Manchester
Don’t get me wrong. I loved my visit to Manchester for as long as it lasted, but the journey to Manchester had quite a few setbacks.
For my internship I was asked to travel to Manchester and deliver a server to a client, which was used for broadcasting at a soccer game. This server is about the size of half a door and maybe weighs about the same too. So yeah, not particularly the easiest luggage to carry around. That is even more true if you also have to carry around your suitcase and camera bag, travel by train and also have to get it safely onto the plane. I did manage though, just don’t ask how, because I’m going to tell you in this post.
Where it all started
Open Sesame
When I was finally at the front of the queue, the man at the help desk told me the next flight with their airline to Manchester would be on Sunday. Which was a problem, because the server needed to be delivered Saturday morning before 10 o’clock. After booking a flight with another airline, which left 6 o’clock the next morning, I set down at a sandwich bar for some food while I was looking for a nearby hotel. After a 10-minute walk I arrived at the hotel by 10 p.m., so I knew I wouldn’t be getting much sleep. Before taking a short nap, all I needed to do was to check in at the hotel, but of course the check-in systems were broken. It took over half an hour before the systems were back online and people could check in and get to their rooms.
Finally, being able to get to my room, as if I was cursed, the next problem arose. My phone battery had died, so I grabbed my suitcase to get my charger, entered the 3-digit code, just to find out it wasn’t unlocking.
When I was at the airport eating my sandwich, I somehow managed to change the combination to the lock on my suitcase. Don’t ask me how, I apparently am that clumsy XD. I didn’t have the faintest idea how to open my suitcase. At the nightstand next to my bed was a cup with a tea spoon which I tried to push between the dials in the hope something would break and open the suitcase. But that didn’t seem to work AT ALL! By now I was so tired that I didn’t even care anymore if I got any sleep or not. So long as I could at least open my suitcase.
Eventually, as a last resort, I put my ear against the lock and started acting as if I were a secret agent. I pulled the release button while I was rotating the dials. Carefully listening to the ticking noise of the dials as they changed numbers. First the dial furthest away from the release button… Lo and behold I felt a click. I kept rotating the other dials and eventually managed to unlock my suitcase. Never thought it was that easy to open a dial lock, but it was. Meanwhile the clock turned midnight. After just three hours of sleep I got up early to catch my flight. When I arrived at the check-in for my hand luggage, people were giving me strange looks, mainly because I was checking in a server as hand luggage. When I got searched after going through the metal detector, a ground steward recognized my deathly hallows necklace as an Illuminati sign, oh well, It was quite funny though. But besides that, the rest of the journey seemed to go pretty well.
Arriving in Manchester
Once at the airport in Manchester, I took a taxi to the Manchester stadium to deliver the server and afterwards went to the hotel to check in. I was very, very tired, after those two days with just a few hours of sleep. But I did really want to see the city. So I took quite a bit of coffee, grabbed my camera and headed into the city.
Manchester has some beautiful architecture as you can see in some of the pictures below. It was just such a shame that I didn’t have more time in Manchester. While being completely unprepared, I tried to make the best of my time there. I hope someday I will go back to Manchester, so If you know any must visit place in Manchester, let me know in the comments below. Maybe in the future I’ll come back and stay a little longer.
