Short trips within Britain

I made two trips around Britain last week. On Thursday, I went to York for a one-day trip with my American friend Megan. We departed at Leeds at about 10am-ish. This would be my second time going to York, the first being with Kington and his friends. But I didn't get to explore much around the first time since it was going to be dark. So this second trip is to compensate what I've missed out. However, for both times, I was unfortunate to be sieged by rainfalls. I was hoping that I could at least have a sunny day in York! Upon reaching there, I realised that it was not raining raindrop but ice pellets! I should be glad that it's not hailstones..lol

We started off by heading towards the direction of Clifford Tower and since I've gotten some knowledge from the first trip, I'm pretty much able to know which direction I'm going. We didn't venture up Clifford Tower in the end since it was too cold and the ice pellets were raining quite heavily so we ended up going into the adjacent building which is the York Castle Museum. It's 7.50 pounds for student rate to go into the Museum but the good thing is that the entry fees can be valid for 1 whole year! Ahhh, this would be good if I decide to bring Mama to visit there in the future. The York Castle Museum is an interesting place to visit as it showcase equipments and items from everyday life in Britain. This included fashion clothing, household items and certain traditions from the past. There's even a section dedicated to the Chinese in York. There's lots to explore at the Museum and by the time we finished, we were hungry for lunch. We headed to one of the local pubs where I had bangers and mash. It's a good lunch especially in a privately owned pub, a rare thing considering that most pubs are either Yates or Wetherspoons. After lunch we headed towards the York Minster to take some photos and also check out another ruined abbey within the vicinity of the York Minster. The York Minster is truly a magnificent sight with its architecture. We headed to Bettys (the smaller branch) to enjoy some warm tea in the freezing weather. At around 5.30pm, we were back at the York Minster for the traditional Anglican hymn evening prayer service. We were back at Leeds by 7.15pm or so.

Then on the weekend, it's an even earlier train in the morning as we departed from Leeds to Manchester at 8am. The whole bunch of us checked in to the hostel first but we weren't allowed to go into our rooms yet. So we placed our bags at the reception first and then headed out to eat dim sum at one of the restaurants there. This is followed by exploring the art museum which can be done for free! We returned back to the hostel to put our things in the room and then headed out to a shopping mall in the city center. For the first time in Britain, I've actually encountered a proper shopping mall. No doubt there's Merrion Center and St. John's in Leeds, but they do not qualify at all, in my opinion as proper shopping malls! We had British KFC for dinner there but it tasted like Singapore's KFC. Once again, Malaysia's KFC still wins in terms of taste. There isn't much to do outside at night so we went back to hostel to play some card games and then head off to bed. On the next day, we had some Jap food for lunch but the stuff over there are quite pricey even at half-price sushi. Our final destination is at Old Trafford where we did a museum visit and a stadium tour. I had the opportunity to go into the players changing room and also come out of the tunnel. I did learn a few interesting facts or two about OT which I didn't know previously, like the existence of the old tunnel, which is supposed to be the traditional way in which the English position their player's tunnels. Not to mention, United's scoreboards are never changed since 94 and it did remind myself that there's no replay screen at OT too unlike the Emirates stadium. Looks like United wants to keep certain aspects of it traditional ehh. In the end, we took a 5.40pm plus train back to Leeds since we missed the 5.10pm one. I had to rush back to my place as quickly as possibly because I was due to help out at church for the Candlelights carol. Ahhh, with all the mini trips settled and only a Christmas one to go to, it looks set that I should be spending the remaining days settling my assignment essays..lol.