I’ve been living in Coventry for about a month now. University work is getting more interesting and more intense every week but also I am planning and trying to arrange to sneek in visits and sightseeing trips into my agenda. You can see where I’m going here… If you want to know more about my student life at Coventry University, I will have to dissappoint you but can reassure you that I am working on a, rather long, manual on The Student Life in Coventry: How to survive the first weeks. There is, however, still a lot of work to be put into that post. This one is completely dedicated to MANCHESTER.
More about Manchester, the nr. 4 (or whatever) city in the UK. One of the things I always try to do when staying in a country for a longer while is attending a concert or festival. In Argentina I went to watch Babasonicos, I’ve seen Mintzkov in Austria, Isbells in Rennes and have been to music festivals in Poland (Heineken Open’er) and Hungary (Volt Festival). A couple of weeks ago I actually went to a hardcore and screampunk concert by The Blackout here in Coventry. But, with the saying “When in the UK, act Brittish” in mind, I couldn’t say no to another gig in an amazing venue!
My two Canadian roommates, Alex (Toronto) & Shane (Vancouver), are both very nice and sympathic (well a) how could it else be, they are Canadian; and b) if they weren’t nice I’d probably not go to Manchester with them, would I…). Anyways, so these guys who are trying to get the most out of their stay in the UK and literally (you’re welcome for the usage of this word Shane) want to visit every city in the UK, Ireland etc. The guys have a friend who’s been living in the UK for a couple of years now, Nick is his name. Nick owns a ticketing company, called tickettext, which baically offers online ticket sales software for small and medium event/concert organizers in the UK. On Tuesday the 11th of February, I was invited to join them for a Phoenix gig in the world reknown Manchester Academy.
Nick was coming from London to pick us up in Coventry and we would go straight to Manchester from there. I was hoping to still catch a glimpse of Manchester during day-time, but this did not work out as Nick was stuck in traffic in London and only got to Coventry around 6PM, instead of the scheduled 4PM. Well, Alex, Shane and I used these two hours to properly get to know each other, as we had not done much more than say the polite “how was school/how was your trip/ what are you doing this weekend”-thing, and how can we better get to know each other than during a nice little old-school american beerpong?! Without the red cups, but that did not decrease our fun and special trick shots-qualtiy at all!
When Nick showed up, we got in the car (AAH! the wheel is at the wrong side of the car!) and headed straight for Manchester; with turning in the curves obviously… Shane had found us a place to stay via AirBnB, a website where people from all over the world can offer their livingroom, spare bed, couch or, in this case, spare apartment, to travellers. We parked the car near the place we were staying at and went to Manchester Academy by cab. We got there right in time for Phoenix, as we had missed the warm-up, but were not dissappointed by this at all. The quality of the sound and light was amazing and I must admit that this was probably one of the best concert halls I have ever been to. Concerning the show itself, Phoenix was great but they did almost only play songs from the previous albums -I think-, 20 pounds well spent!
We headed out into Big Hands, right next to Manchester Academy. A nice hipster-English pub with good vibes and likewise music. They even had various Belgian beers (Thanks for the Duvel glass btw!). After about two pints, it started getting chilly in the pub and we decided to head over to another place to play some pool. In the second bar, no idea what the name was, we encountered a group of about ten Belgian -somethingbutIdon’trememberwhat- students from the VUB and I had the pleasure of introducing my new-made Canadian friends to this group. We played a couple of games of pool and started getting tired, I had been in the library from nine AM to four PM that day and had to catch a early bus back to Coventry, and headed to our accomodation. That place was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Super modern and an amazing view over the city. I still pitty not having taken any pictures of that view (although it was dark outside, so I wouldn’t have seen anything anyways).
After only a couple of hours of sleep I had to get up and catch a Megabus to Coventry in order to be on time for my twelve o’clock class, which meant that I had to take the 7AM bus from Manchester, arriving in Coventry around half past nine in the morning. The problem is however the Megabus does not stop in Coventry city centre. It still took me a cab-drive and ten pounds in order to get back to my house. After a quick shower, I got in class right on time and was still enjoying the good Manchester-vibes from the night before. Alex and Shane got back around four in the afternoon, by car (lucky bastards!) and we quickly promised each other to do something like this again soon. Although I didn’t see anything of the city by daylight, I do want to go back to enjoy the vivid city that is Manchester again. Maybe someday…
Cheerio lads’, as they say here.
Here's something to cheer you up, Domino's Loves McDonald's
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| Credits for this one go to Alex! |
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