In a way I think my "study" abroad semester has been a lot of seeing places no one would really focus on going. I'm not trying to sound like I am different and am discovering gems over here but I just mean I realized that thus far I have been off the beaten path ever so slightly and I like it. I think Manchester greatly contributes to this theme. I chose to go to Manchester only because I wanted to see a concert abroad and when I started to see who was going to be in Europe this fall I saw a band that I really like, from Ohio, was going to be in England. I really had no idea where Manchester even was to be honest besides the fact that I knew it was in England and I had known about the Manchester United soccer team, which is actually similar to the Florida state/ U of Florida rival. The majority of people cheer for Manchester City like U of Florida while the minority cheer for Manchester United. This is all things my host, Ben, told us so I have no idea whether it is actually true but he has lived in Manchester for 3 years and spent a lot of time there so I trust him. Talking about our host brings me back to the Off the Beaten path theme. So in Manchester we stayed with a host I met on CouchSurfing.com. This is becoming a popular way to travel. You basically make a profile on the website or the app and it allows you to connect with people all over the world. When you create a profile though they do verify you are real and ask you to fill out a lot of questions about yourself, including interests and all. As well as all sorts of information about your accommodations. I only found out about this site from a friend in college who is a frequent couchsurfer mainly within the United States. These people who are hosts have a couch, an air mattress, or an extra room and they then allow you to stay with them for FREE. Our host, Ben Knight, had 20 fantastic positive reviews with comments and everything. I cannot say enough good things about this guy. He had every "good" movie, as he put it, is a professional photographer, is into parkour, plays the stand up bass and enjoys mostly jazz music, grew up in south Africa, moved to America and then to England, is very into Starwars, while also being knowledgable about the history of the city of Manchester and just straight intelligent. We really all thought he was like a walking encyclopedia, with a pretty sarcastic sense of humor. So while we were in his house from Wednesday to Saturday morning he took us on a tour of the city twice, took us into museums and national libraries, to the top of the one real skyscraper that exists in Manchester as the sunset and we drank cocktails, attended a fantastic play, Pomona, which debuted in 2014 in London but is set in Manchester which was awesome, with us, and hosted a birthday party for his house mate on the first night we had arrived. We had spent time there over Nov. 5th which is known as bonfire night in England so we even watched the film V for Vendetta in the living room we were staying in. He has a super comfy L couch so that's where the 3 of us were parked. Since I had little expectations going into this trip, aside from the concert being awesome and the host being pretty cool, I was blown away with how much fun it turned out to be. :)
P.S. the Pictures at the very beginning of this slide show are from the Dublin Bay. I sat there a few weeks ago and took a short walk along it. It is a great place to just watch people of all ages pass, talk to God, talk to yourself, and to just relax. I look forward to spending more afternoons there. Also I will throw in the Halloween pictures from Halloween in Dublin. Another huge thing that I thought was cool was that my friends and I spend Halloween in this one bar/club, Workmans, listening to a Jazz band. Such a different Halloween experience but in the best way.