An insight of me: Winter trip Part 2

Yeah yeah.. I very sien hor.. Lama tak meng-update.. only cakap2 nak update lol.

Anyways..

The adventures of L.A.T if you still remember continues....

Sit tight ppl..

Wonderful weather greeted us on our very first morning in Manchester.

Sun in full force.. out our room's window

Started the morning by waking up a wee bit early.. duh.. You don't wanna waste time sleeping when travelling do you? Besides, we have a breakfast waiting for us downstairs. It ends at 10 am was it? Buffet breakfast somemore.. kai wan siao.. With ppl like Eason on board, tell him buffet, habis cerita. LOL.

Well, after breakfast, we headed back to our room to begin our adventure for the day. As usual when abroad, the map was the starting point. Scan here scan there.. Hmm.. Then an idea flashed in my head. The equation of "Weather so good" + "Manchester". Oh shyt.. Its Old Trafford of course.. Nah.. Wrong ppl. NOP NOP. Coz Old Trafford would be tonight!!! OMG!

Anyways, non-footie fans might not realise that there is another popular club residing in Manchester too. Its Manchester City Football Club!

Pls Take note : Manchester United != Manchester City . <--Both are massive rivals So, you could guess by now where I planned to head to this morning. To the City of Manchester Stadium (home of Manchester City FC). Woohoo!~ Gosh, I was really really excited. Seriously, Im not over-exaggerating coz its gonna be the 1st stadium(since Ive been in UK) to visit! And you know how football-crazy I am. Thus, of course, that means a lot to me.. We decided to use the Manchester tram(seemingly Manchester's unique way to get around the city) to get to another area before using a bus to head to the stadium(which was the only way other than taking the cab). Some pics taken while waiting for the tram to arrive:

Hilton Tower/Hotel upclose

The tram track.. Tram tram where are you???

Uhh where next?

It was a very short bus trip to the place.

Here was roughly where the bus dropped us of.
The stadium is located inside the 'SportCity'.
This area was the venue of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Before this, MCFC's home was at Maine's Road.

Pics from the outside:

Let's go in!

The main facade of the stadium

An upclose

I think this is how the fans get into the stadium during matchday.
Just like how cars get into the Bandar car park building

If you noticed properly on the pic above, there are names.
These as we learned later, are names of the season ticket holders! Cool huh

Off to the side of the stadium:

I guess this is where people can collect their match tix

Directly opposite the tickets' area, lies the
City Store, the official merchandise store of the club.
What does it mean? It means time to get a memorabilia!

The consequences of entering the store.
I decided to get the scarf, the jerseys were way costly

Well, I thought we were done for the day when a stranger suddenly approached us and offered to help us take a pic! Whoa.. I was indeed surprised coz we hadn't asked for help either. Anyways, Ok, why not I thought. After a few pics, he asked where were we from and such. Told us a bit bout the area. Thought that was it when suddenly he offered to bring us inside the area where we non-MCFC members are not allowed to enter. Wow.. I certainly won't be surprised if Im one hot girl!! But Im a guy! And he's a guy too. But no worries, 120% sure he aint gay, coz he had his child waiting for him in his car. LOL.. He pointed to the field(below) opp. of the stadium and told us that that is where the MCFC Reserves play their footie.. Anyways, nice person indeed. How often do you get sincerely friendly strangers nowadays?

MCFC Reserves Ground

Its already past midday and it was about time we head back to get Eason and Li Jiu Zhe. God knows what those 2 were doing alone in the room.. Eek!

On the way back,

Roman Ruins, just at the back of our hostel..

I wonder if it is the Romans who drew and painted these?? Hmm.. Don't think so eh.. Still looks new..

Next destination is Trafford Centre..

Some pics taken along the way to the tram to Trafford Centre..

We decided to get to Trafford Centre via. tram, then from the drop-off to Trafford Centre via bus. The waiting-for-the-bus part was very sucky. We waited around 45 minutes outside in the cold just to wait for it to arrive! That's evil I tell u! Evil bus driver. LOL.. Den I found out what was the cause when we embarked on the bus journey. It was already close to evening, and like most places on this planet, it was TRAFFIC JAM time. Oh noes.. It sucked really. The bus was so packed somemore. Another 30 mins, of painstakingly slow bus trip. Walao.

Anyways, alas, we arrived at the area, deemed to be one of the largest shopping areas in Europe, if I ain't wrong. Wow.. it damn sure is BIG! Gadong Mall is peanuts to this I tell you. I roughly estimate, it is the size of the Gadong area, from Guan Electrical up to The Mall. But imagine it with buildings linked with one another.

Someone save Santa!

Most of the buildings were more to chain department stores, such as M&S, Selfridges, all those. We decided to skip those and go to the mall-like one where there were different shops mixed along with food area.

The inside:

The foodcourt were divided into different 'countries'. This one represents New Orleans. Should be the USA one. Thus, I guess the buildings structures and all that depicted those in New Orleans'. Those food on sold were of course American ones.