Europe: Manchester, England

The last leg of my United Kingdom journey took me to Manchester, England where I was to meet up with a friend named Mike who works for Image Metrics (IM), the company I work for in California. IM also has an office there in Manchester so I had planned on stopping in to say hello to everyone, and Mike had offered to let me stay in the spare room in his house while I was there.


My train brought me into Manchester Piccadilly Station where I had a short five minute walk into the city center and the location of the IM office. Shortly thereafter I found my way and said hello to some guys I hadn't seen in months. I knew a couple of the them but I got to meet some others who I'd heard of but not met yet, so that was nice. A couple of times a year they come to the States to work for a few of weeks so that's how I'd met some of them already. These guys were still working technically so I tried not to bug them too much and instead hopped on my laptop and tried to recover three full days of no internet and soak up as much news and information as I could. Checking emails, replying to comments, learning about all the crazy stuff that'd happened while I was in Wales. I needed my fix! ;)

Towards the end of the day, Mike's girlfriend Kate arrived at the office and we all hopped on the bus back to their house about twenty minutes away. It's a very nice place in a seemingly great neighborhood in Manchester. They had a cat named Brian who reminded me a lot of our cat Charlie back on Cape Cod and he happened to be very friendly, so that was nice!

Mike had a Squash game to play that night that he couldn't get out of, since he is the team captain, so he'd be gone for a few hours. While he was gone Kate and I went down to a local pub called "Kim's By The Sea". There we were meeting up with a very close friend of theirs named Mora who had just that night arrived home from a year long stay in Caracas, Venezuela. She's studying for her doctorate and doing research into the role of education in socialist countries. We got to hear some great stories about her time there. We're brought up in America to hiss and cringe at the first mention of communism and socialism, so it was really, really interesting to hear first hand the perspective of someone who had lived there for a lengthy period of time. We heard a great deal of stories some fun and entertaining and others a bit scary, but all incredibly interesting. Mike arrived a bit later and told us how he had totally crushed his opponent and won the game, so we celebrated with four or five pints of beer. A couple more friends stopped by before we closed out the pub and headed back to Mora's house for more drinking and a backyard bonfire. They told me it had been raining constantly in Manchester lately and this was one of the first nights it hadn't rained, so a bonfire was perfect! We spent the night telling stories, drinking Venezuelan rum, and listening to some awesome music before stumbling back to Kate and Mike's place at about 3am.

The next morning was painful, but a traditional English breakfast at a nearby cafe and a nice, big cup of coffee made it all better. I think it was about noon before Mike got into work that day, it was slow going getting up and ready in the morning, heh. I went with him to the office for awhile and worked on some tools I had been writing, and just relaxed for a few hours fending off the headaches with aspirin and lots, and lots of water. I finished a pretty rad tool I had been building, so to celebrate I went out and got some lunch at a burrito restaurant nearby.

One of the main reasons I had come to Manchester was to see a metal concert. Dragonforce was playing that night at a local venue and I was able to get Mike and I on the guestlist because I've known the band for a few years. Since Mike didn't get into work until noon, he was a bit later than anticipated getting out of the office so I left a bit early to meet Kate and some of her mates at a pub called, "The Jolly Angler". We waited for Mike to finish up and then met him back in the city center where we headed off in the direction of the Manchester Academy, where Dragonforce was playing with Sabaton and a few other bands. A few pub stops on the way and we finally made it to the venue at about 9:30pm, where Dragonforce was just getting ready to go on. Great timing! During the set I did quite a bit of dancing in the mosh pit, and ended up with a body full of bruises and a swollen eye as souvenirs for the night. The band played for about an hour, finishing up a little after 11:00pm. Normally I'd hang out for awhile and meet up with the band and have a few beers but we were both seriously tired and banged up so we decided to head home instead of waiting. It was a short walk back to Mike's house thankfully and sleep was a welcome thing.

Dragonforce

The next morning we again went and got another epic English Breakfast at the local spot but this time Kate, Mora, and Rob came with us. It was about 1pm by the time we finished and during breakfast we'd decided it would be fun to go see an FC United game. They are a local football team that is quite well-known for being semi-new to the leagues but working their way up through them quite fast due to their skill. They had an extremely loyal fan base who follow them everywhere, so it sounded like it was going to be an exciting afternoon. We hopped into Mike and Kate's car and drove about thirty minutes to the field where they play. A bit early for the game, we hit the pub for a beer first and then found our way into the stands and got seats right behind the goal keeper. Calling them seats is a stretch really, since technically we stood up the entire time cheering and chanting. This particular team is in one of the lower leagues, sort of like what we'd call the Minor Leagues in America. As such some of the rules were different, and the one main rule difference for the crowds is that in the big-time Premiere League you aren't allowed to stand up at all. People kind of hate this, so to spite, in the lower leagues you always stand up the entire time! They literally didn't stop chanting, singing, and cheering for the WHOLE GAME. It was awesome, and inspiring to see such passionate loyalty from the fans. It's almost like the team and the fans are a single entity, the team is one the field playing as hard as they can while the fans are there to support them in every way they can. You can really see how the players are driven by it too, it makes such a difference when they cheer louder and heckle the opposing team. Like I said, inspiring to see such camaraderie. Unfortunately the team had a loss that day and some fans weren't all that happy about it. The keeper of the other team had actually punched one of the FCU players and started a fight on field, so the fans were tense and a fight broke out in the parking lot on the way out. Crazy stuff! Intensity and passion go both ways I guess right?

I was so tired after the game that when we returned to the house I ended up just relaxing for a couple of hours and doing some blog writing. We'd planned a pub crawl that night so we made sure to have a nice dinner, and Kate cooked us some vegetarian fajitas which were excellent! I got a great amount of food, got some rest, then suited up to head out that night and party.

The first place we hit was called "Briton's Protection". It was so packed that we only stayed for a couple of beers but it seemed a decent place. They have a giant selection of whiskeys to choose from if that is your fancy, but I just stuck to beer. Next stop was "Peveril of the Peak", a pub that had the entire outside covered in artistic tilework. I use to do tile work when I was younger so I had a vague idea idea of how difficult it was to build. It was really nice and to see the entire building covered in them too. Inside we played a few games of darts to 301, drank a few pints and met up with Rob and a mate of his. Rob had told us about a band that was playing at a place nearby called "The Green Room". We bounced over just in time to catch the headlining band we had come to see, a group called, "Thingamabob and the Thingamajigs". They were a pretty talented band that played funk music. They all had top hats on and one guy had an insanely awesome mustache. The kind you win contests with. In fact Rob told us last year he entered in the world mustache competition and placed well. It was excellent! At one point they played a song I think they called "The Monkey Song" or something like that where he made the entire crowd sit down and make monkey noises while he was playing. It was fun to say the least. Good music, good beer, good people, a great night so far. When the band ended we headed out for one last stop, a pub called the "Sandbar". This pub was excellent because it had Orval, my new favorite beer I had discovered in Brussels weeks ago. I drank a bunch of it. Mike, Kate and I discussed Belgian beers and hung out for a bit before we called it and trekked home to their place.

Peveril of the Peak

The next morning I woke up, packed my gear and got a ride to the airport with Mike for my flight back to Paris. It had been a great time in Manchester with some new friends and some excellent memories. Thanks to Mike and Kate for letting me sleep in your spare room and being so hospitable!