I am sure you missed me yesterday. No full-fledged corporate endorsement coming this time but I did finish up my time yesterday in Manchester by visiting Old Trafford; both the cricket stadium and eventually the home of Manchester United (premier league soccer...I mean football team). It took a 15 minute train ride to get there. There are two stadiums having the exact same name less than half a mile away from each other and it can be a bit confusing. I walked up to the first stadium which was closest to the train stop I just came from and I was very underwhelmed by the size of the stadium, to say the least. Turns out it was the cricket stadium, which made sense. I eventually made my way to the soccer stadium and it was much more impressive! We made our way through all parts of the stadium. We went to all 4 sides of the stands, went into the locker room, the tunnel and out next to the pitch (field) as well. I made my way back to downtown Manchester and met up with Greg (an Australian guy who was in my hostel room) to go check out the National Football (soccer) Museum. We spent about two hours going through the history of English soccer and then I caught a bus to London at about 4pm.
The bus was very similar to a Greyhound bus, only cost 12 pounds to make the 4 hour journey to London. Everything went smoothly on the bus; electricity and internet, what more do you need? I didn’t get to my hostel in London until about 9:30 pm last night, so I just found my bed (3rd story bunk) and relaxed in the common room for a bit until I hit the sack.
Today I walked around western edge of the city. I saw the River Thames, the London Eye, Churchill’s War Rooms, Westminster, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Churchill’s War Rooms is a museum built in his old bunker from WWII. Very interesting learning about the guy. The National Gallery was super boring, I am not up on my fancy artwork...nor do I ever plan to be. It was free, so what the heck. I spent about 15 minutes walking through the entire thing...check it off the list!
The most interesting event today was walking past a green space next to Westminster Palace, their parliament building. There were hundreds of cameras out and the area was blocked off. I walked up to 2 older gentlemen (late 60’s??) and asked what was going on. They told me that they used this area to do government interviews with the palace in the background. They then went on to explain that the MP’s (equivalent to House of Representatives) voted to have an election in 8 weeks. A VERY big deal. It would be like our House of Reps voting to have an election in a random off year, just because. I guess that is a rule over here, as long as ⅔ vote it through. Apparently both sides of the MP’s feel that they would be able to gain more control before the big Brexit event which is coming down the road. So I was here for a big day in British history! Yes, they brought up Trump once they quickly found out I was American. I was successfully able to get their take on Brexit, so all is good. I feel very politically informed now, at least having the opinions of these two gentlemen.
Tonight I am just hanging out at the hostel, I need to rest up my feet for another long day tomorrow.
When in Rome...
