Nottingham - Sheffield - Manchester

The past week and a bit have been so busy with work. The hours haven't been all too bad but I wasn't getting home until at least 9-10pm each night so this weekend I was really looking forward to getting away! Not that we were going anywhere really far but we stayed within the UK and just went a few hours north. The first stop was Nottingham. It was about a 2 hour train ride but strangely enough, I really looked forward to the train ride haha. Something about being a passenger on a long road/train trip that is so relaxing. I listened to music, napped a bit and read my book. It was the perfect time out. Anyway! Nottingham is also known as the home of Robin Hood. We went to see the Nottingham Castle (it really wasn't that extravagant). But it was worth while going up and seeing it anyway.

We were only in Nottingham for maybe 5 hours? After that we hopped on the next train to Sheffield where my friend had a martial arts lesson. Originally I was expecting a small town that is mainly industrial but it turns out that it is far from that! It is a small town for sure but it is far more modern than I expected. The structures, the buildings, the feeling of the area... it seemed more like a North American city than anything I've seen in London haha. My friend made the point of comparing it to New Westminster in Vancouver. It kind of made sense... Anyway, funny story though... we got lost going to the hotel (we went to the wrong location) so we ended up walking twice the distance. When we finally got there, we made sure that they confirmed that we would get a cot as a second bed... well, you can probably sense how surprised I was when I walked into the room and saw a baby bed. I even volunteered to sleep in the cot before we had realized that it would be for a baby. Needless to say, I took that back right away. Not much to see in Sheffield though so I chilled out in the hotel room at night before getting some sleep while anticipating the train ride to Manchester the next day :D

Sunday was a day for Manchester. I was really looking forward to this because I was going to meet up with a flickr friend, Bhawi! It's always a lot of fun meeting up with fellow flickr-ites and it was great meeting up with her. The rain came pouring down in the morning when we arrived but we some good fun in a nice restaurant for lunch. The food was fantastic (I had the Beef and ale pie with chips mmmm..). After that, we walked around the city with the guidance of Bhawi and visited the Manchester Cathedral before going to the home of the Manchester United football team! We took the tour and it was well worth it. It was sweet seeing the inside of the famous Old Trafford Stadium and sitting in the stands. Even though there was no game going on, you could tell that the atmosphere would be electric during any game night. Thanks again Bhawi, it was a blast seeing you and the city :D I could tell that Manchester is more my kind of city by the way haha (less congestion and busy feel to the city compared to London).

Needless to say, I cannot wait to go and do some more traveling. This was just a taste of it this weekend. I know what I want to do here in Europe. Listening to the song, "Driving in the sun" already has me anticipating it.