manchester

i am happy to report that i was very pleasantly surprised with the city of manchester. although i must confess it wasn’t my top choice of places to go and i have never felt a strong desire to visit england, it was on the top of timmy’s list because he is a passionate soccer fan. he bought tickets to see his beloved team fulham play against manchester city a while back and we planned our trip around that. i found that manchester, however, has much more to offer the world than just soccer. i was relieved to return to a place where i could understand the language, although some accents we heard were so thick i had trouble determining which language they were speaking!

my initial impression of manchester was surprise that it was so cute and charming. it, like gothenburg or even baltimore and pittsburgh, is known for its past as an industrial capitol and not so much as a tourist destination today. from an urban planning perspective manchester is a fascinating place because of its many successful urban regeneration projects. we passed quite a few old mill and factory buildings that have been converted to condos, offices or mixed-used facilities. they also had an awesome arts and crafts center housed in a small factory building in the hip northern quarter, where a dozen or so local artists had studio and exhibition space. i was also impressed with their “urbis” center, a combination museum, tv studio, classroom, community center, shop and café all in a striking glass structure in the heart of the city. they had a very thorough exhibit on black panther artist emory douglas, which was interesting to see american history presented from a british point of view. urbis reminded me of baltimore’s creative alliance but on a much larger scale—it could serve as a source of inspiration for many community arts organizations. the people we saw, a strangely large percentage of whom were men, were mostly dressed as if it was summer. granted, the temperature there was the warmest of all of our destinations, but i found it strange that in early april so many people were walking around in shorts and tank tops. the weather was ideal for people watching in the park, which we did plenty of!

most memorable in england and perhaps the whole trip were two events on our last day of traveling, easter sunday. we did some research and decided to attend the easter service at manchester’s gothic cathedral. although i had never experienced an easter service and thus have nothing to compare it to, this traditional church of england service involved a lot of incense, singing, and interesting costumes worn by church officials. i wasn’t always sure what was going on but it was very interesting to observe from a cultural standpoint. later that day we took part in a ritual of the other national religion: soccer. it is hard to describe (you can see timmy’s blog for his take on it) but was quite an experience as well. as fans of the away team, we were segregated in a section constantly guarded by two rows (on each side) of security guards. fulham is not known for their tendency to win while playing away, but they surprised us all with a 3-1 win over the home team. my favorite part of the game was observing the crowd repeating their chanting taunts and erupting with joy at every goal. it is clear that soccer (or football, as it is known there) is more than just a hobby for these people, but a passion that absolutely defines their lives. it was through a mutual love of fulham that we found a place to stay our last night of the trip— we were greeted at the airport by an enthusiastic fellow fan named dan who let us stay in his family’s delightful home in acton town, london. it was a warm end to a wonderful trip and i am very grateful to dan for that. before flying back to copenhagen in the afternoon i did get a chance to meet up with a friend of mine, anne, who has been at oxford this year. it was great to reconnect with her and see how she has thrived in her new life in the uk.

i feel infinitely lucky to be able to have experienced all of these places and to have shared it all with timmy. it certainly energized me for future travels, especially in england and further into eastern europe, but also exhausted me. i was happy to return back to copenhagen and to wash some of my clothes. i am really going to try to appreciate every single second of my life in copenhagen for this next month but i must say i am really looking forward to returning to the states as well!