Walked to Albert Square where the town hall is so huge and has a tall steeple. I thought it was a cathedral.
Behind it is the Manchester Peace Park with a sign that says Manchester, City of Peace. And Nuclear Free City. There’s also a big statue of a sitting woman surrounded by pigeons, all bronze.
Then I stumbled into Chinatown. I’d bought a small map but hadn’t even looked at it—wanted to let serendipity happen today. Next time I may have specific objectives.
(I keep humming “Manchester England England” from the musical Hair.)
Took lots of pictures but mostly of architecture. Did walk up to small groups of strangers a few times and ask them if they’d like me to take a picture of their group and then would someone please take a picture of me. I hate not having proof that I really was somewhere. One pic of me is in front of the Manchester Library, a beautiful round white building. Another is in front of a neat fountain in Piccadilly Gardens. Everything was lovely.
Early on I had coffee and a bun in an Italian café for breakfast. But for lunch—ah—for lunch I took advantage of being in Chinatown. Too many choices. So I ended up going to Pacific Chinese and Thai because the menu posted outside had lots of vegetarian choices. I chose well. For about 45 minutes I was the only non-Asian in the place.
I had Chinese tea, chilli sour soup (they warned me it was hot, and it was HOT, but oh so good), and my entrée was sweet and sour bean curd. That was superb and I even brought the leftovers home with me on the Metro. That’s the advantage of not having meat in your food. It doesn’t spoil. (Some would say bean curd was already spoiled.)
I drank a lot of water and tea, so I paid my bill, and found the loo. It was upstairs, where I also found the Thai part of the restaurant. I hadn’t really understood the greeter. So when she said, “Cheeeser tie?” I smiled and said, “Yes,” as I always do. Guess she asked if I wanted “Chinese or Thai.” But this time it wasn’t a British accent, it was Chinese. But I still said yes. Heck it’s worked for me so far.
My adventure continued. Found a pound store and bought some souvenirs for kids and for me. It was fun—but Rob and Beata, it’s no 100 Yen store, that’s for sure.
Found the ubiquitous Starbucks and had a coffee and dessert later in the afternoon. Then went back to the Gardens to wait for the tram. There was a guy standing there with his mum. He was dressed a bit eccentrically with a coat that looked like hair and hair that looked like Little Orphan Annie (if you don’t know, ask your parents). A guy who was obviously a little slow came up the other guy and said, “I like your coat and hair. It’s a little girly, but nice.” I burst out laughing. Of course the ever-polite Brits gave me a stare.
The tram went by a big store called TK Maxx. Is it a ripoff of TJ Maxx or is it a relative?
Manchester United was playing and the Metrorail went by the stadium. (You do know that’s the most popular football team around here, right? And you do know football here is called soccer in the US? I know you know that, but maybe some of my nieces and nephews don’t.) Anyway, the cars got overfull with people. It was like a NY subway at rush hour. And all of a sudden someone called out, “Tickets please.” We all laughed.
And for the first time, I heard the driver say, “Mind the gap.” It means watch out for the space between the car and the platform. I’d heard it and read about it for years. So it was cool to actually hear it in reality.
A very good day.
posted by Jerilyn Dufresne, author @ 15:12
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