren just bought hers at the show. The Arena didn't quite sell out, it holds 14,000 people though. Maren actually paid less than Emily and I to get in because there was no service charge at the venue. The show was really good, the band was awesome and the crowd was crazy.

On Sunday, Emily took a train back to London, so Maren and I went to go find our own place to stay in Sheffield. We went back to the first B & B we tried the previous day and fortunately got a room. Though the name has changed, there has been a B & B or hotel in that location since 1817, the photos in our room and the lobby were very cool. We walked into the city to see the cathedral, the winter gardens, and some other sights downtown. The weather was actually nice for a change, so we kept walking up to a hill overlooking the city. We found a couple of walking trails, then a huge park. By the time we started walking back, it was rainy and windy. After we got dried off and changed, we found a pub for dinner. We ate some traditional British food, then found another pub with live music. I got to know Maren pretty well and am a bit sad my travelling is ending at the same time hers is beginning.

On Monday, Maren and I took a bus to York, which is much more of a tourist attraction than Sheffield, or Manchester for that matter. There is still a wall surrounding the city center and a river cuts straight through the town. There are lots of cool buildings and plenty of historical attractions. We went to the first two hostels mentioned in my guide book. The first was turned into a hotel and the second one was closed. We were a bit discouraged but decided to go find a B & B. We walked just outside the city walls along the river to a street that had 5 or 6 different guest houses on it. After a bit of comparing, I negotiated a good price on one of them for a nice room in the upstairs loft. We put our warm clothes on and went into the city center to look around. We found a pub for dinner with a table overlooking the river.

Tuesday was to be my final day in York and my final day in Europe on this leg of my trip. We got up for the 9:15 AM breakfast at our guesthouse. They served us a full British breakfast which was entirely too much food. Cereal, toast, and coffee followed by sausage, bacon, egg, hashbrowns, beans, mushrooms, tomato, and black pudding. Maren and I walked through more of the city seeing some historical ruins, then climbed onto the wall to walk around the city. Next was the main attraction in town, the gothic cathedral which is the best in Britain and one of the largest in the world. We bought the full tickets to see the entire place. We took a tour of the interior and learned the history of the church. Next was the undercroft and crypt where we saw the origins of the first church on the sight, nearly 2,000 years old. Afterwards, we climbed the 275 step tower to get an incredible view of the gothic towers and the whole city. Maren and I went to the train and bus station to arrange our plans. I wanted to stay as long as possible, so I ended up paying way too much to book the last bus of the evening to London. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then we ran to the bus stop for the end of my trip.

It was very sad saying goodbye to Maren. Even considering all the people I have met on my trip, she is the only one besides Cameron I have actually travelled with. Though we only spent four days together, we really connected and have a very similar approach to travelling. She is completely carefree: I asked her the night we met if she wanted to go to the concert in Sheffield the following day. She barely thought about it and just said 'OK!' Her trip just began in Manchester, and she will probably find a job and spend a year in England. Fortunately, she is going on a ski vacation to Austria with her family at the end of December. I hope to meet up with her then or maybe have her come stay with me in Kirchberg in January.

I took an 8.5 hour bus ride directly to Heathrow, then a 2 hour flight to Frankfurt, then an 8.5 hour flight to D.C., then a 5+ hour flight to Seattle. The total travel time was about 32 hours.

The title of this blog is still appropriate (though maybe not the subtitle), so I will continue to write here while I am in Austria.