Manchester: My Unexpected Adventure

19 June 2012

Good news. The first flight went well. I flew from Salt Lake City to Chicago in a few hours. No big deal. But then my flight to Manchester was delayed for an hour. Normally, that wouldn't be a huge problem, except that I only had an hour once the Manchester plane landed to get to the plane that would take me to Shannon, Ireland. So there was a good chance I could miss my last flight. But after talking to my mom, I figured that since it would be an eight-hour flight, we would be able to make up for lost time and get back on schedule. Plus, twenty-two people on the Manchester flight were supposed to be connecting to the Shannon flight (making up half of that plane). So maybe they would wait for us.

So I boarded the plane and tried not to think about it. Luckily, I had a window seat so hopefully I would be able to sleep. But none of the girls in my group were near me. Instead, a man named Nick sat by me. He's from Wisconsin and pretty quiet. But we talked a little bit, and I ended up giving him a pass along card. So that's pretty good, right?

Oh, and when the sun was setting, it seriously made a perfect rainbow in the sky. I have no idea how that happened, but I could see every single color. It was absolutely gorgeous! The night was terrible though. I had the HARDEST time sleeping. I would fall asleep for a half hour or so, then wake up, then fall asleep for another half hour, wake up again. Oh, it was terrible. But I did get to see the sunrise (kinda). There was a red light coming up from the clouds that were beneath us. So that was pretty neat.

Then I realized that we would not be getting there on time. We would be an hour late. Great.

20 June 2012

Once I was off the plane, I went through immigration. That was fun. The guy wanted proof that I was really a student (like a customs letter from the ISP Office at BYU, which they told us we did not need). I explained that to him. I'm not sure whether or not he believed me. He kept asking me random questions, to check out my story, I think. Well then another girl in my group pulled out a customs letter. From the ISP Office at BYU. So I have NO idea why the ISP Office told ninety percent of us not to worry about it yet told one person how to get it. Luckily, it was good enough to convince the worker to let me and the rest of my group through.

When I got that over with, I found out that the flight to Shannon had not waited. My day just kept getting better and better. The next flight didn't depart for another TWELVE hours! So that's the flight they put all of us on, and they gave us each two meal tickets, so that was nice. But still. Kinda annoying.

Well, the girls and I went and got our free lunch, found a place to leave our bags, and went out to explore Manchester! We rode a train to Piccadilly and picked up a map, and then we just started walking. There were lots of cool buildings, most of which I haven't a clue of what they're used for. But here's one of them:

And it was fun to people watch. These people have some strange fashion ideas. Just saying.

While we were walking around, we found the Manchester China Town. There wasn't really a lot, but it was cool to look around.

My favorite part about today was the library. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This library was founded in 1807, and there are tons and tons of books. And they're all super old. It was beautiful! And being the English lovers that we all are, we just about died. Unfortunately, you have to be a member in order to actually handle the books. So we didn't get to touch them. But I did the next best thing and took pictures. They also had an exhibit on Charles Dickens that was pretty interesting. I'm glad we found that place!

This is only part of one of the four walls!

Look how old they are. :)

Our last stop was the Manchester Art Gallery. It was really cool, and there were some awesome pieces. But to be honest, we were all so exhausted that we couldn't really appreciate it. The jet lag was killing us.

So after the art gallery, we went back to the airport, which is where we are now, waiting to board our plane. Only a few more hours until we'll FINALLY be in Ireland, and we can go to sleep! I cannot adequately express in words how blissful that sounds right now. Traveling for more than twenty-four hours tends to wear you out, especially when you get hardly any sleep.

But even though I'm exhausted, I'm excited to be here! And the extra day in Manchester was fun. It gave me a chance to see some things I wouldn't have seen otherwise, as well as a chance to get to know some of the girls in my group a little bit better.

Well that's it for now. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Ireland! :)