Stretford and Trafford

After an emotionally charged exit from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, a train ride from London Heathrow to Northampton, a bus detour to Birmingham and another two hour train ride to Manchester, alas, I am finally in... front of my laptop, once again.

Lounging in my room with a cloudy 57 degree weather outside, it's not all that bad now is it? My second day here in the UK and I'm not struggling with a jet lag. As a matter of fact, I was able to sleep pretty tight under layers of sheets, waking up to the smell of baked bread and an English breakfast of sausage, eggs and ham prepared by my cousin. Of course, you're not here to read about how awesome it was, rather, to see pictures.

The neighborhood: Stretford Street in Manchester.


This is about 10 minutes away from the airport and I'd say about the same to downtown Manchester. With red bricks and washed, worn-out picket fences, I was truly in England. Not that we won't find those in parts of the US but I feel it makes them more legit over here. You know what I'm saying? It's England!



They have back alleys! People walk through it constantly, unlike where I live, because it separates the back patio to their gardens. I felt bad taking this picture because I made somebody walk the other way around when he saw me with my camera and tripod.



That was the view from my room, of which I'm not taking a picture because it's literally littered (say it!) with crap. I didn't realize how much stuff I brought from the US! I had to take them all out because apparently, they inspected it in Phoenix. Everything's in there, just placed the opposite of how I remembered packing it. I don't know how that happened. I do know that I somehow have to get rid of some before my trip to Cambridge. It's not helping that my cousin brought me to the mall either.





That is not a hotel, but Trafford Center. They say it's the largest shopping area around here. Right when you go up the stairs you see this food court.



And the actual mall looks like this.




We walked around for a bit so I got a taste of UK clothing. There's a this place called Zara, like a Windsor for men (and oh yeah, women). They weren't giving sh*t when they said that UK fashion is very forward, or, I'm sorry, very posh. I could have easily spent hundreds of dollars... ok, maybe not... yet.

The funny thing is it's stuff that I actually would not be able to wear in Arizona weather. Maybe during winter.





That's me taking my shameless-ghetto pic inside the fitting room. Awesome jacket, what can I say? And yes, my girl friends, you will be broke too (I know you guys are reading). You've seen UK fashion on TV and it's very dressy or stuff that young people in the US would wear when they go to bars on a December night, my friends at least. In my mind, there were two things as I looked at the couture clothing (apparently a term closely associated to 'casual'). One was "photoshoot...", and the other one when looking at the price tag, "times two, times two".

They had this label called Juicy Couture for kids (yep, you guessed it), something that still amuses me.

Now, I felt like part of why everything is so expensive here in the UK was because people are paying the government to keep it as beautiful as it is. I noticed how clean it was too.









These were taken over at one of their public parks and the bridge towards the Lowry Center. They're not very far from what we see in places like Seattle, or anywhere north of California for that matter. I just felt everything, and everyone was more sophisticated because of their British accents. Oh, and they have aged cathedrals and victorian structures everywhere too. Like if I look outside my window, I see a classic church's bell tower just across the street. It rang a couple of hours ago, I kid you not.

I had time to play with my camera, so here's me. I figured I've already posted way too many pictures to my benefit so why not.



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