Today I woke up earlier than I had on most other days, neglecting when I needed to catch a flight: 8:30 AM. After getting a start to my day, I walked from my hostel to the University of Manchester, beginning along a series of paths along a canal that were beautiful. It was incredibly serene, and I was the only one out. From there, I headed down Oxford Road, rather ironically, to the University of Manchester, where I stopped at Greggs and had some standard British take away fare. From there, I went to the Manchester Museum, which is a small natural history museum that relates to Manchester and is run by the university. It was nice to walk through, and see their modernized take on a natural history museum, with neon light headings and striking arrays of items.
After the Manchester Museum, I hung around and read my new book about Kevin Mitnick that I had picked up yesterday. I accompanied it with a Crunchie Mini McFlurry, which was exactly like how you think it was. After that, I walked over to the Manchester Art Gallery, which had stunning displays of art, old and new, across mediums. One of my favorite exhibits was one centered around Halima Cassel, a Pakistani artist who hand carves stunning geometric patterns in stone. The exhibit on design was also cool, and reminded me of the Cooper Hewitt in NYC. After looking at the art, I took another break in the cafe there, and had a nice slice of lemon cake. Once I had rested and read more about Kevin, I got up and made by way over to the John Rylands Library, which was nice to walk around. The intricate stone and stained glass work could have captivated me for hours, but since I ducked in at the last half hour, I had to speed through the grand halls and passageways.
From there I walked over to the Arndale shopping center and did some window shopping. It was your typical mall stuff. When the sun started to set, I walked around the city center, just appreciating the warm glow cast by the sun onto the ornate buildings(until the rain set in once more). I then went back to the hostel, where I went to sleep in preparation for my early awakening the next day.
Examples of Halima Cassel’s work.