Manchester Day Out

For the past six days we have been in the city of Manchester, England's second largest. With absolutely no offense to London, coming here has been a bit of a relief. You can't beat London's culture and offerings, but it totally knows it and acts accordingly. Manchester is a little looser, and a little more lived-in. If London is like the fancy toy you keep in the box because your grubby little hands will ruin it, then Manchester is the well-loved teddy bear you carry with you by its ear everywhere you go. 

After watching the first day of the test match [note: I am writing about my cricket experiences at Wisden India under the title "Adventures of a Cricket Widow," which you can see at www.wisdenindia.com. They made a little banner for me and everything!! Crazy!] ] I stayed behind in our room while Subash went off to the media box, planning my next move.

I read a little tourist guide to Manchester in bed, and then packed up my bag and headed out. Manchester has an amazing tram system, which has all the convenience of a subway or tube without the claustrophobia. It's not completely inexpensive if you are on a budget (5 pounds for a day pass = ~$8 USD) but it takes you all around the entire city with trams every 12 minutes. 

Once on the tram I realized that just because I had read the tourist book didn't mean I had any idea where I was going. Manchester has a series of waterways and canals made during the Industrial Revolution (Manchester had a major cotton industry) and I knew vaguely that they were towards a part of the city called The Quays (pronounced "keys," meaning wharf) I got off the tram in a central location and boarded a different one to this area. I wasn't sure which stop would be best for seeing the canals, and eventually decided that I would get off at whichever stop everyone else did. A flawless plan!

Everyone ended up getting off at a stop called MediaCityUK, and so did I. There I found an amazing area open to the water, surrounded by incredible buildings. 

In front of a building called The Lowry there was a small market set up, with vendors selling cheese, bread, olives, and candy. I wandered around tasting the free samples, and eventually bought a chocolate-and-pear brioche to eat as I continued exploring. What is more satisfying to look at than piles of delicious looking foods!!! I could stare at them all day.

After spending some time there I decided to head back to the city center to go to the free Manchester Art Museum. By luck the tram heading back (the Picadilly Line, which also stops at St. Peter's Square) was waiting, and I hopped on with my pastry. 

The museum is right near the tram, across from the giant circular public library (supposedly its one of the oldest libraries in England, and contains a copy of the Gutenberg bible). I wandered in to the art museum and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring their collections.

One of the things that is neat about Manchester is it has a number of ongoing revitalization efforts, and it wants you to care. The museum mirrored this, with interactive exhibits and adorable "explorer" kits for kids to borrow while in the museum.

They had a collection of work from the Netherlands, which I guess is known for its incredibly fine detail where you can't even see the strokes. I don't know much about art, and it was fun to compare the differences.

My favorite thing to do when looking at paintings is look up very close. I like seeing the brushstrokes and knowing that this one moment in time, a flick of the wrist, has been captured in the paint forever.

Now that I am trying to make more art myself I am also curious to look at other people's. The skill just blows me away, and the fact that their brains can process something they see and turn it into a series of colors. I am especially impressed by drawings of glass, and other clear things. For example, look at the woman's skirt in this picture. The artist has managed to make the fabric see-through, and you can glimpse the leg underneath. Incredible.

As mentioned, the art from the Netherlands was incredibly detailed. They were mostly small, slightly larger than a piece of paper, and still it was all fit in.

After a few hours I wandered to the art museum's cafe, where I had a cappuccino and felt very worldly and cool. At 5 pm they announced the museum was closing. I headed to the library across the street, but it was closing as well. A tram to East Didsbury, the line by our house, happened to be waiting at the station, so I hopped on and headed back home.

I barely even scratched the surface of Manchester, and I hope to explore a little more in the few days we have left. I definitely want to go into the library and at least just stand in the center, surrounded by books. 

I'm glad that I ventured out to the Quays, especially since it involved multiple trams. This seems like nothing much, but to a somewhat directionally challenged person like myself it was an accomplishment. 

This morning we woke up to rain, and so are happily spending the morning tucked in, listening to the patter. After all, a good day out is always well complimented by a cozy day in. 

 

Money Money Money

England

Barbados

Journal Pages - Old Trafford

Lunch and Heritage in Manchester

I stop in to a pub called The Quadrant while Subash is off at the stadium getting his press pass. I am the only customer at the moment, and I order the "Beef and Ale Pie." This turns out to be giant--more like dinner than lunch--and comes with peas and mashed potatoes and a lot of gravy. 

The woman behind the bar calls me "luv" and "darlin" and makes me feel special. You get the feeling that if you ever had your heart broken you could go to her and have a good cry while she held you to her great aproned bosom and then gave you something hot to drink, and you would sniffle, feeling better.

She comes out to ask "how's your meal, darlin?" And then calls back to the kitchen "she says very good!" 

And it is. Outside it is gray and rainy and the food is warm and comforting. Steam floats up when I break open the meat pie and it feels like I could be in any time.

There is a feeling in America of existing without ancestors. You may know about your great-grandparents but beyond that it fades out as the newly arrived tried to belong in a whole new world, erasing the past. How can you blame them.

Somehow being here, eating comfort food under the watchful eye of this woman, I remember suddenly that my ancestors existed. Not just the more recent stepping onto a boat to take them off into the mist away from all they've ever known, but back and back. Falling in love and dying too young, giving birth and raising families, pressing calloused hands to burning foreheads, hoping this one will be spared.

All of this moving forward, sifted and kneaded into the dough, baked in a pie.

World Trip Packing List

As we are now in the fourth week of our trip (!), a post about what I actually packed is long overdue. I've been glad to find that I've used most of what I packed, and there isn't anything yet that I am really sad about not bringing.

I am trying to go as light as I can, and have just a backpack and the sling bag.

I do regret not buying either the Minaal or Tortuga backpack, which are designed specifically by people who have traveled a lot, and made to be as efficient as possible while staying within carry-on bag requirements. The biggest benefit to these bags over my backpack is that they open all the way up laying down like a suitcase, so they are much easier to pack.

That being said, my backpack has worked pretty well! Hopefully the zippers hold up. 

I read a bunch of travel blogs in the months leading up to the trip, and the best piece of advice in my opinion can be summed up as this: Don't expect yourself to suddenly be a different person just because you are traveling. I really took this to heart with my packing. For example, those expedition type pants that zip-off into shorts are great, light-weight, dry quickly, and multi-purpose. But I am most comfortable in jeans, so jeans are what I have. I also knew that I could happily compromise on where I slept--bed, floor, train, street--as long as I had a pillow, so I made the space for it and invested in a good one.

In this line my clothes are a mix of well-thought-out and somewhat random. I brought clothes I like and will want to wear, I tried to get things that could layer somewhat, I have a few long-sleeves for sun protection. I have one sporty shirt in case I get the opportunity to play cricket. Even though we are in mostly tropical equator environments I have 3 sweaters.

Every blog will tell you to bring clothes that can all work together so you can combine them in many ways. Luckily many of the things I brought do work together, but that is mainly because I apparently own a lot of clothes in the same teal/blue color, not because I tried. 

Another great tip I saw was the use of compression sacks to hold clothes. They help you squish everything down very small, and you can buy a whole range of types from outdoor stores going up to almost $60. I found this pack of 3 different sizes for $4.97 at wal-mart, so that is what I am using. They aren't nearly as good at compressing things, I'm sure, but they work enough. I split up my clothes into shirts in the blue bag, pants/skirts/dress in the green bag, and underwear/swimsuit in the red bag. This helps you not have to unload every thing just to find a sweater.

So here are the clothes I have for the next 9 months:

Blue bag: 4 tank tops, 4 t-shirts, 1 long sleeve, 3 button up long sleeve, 2 sweaters, 1 cardigan

Green bag: 2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of jean capris, 1 pair shorts, 1 long skirt, 1 dress, 1 pair leggings

Red bag: socks, underwear (mostly not pictured), sleep shirt, bathing suit, rash guard swim shirt

And here they are all cinched up!

These all (just barely) go in the backpack along with the art supplies I showed earlier, flip flops, inflatable pillow, and first aid kit. I will have to take a picture of the first aid kit sometime. I put together a whole bunch of different things into a small bag, including ibuprofen, band-aids, Dramamine, after-bite, anti-histamines, and a giant pile of chewable pepto-bismol. I have this idea from our previous trips to India that chewing one or two of these around eating helps, although I suspect it may be a complete placebo affect.  Either way, they are the only thing from the medicine kit I have used so far.

Way at the bottom of the backpack is my supply of spare notebooks, and the one actually in use goes in the sling bag along with my eReader, a smaller sketchbook, a smaller notebook (its an extremely redundant system, I know, I can't help it), a selection of current favorite pens, travel watercolor set, and scarf. 

I post things using my iPad instead of a computer, although I do have a travel keyboard that pops up in a little stand for typing quickly. I haven't used it too much yet.

So far I am pretty happy with it! I am assuming at some point I will hate all of the clothes I have, just from wearing the same things over and over. I'll be curious to see when that happens.

We've been lucky so far to mostly have a home-base once we actually get to each location, so I haven't had to carry everything around all the time. So far carrying all the belongings was most frustrating in the London Underground, where we could barely fit on the tube with all the other people. Other than that it is basically 3-10 hours of annoying carting everything around followed by 3 - 10 days of being able to pick and choose what to bring out for the day and what to leave at home.

Definitely the way to travel, if you can manage it! All of this brought to you by jamming everything into a small space and the kindness of strangers. 

Journal Pages - London

Many thanks to the lovely Daniel Norcross (@sofa_dan) for the match tickets. Here is a photo of Daniel:

You Might Be In London If