Halfway Through Adventure
Written by: Sydney Linders
Major: English
Location: Manchester, UK
As anyone that knows me best will tell you, I’m a bit of a homebody and a cheapskate. I don’t tend to go anywhere or spend a lot of money on anything, particularly trips. I hadn’t even flown anywhere before the age of 20, and that was for the Cotton Bowl in the 2016 football season. But since coming here, all that has gone out the window. I haven’t spent a full weekend at home in Manchester since first coming to the city. As I spoke about in my last entry, travel by public transport is very simple and quite inexpensive. Manchester also has a fantastic International Society (IS) that students may have free membership with. They have organized various trips every weekend throughout the semester with discounted rates to members.
My first trip outside of Manchester was to Liverpool along the coast on Sept. 29th. It was a very rainy day--don’t misunderstand me: it always rains here, Manchester is said to be the rainiest city in the country, but this was a very rainy day. This trip was with the IS; we had a 2 hour tour through the whole city by an experienced guide. Though the city has more claim to fame than the place where the Beatles formed, it is what most people come to see. I rode the Ferris Wheel there, went to the Beatles Story at Albert Dock, and even had a pint in the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played over 200 times.
The next weekend was my first time going out on my own. Trains from Manchester to London are very common, running nearly every hour during the day. I caught the 8:10 to London Euston, and I took the Underground to King’s Cross Station. So much can be said for that alone, much less how exciting it was to step out into the open air and see the city I’ve read about countless times. That day I went to the British Library where I saw such treasures as a Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare’s First Quarto, and Jane Austen’s portable writing desk. I then took a quick walk down to the British Museum where I saw ancient Greek vases and the Rosetta Stone.
My next trip with the IS was one I had been looking forward to for a good portion of my life. On Oct. 12-13 we took an overnight trip to Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. I saw the famous castle as well as St. Giles Cathedral and picked up a tam and tartan scarf. It was another rainy and cloudy day, but that was no matter to me.
The next weekend, I went down south to see Stonehenge. This was my longest train ride yet at nearly 4 hours including a trip through the Underground to Waterloo Station to catch the train to Salisbury. This site was another on my “must-see” list. It astounded me to see such an amazing feat of human creation. The history of that whole region is so rich an interesting, and really puts into perspective just how young America is in comparison.
It’s hard to believe I’m almost half-way through this adventure, and all that I’ve seen in these almost 50 days. As I write, I’m preparing for a 5-day trip through Scotland that I’m sure I’ll be writing about when I come back. I also have plans for York, Dover, and Stratford-Upon-Avon in November and December. I don’t know exactly how much one need move to qualify as “welltraveled,” but I’ll get there !
Categories: New Adventure, Manchester, Navigation