Exploring Manchester in Three Days

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Ryan and I flew to Manchester in mid-July. His sister was graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University and we were invited to her convocation. Of course we said yes, especially since I’ll take any excuse to travel!

 

 

Day One in Manchester:

Ryan and I arrived bright and early on Sunday after an overnight flight from Toronto. We took the train from the airport directly to Manchester Piccadilly Station and then walked to our hostel. It was really early and we weren’t yet hungry for breakfast, so we dropped our bags off at Hatter’s Hostel and went to wander the city.

Ryan and I passed through Market St and ogled the food stall tents, which were serving everything from pork and apple pies to Cumbria sausage and Peking duck! We didn’t know how many places would be open on a Sunday, so our plan was to just explore. After a bit of a walk, we found ourselves at Chetham’s Library, which is where Marx and Engels wrote the first draft of their Communist Manifesto. Unfortunately it was closed, and by now it was 11am and we were hungry. We each had a  Full English Breakfast at Banyan, a restaurant with a sun-filled patio at the Corn Exchange.

My mom describes English breakfasts as, “beans and toast and an undercooked egg.” The Full English Breakfast did include those, but also  bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, and a grilled portobello mushroom. After this hearty brunch (which we were delighted to find out was on special for 2 for £11.95), we continued to wander, heading to two music shops where Ryan got another harmonica.

I had read about Mr Thomas’ Chop House in the guidebooks, and the staff graciously allowed us to walk through and take a look at the beautiful old dining room (we ended up coming here for dinner the next day). A lot of restaurants advertised Sunday Roasts ‘while supplies last,’ which tempted us but we weren’t hungry yet!

As with many Chinatowns around the world, the one in Manchester had delicious-looking menus for affordable prices. Unfortunately we weren’t hungry enough to eat yet!

I love the pub signs!

By now it was just past 2pm and we were feeling exhausted, so we returned to the hostel, got our room (which was a private 2-bed room on the fifth floor – no elevator), and promptly settled down for a three-hour nap.

When we awoke at 6pm, it was still warm and sunny so we eventually roused ourselves and went to look for dinner. Our hostel is in the Northern Quarter, which the tourist map describes as “Manchester’s creative urban heart with independent fashion stores, record shops, and cafes.” It still being Sunday, a lot of the shops were closed. Many restaurants advertised happy hour deals, 2 for 1 dinners, and prix fixe menus, but we found many bars and pubs no longer served food past 7pm although the alcohol was freely flowing. We found Odd Bar that had lives blues music from 8-10pm, but had stopped serving food. We tried to hunt down fish and chips, but no restaurant had it available (although it was printed on many menus), so we settled for fried chicken. Most of the open restaurants had young patrons our age, and everyone and everything seemed so chill. After dinner, we returned to Odd Bar for the second set of live music and enjoyed a beer and cider before retiring to our room at 10pm. It just started to get dark at 11pm…glories of summer in the northern hemisphere!

Day Two in Manchester:

Our hostel offered an unexciting Continental breakfast of white toast, butter, jam, cereal, and milk. Feeling the need for vitamins and fibre, I ran out to get us some fresh blackberries. We spent the next few hours in the hostel while Ryan did some work, and then we headed out to Oxford Rd around noon. It had many sections under construction, so the sidewalks were a bit hectic. It is apparently one of, if not the busiest bus corridors in Europe – hard not to believe as double-deckers zoomed on by in both directions. We eventually made it past the University of Manchester, and began to stroll along the Curry Mile.

Perhaps it was so named back when Indian immigrants had moved here, but we only saw a handful of Indian and Pakistani restaurants, sweet shops, and clothing stores. Most of the Mile was Middle Eastern – there were perhaps a dozen sheesha cafes, wafting the aromas of flavoured tobacco that reminded us of Riyadh. Ryan and I stopped for lunch at an Afghani restaurant where the portions were large and the prices were low. We shared a barbecue meat platter with chicken tikka, lamb chops, and something called kobeda (the restaurant was called Kobeda Palace). Kobeda (or koobideh) is a meat kebab made from ground lamb and flavoured with parsley and chopped onions, and it was the tastiest of the meats we ordered. We sat outside on their patio and enjoyed watching the people and cars go by.

After this delicious lunch, we visited some sweet shops and bought chocolate mint barfi, elderflower barfi, jelebi, gulab jamun, and some pretty pink, green, and white barfi. 

We found a shady bench outside the Central Library and we sampled our sweets.

After tasting our sweet treats, we heard from Ryan’s family who had just arrived, so we went up to the Corn Exchange to meet them.

The family just had lunch, so we went around the corner to visit Chetham’s Library, which was just about to close. It dates to the fifteenth century and is free to visit, although they do ask for donations. We followed some medieval corridors through the still-working school and found the dark, ancient library that had its corridors and halls lined with old tomes. Chetham’s Library is the oldest free public library in the UK.

We even saw the table where Marx and Engels wrote up a draft of their Communist Manifesto – a square wooden table in a nook surrounded by windows and stained glass. The library also listed some of its books, still in the collection, that the two socialists had studied. Historically remarkable.

After the library, we aimlessly walked around and found ourselves on the outdoor patio of Mr Thomas’ Chop House. The rest of the family ordered drinks while Ryan ordered the fish and chips and I had the fish and chip barm with mushy peas.

Day Three in Manchester:

Manchester is such a small, compact city and is easy to get around on foot. Some people said they though it was ‘gritty,’ but I thought the opposite. There is a ton of city life here with shops and bars and hip restaurants but it seems likable and livable, not touristy. It’s a lot more lively and cultured, but laid back, than I had expected (maybe something like Sheffield, which I visited with a friend back in 2008, and I was not impressed).

Ryan and I spent most of our Tuesday (day three) at his sister’s graduation. We ate breakfast then met the family for photos and the convocation ceremony. After the quite busy event, we headed to the Manchester Hilton for afternoon tea on Cloud 23.

The news had said that the three days in Manchester were the warmest in several years. Ryan and I had packed pants and sweaters and umbrellas expecting a rainy 15C, but it ended up being sunny and 30C. No one had air conditioning, considering how rarely it gets to be that hot – we roasted in our fifth floor hostel room, and then again at afternoon tea. Luckily, Cloud 23 offered iced teas in addition to regular hot tea.

Afternoon tea is one of my favourite meals: I ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea and slowly sipped that while snacking on these tasty treats.

Afternoon tea included currant scones with strawberry jam and Dorset clotted cream; curry and pickled zucchini sandwiches; chicken pate sandwiches; tuna salad with corn in a wrap; lemon and currant pound cakes; chocolate coffee tart; and strawberry mousse with graham cracker crumbs. It doesn’t look like a lot of food, but we were all quite full when we left!

The view from Cloud 23 was spectacular – unfortunately we didn’t know enough about the city to know what we were seeing. After tea (which was very filling), we went to a Mexican restaurant for live music and drinks, and then Ryan and I headed back to the hostel to pack for the next leg of our trip!