Day 1: Manchester

It would not be me if I had not left everything until the very last minute. So the day before our trip, 8-hour shift before me, there are plenty of things waiting for me to be done. Unfortunately, today is Sunday and everything in Brighton closes at 5 o’clock, 6 if you are lucky.
We need to print our bus tickets. National Express that we are using for 2 ways does not accept tickets shown on mobile phones. Only in the case that you pay another pound for e-ticket that looks completely the same as the normal one. Also, the date for applying for interruption of studies which I have successfully forgotten is 25th of August and we are coming back on 28th.

“Never mind, everything will be fine“, I am saying to myself.

In my work, I am asking my friend if he knows a place where I can print something even on Sunday. He informs me that there is an internet cafe right around the corner.

Great! Win.

Later I am finding out, that the concept of “internet cafe” is in England probably something little bit different and I am stepping into a shop with second-hand iphones, mobiles and other electronic devices, where a man is telling me to use computer number 1. Computer number one is located in the corner with other 4 computers, that remember the first arrival of internet to English homes. I am rather not thinking about what would I find in the history of those internet browsers. Tickets are being printed. Done. I am googling a template for my application and trying to figure out what it should contain. In the middle of my writing, the guy is coming to inform me that he will be closing in 5 minutes, even though the shop is clearly said Monday-Sunday 9-9PM. Whatever.
Stressing little bit, but I am convinced that I will manage to finish it by those 5 minutes. After three warnings, that I should really go – I am finally printing.

“Uff, Luckily I have done it.”

However, a few minutes later I am looking at my application and I can see that I am applying from 1st of September to the 31st of August 2017. Ehm, ok, nevermind. Photoshop will have to help me. So after 2 hours of stress, I am finally going home. Stuff for travelling are already prepared next to our backpacks and now we just need to pack everything else and empty the whole room. Even though we took 90% of our stuff to Czech republic we still have billions of stuff to pack.

At 1:30 we are sitting on the bed and after 3 hours of packing, we are looking at one 30 kg suitcase and one heavy box. At least everything is packed. The last thing on the list is – move 30 GB from SD card to HDD to have space for videos from GoPro. At 2:30 we can go to sleep for 2 beautiful hours. Well, we can sleep on a bus to Manchester that goes from Brighton at 6 o’clock, can’t we?

At 4:30 with the really bad mood, we are realizing how bad idea it was and that it might be probably much better to try to do things in time next time and sleep at least 5 hours would be also great. Outside there is still dark and we are moving our stuff downstairs into the living room, so the room is ready for our new housemate – James. We are just hoping that we will have a place to come back to. Because after the noise we have been doing a whole night and morning…who knows :D.

At 5:38 we are coming out from the house and with a swift trot, buses are not operating and it does not worth it anyway, because one-way ticket costs 2,20 and both take the same time, we are heading to the coach station located at Old Stein.

“5:52, Uf, We made it.”

We are showing our ticket to our driver, but unfortunately, we are not on the list. Luckily our driver Oscar is one of the funniest and nicest drivers, we have ever met and he is letting us in the bus with a smile. At 6 we are finally sitting in the bus National Express and with sunrise, we can enjoy our first way to London.

Way to London have passed thanks to our exhaustion really quickly and within a moment we are arriving at Victoria Coach Station. The first stop is Cafe Nero with order double macchiato and americano to go, which is the necessity for surviving another part of our trip to Manchester at 9:30. For the first time, there is no complication and we can continue on our journey to Manchester.

Right after 2 o’clock we are arriving in abnormally sunny Manchester with the necessity to find the nearest toilet, at least me. Because in our to-do list is also to buy proper shoes for Scotland, we are heading to Arndale shopping centre and hoping to find both – shoes and toilets. Unfortunately, we found only toilets. One thing that surprises me is that toilet in Manchester doesn’t have any mirrors. The reason is clear right away because instead of spending 10 minutes looking on myself I am just washing my hands and continuing to do something better with my life.

A few days before our trip I was looking at some travel blogs and someone recommended website hotwire.com with cheap hotel offers. On the website, you choose a part of the city where you want to stay and they offer you just price for a room with its stars rating. I never thought that in England we would be able to afford to stay in a hotel, especially in Manchester. Neither I nor Stephan is used to staying in hotels. But! After 150 pounds per night, a room in the very city centre with en suite, 3 stars rating showed up. The most important is that the price was 27 pound per night for both of us. We couldn’t believe it and we tried to find the hitch. We found it, but it was really minimal. There were a few fees so at the end the room cost 35 pounds. But if you have done the research like us you know that usually, even the hostel in dorm rooms with other 12 people cost around 20 pounds per person. So why shouldn’t we make the beginning of the trip nice, right? Especially when it will not ruin us financially. Later we found a few bad reviews but for the price, we really don’t care. Without any expectation, we are heading towards the hotel. We are entering the building from the 19th century and its interior and architectural value fascinates us immediately.

For us, people who grew up in camps, it feels like we might not even belong here. Britannia Hotel has a huge entrance hall with many many staircases and on the ceiling, a massive crystal chandelier is hanging. A scene like from the Titanic movie, just add Rose and Jack and you have it. A receptionist is giving us cards to our room and we can continue to put our stuff in room 307, which is located on the 3rd floor. To be honest you can definitely see the age of the hotel in the room but we are still thrilled. After a small refresh of our appearance we are going down one floor after another with admiration and still eyes and mouths wide open. Right around the corner is our first stop-art gallery- which I was really excited about, because it was the only stop on our plane, that I planned. The rest of the day was on Stepan. He lived here for a year after all so I wanted to get to know Manchester through his eyes. A really nice surprise is that there is an exhibition called True faith and it captures the legacy of New Order and Joy Division.

From original texts written by the hand of Ian Curtis the first draft of posters to videos from live concerts. If we wouldn’t have 2 weeks with backpacks in front of us buying or not buying the vinyl would not be a question. After the fun comes obligation and I need to finish the application that I messed up before. Stepan has got membership in Manchester Library where we can use the computer and other necessary stuff. Printed, checked, checked again, scanned and after an hour we can leave. Brighton library compared to Manchesters one is nothing. Beautiful building with a town hall, modern furniture? Dream of every student.

Once to the right and we are in the street by the river where everything is full of fairy-lights and bright colours – Yes, Gay village that leads us to the very last stop of our one day in Manchester – Northern Quarter.

Typical English houses made of red bricks which are visible from the outside and somewhere also from the inside as we are finding out later in one of the local pub/bar The Troff. That is how my dream flat should look like. It is almost 9 o’clock and we are slowly walking to the hotel to enjoy a little bit of comfort before our camping plans in wild Scotland.

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