*Go half way down untill you see the picture of a canal...from there is new stuff :)*

This is going to be my Manchester Trip post...but thats gonna be a long one so for now this is me in my fancy purple shirt for Nadia @xxxlovelylollipop

And now the proper post...but damn I look so good in that pic i'm leaving it up :P lol

My trip to England

So on the 20^th of March I packed up and shipped off to merry old England to visit my Uncle, Aunt and Cousin on my mums side, we quite rarely go visiting this side of the family but this was a sort of combo birthday gift trip for me and visit to meet our new Cousin who had just been born.

The beginning of trip was early (for me anyway) as we had to drive for three hours to reach the closest airport but we got there easy enough and after the usual security and other delays we were off…to Ireland.

Cheap flights ;) you don't even get jets just props lol

Bit odd since we were on the way to England to detour to Ireland, but hey this was the cheapest flight so we didn’t mind.

Ireland!

Plus since we were in Ireland it gave us the chance to have a quick pint of Guinness  ;)

Didn’t really see much of Ireland since we only had two hours but it was nice to just sit and have a drink with my mum while we chatted.

 Then it was back on the plane for another 45mins to Manchester where we met my Uncle (my mothers Brother) and got taken back to his and his wife’s home to settle in. 

-Manchester-

The house is in a lovely quiet little suburb of Oldham not far from Manchester and my Uncle who loves trees has filled his garden with unusual species making it a quiet haven of birdsong and tree flowers.

Nut Thieves

Nope not a fake one...he really has a Crane that visits his frog pond hehe :)

Magnolia...aparently they are one of the oldest plants on earth.

My mum and her brother.

The first day was quiet and just mainly saying hello and getting sorted, I think the only good shots were of little Sam my new Cousin :)

My Cousin and little Cousin, I love them both with all my heart

I want one of these.

-A pic of my mums father (on the left) he and my mums mother were both Ukrainian-

Day 2

The next day we went into Manchester to explore about and see the sights ready for the evening when we were booked to see the Halle Orchestra in the evening.

The buildings are a lovely mix of old and new that offer almost endless angles and perspectives for photos, and since I love architecture I ended up with friction burns on my neck from my shirt collar because I spent the whole day looking up and around lol

The meal we had was an amazing Turkish restaurant and was probably the best of the trip (which is saying something because I ate like a king for the whole week) it’s also the only meal I managed to photo, still feel a bit awkward pulling out the camera at dinners :/

Hilton building, I love this building it's soooo pretty and eye catching...and big :O

The Architect get the entire top floor as part of his payment.

Apple Store, so many nerds so well organized it was impressive :D

I go on that wheel later on

Drumming up some business...zing!

We had various starters but mine was a collection of wonderfully balanced little dishes including a ricotta samosa, rice wrapped in vine leaves, spiced chicken a salad and other lovely things.

They were all so stunning on their own that it was incredible they worked so well together, to be honest the main which was swordfish was lovely but I could have just eaten another plate or two of the starters :) and to go with it a rather nice Turkish beer which had rice in it.

-Mango Cheesecake :D yumaroo-

Then after dinner it was off to the Halle for the very first bit of live music I’ve ever been to see and most certainly the very first Orchestra I’ve seen live.

I was curious about the effect of an Orchestra having heard it described as ‘Exhilarating’ but never thought it could be…turns out it can ;)

I really loved it. The sound, the skill and the way you could watch the movements of the musicians and see the flow of sounds was breathtaking I really genuinely got a buzz after it (even though due to early mornings and melodic music I almost fell asleep during one solo bit :P ) then it was home again for a bit of TV and to crash out.

You are not allowed to photo during..so this is as good as i got :/

But before bed I checked my 3DS which has a feature called Streetpass, basically if you walk by someone who also has a 3DS turned on and with WiFi active you transfer data…but since I live in the middle of nowhere I’d never got to use this feature…until last week! :D

Having passed through a massive shopping centre (AKA Mall for you Yanks) and visiting a AppleStore (which was very impressive) I had gathered my very first Streetpass yay Nerd High five!

 DAY: 3

Day 3 began with a lovely walk along a gentle English canal with ducks and warm sunshine, then off into Manchester again by train to see various museums.

On the train through old land.

More Architecture! :D

In a craft fair thing this was a small box made of material with lights in it that you could hang on the wall, very clever idea!

Fish Market

On the Wheel.

Skyline

Then we popped into this lovely old theatre just to see the building :)

Hilton again...well I did say i loved it ;)

The Transport museum, filled with everything steam and water powered. I spent ages pumping a demonstration model of a water engine thing...only for it to turn an arrow -_-

The Science museum: It had pillars that took photos of people and then passed them over this wall and onto a screen cloud...but it crashed LOL :P

A Fusion Generator...or it might just have been a nuclear one.

Aircraft Museum...not great for photos.

Hehehe

There is the screen cloud, as you can see most of Oldham has become Pakistani Muslim now.

A library with thousands of old books, the main building is very old but it has a modern part surrounding it.

The girls are a bit cold in Manchester lol :P

And then it was time for home, I think we went out for a meal...or just ate at home can't remember but it was quiet and an early night...knackered after long days wandering around Manchester.

Oh we did also stop by a lovely Greek resturant before we left the city and I had a wonderful Panini with peparoni in...this holiday was also a holiday from my usual diet, and i had LOTS of meat.