Weekend Roadtrip to Manchester (Part 1)

Greetings Friends –

Hope things have been going well for all of you back in East Texas! Everything is going great here in Scotland. Classes have been exciting and I’m getting to know more fellow students each week.

This past weekend I traveled to Manchester, England with my roommate (who’s name is also Nick) to pick up a car that he bought online. As soon as classes were finished on Friday, we caught a Ryanair flight from Aberdeen to Liverpool, England. Ryanair is a discount airline that offers cheap, direct flights all over Europe (similar to Southwest Airlines, but much more stripped down).

After arriving in Liverpool, we found a cab and negotiated a fare for the 30 minute drive to the car dealership in Manchester. The cab dropped us off at the dealership, and then we picked up Nick’s 2001 Volvo.

Driving around Manchester was absolutely hilarious! Because cars drive on the left side of the road in the UK, the steering wheel and driver’s seat is on the right side of the car. Neither one of us had ever driven like this before, and Nick was determined to learn. So, for the first 30 minutes of Nick driving, both of us were laughing/freaking out trying to keep the car on the correct side of the road while navigating traffic. It sounds random, but we couldn’t stop laughing because it was so strange driving on the left side of the road. We finally found a Travel Inn to stay at, so we dropped off our bags and headed downtown.

Maps showing local attractions were all over the place:


First, we walked around a park and found a statue of Queen Victoria:

Downtown Manchester was really amazing! The city center was alive with people, and there were lots of neat shops and attractions. Here’s a picture of some of the local shops (notice how different cabs look in England compared to the US:

After walking around downtown, we found the reconstructed remains of an ancient Roman fort.

Manchester apparently began as the original Roman fort that was built in 79 A.D.

After visiting the fort, we walked back to the car and headed back to the hotel. After taking a few wrong turns, we found our way back and headed in for a good night’s rest. The next morning, we woke up and headed out onto the highway towards Aberdeen.

To attach more pictures, I’ve continued in a second entry below.

- Have a great week!