Manchester (UK) & Belgium (Brussels, Bruges) Holidays

Day 1

It is winter break now and most of my friends has gone back to their hometowns. The university halls of residence is as quiet as the grave, with nobody walking in the corridor but myself. I joined my Malaysian friends for holidays to Manchester and Belgium. It was a 7 days trip dated from 18th to 24th of December 2008.

Let's get started with Day 1.

I woke up quite early in the morning and had my breakfast before I left to Newcastle Rail Station. From my place, I took Bus Number "1" which brought me to the rail station at the cost of £1.90. At the rail station, I met up with Steven and John who are my friends for the holidays. The train to Manchester Piccadilly left the station sharply at 9.12am. Luckily, 3 of us reached the station just in time as Steven and John actually ran to the station from their place. XD

It costs £13.85 (RM83.10) for one-way!

Leeds

Another view of Leeds from the train

The train stopped for passengers at a few stations and took roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Manchester Piccadilly.

Manchester Piccadilly Rail Station

Steven and me

There are 12 platforms in total. Sounds a lot, huh?

More views

Mini Tyne bridge, if you know what that means. =D

Next, we checked-in at our hostel located at Newton Street. Since our room will only be ready at 2pm, we decided to leave our heavy bags at the reception and go for lunch. We walked around the city and found a Chinese Buffet restaurant. We were all fine with the price and settled down there at last.

From left: Me, John and Steven

The cost of the buffet was £6.95 (RM41.70) per person. With student discount, we only paid £6.30 (RM37.80) per person. The dishes were great and there were desserts as well. =)

After lunch, we went back to the hostel. At that time, our room was ready. We walked up the stairs to the 5th floor (there was lift but it can only be operated by the workers). The room was quite big and there were 4 beds in total (2 single beds, 1 double decker bed). Showers and WCs are shared among the people staying on the same floor. We took a rest while discussing the trip to Belgium on the following day.

After that, John and I went to Marks & Spencer to exchange Pounds £ for Euro €. It took us a while to find M&S. I used Google Maps on my N96 for assistance. The sky was dark already by then. We had a quick tour around the town and took some pictures before heading back to Newton Street.

Street View

Eye of Manchester?

Me and the Ferris wheel

Another view of the wheel

More views of the street, it was raining. Notice the ODEON on the right

Hard Rock Cafe

Found the shoe that I bought from Malaysia. It was £90 (RM540).

£1.50 (RM9) per slide. Expensive!

People waiting at the tram station, Primark on the right

Me and some statues

Christmas decoration

Our hostel

Back to our room, we had a short rest (climbing 5 floors up is tiring!). Then, we went to Subway for dinner. Each of us got a 6 inch sub sandwich for £2 (RM12). Besides that, we also shared a Fanta Orange drink. :)

Next, we watched "Transporter 3" at ODEON. After student discount, entry fee was £4.40 (RM26.40). Price for a movie is £4.95 (RM29.70) back at Newcastle EMPIRE.

The ticket, notice that it's free seating

20 rooms, that's a lot!

Look at the number of people missing! O_o" Scary... Average age was 17

After movie, we met up with Phoebe, Ah Yew and Jason. 6 of us will be going to Belgium the next day.

Meeting point

The end of Day 1!

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