7 a.m. coach in the morning wasn’t too difficult when I was so excited about going to Manchester. I went to Manchester with two of my friends from my university, LSE. It was a one day trip so everything had to be covered in a hurry. Our coach started half an hour late thus delaying our journey. We reached Manchester at 12 noon and rushed to Old Trafford where there is the fabulous museum of Manchester United. We were lucky to get a free entry as the museum does not charge in December. I have never seen so many trophies together in my entire life as I saw in the Old Trafford Museum. I remember many of my friends kept messaging me full of envy (especially the football fans!).
We had decided not to buy anything as we had already spent too much in this month. Yes, that’s what holidays do to you! But who can control the urge to shop when you enter the Manchester United Museum Shop? I bought a muffler for my father with Manchester United written on it. The red color of the muffler with some yellow totally reminds me of Manchester United. The wool is so soft.
The next and last stop was Trafford Centre, the shopping mall about which we had heard so much. Trafford Centre is said to be the largest shopping mall in the United Kingdom. When you ask someone about Manchester only two words come from their mouth – ManU (Manchester United) and Trafford Centre. It is an enormous shopping mall with almost all brands present. You enter the mall from Selfridges – too grand right? The mall was decorated beautifully as it was Christmas time. I feel festive time is the best time to visit a mall. The mall looks outstanding during that time.
After spending a great day in Manchester, stress had to follow. We went to the bus stop to reach the coach station. The bus timetable depicted that the bus comes in every five minutes. But we waited and waited, all in vain. Many people around us said that this might be because it was raining. I don’t know whether it was because of the rain or Manchester having a poor public transport (as compared to London). Then we asked people around us where was the taxi stand. We went to the taxi stand and kept waiting for the taxi but it didn’t come. We had to catch the coach at 6.15 pm. It was a 40 minutes drive from them. At last, at 5.45 pm we found a cab. But we never thought we would reach the coach station on time. In the cab, we started chanting our prayers because we wanted to reach the station on time because we had no other alternative to stay in Manchester. Our tickets were non-refundable and the next coach was fully booked. Finally, we reached the coach station at 6.13 pm. It was so stressful. We took deep breaths. We couldn’t believe that we made it on time.
All in all, it was a great trip with minor complications.
