so when we left off, i was in wales walking around the countryside. after saying goodbye to my family, i caught the train back to manchester for the "official" visit to manchester to see my friends there! i really enjoyed catching the train around the uk - they are so much more comfortable than our trains, they are on time, and the views from the window are just lovely.

i got to the station at 9:15pm, and did the "official" big hug reunion thing and we zipped through manchester to their place. i had thoughtfully gone to tesco's the night before to buy them some champers (jacobs creek, of course! plus, there were lots of weird own brands in tesco... like coles branded champagne... i thought it best to stick with something i know!). however, they had ALSO thoughtfully bought some champers to celebrate the occasion. so between the three of us, we polished off the two bottles. yum!

i don't have a lot of photos of manchester because i didn't want to lug my SLR about with me. we went to all these cool places in the northern quarter, including the craft market and the richard goodall gallery (where i bought two awesome gig posters). due to the merriment of the previous night, a nice breakfast was called for and i had the best scrambled eggs at this amazing little cafe called 'teacup on thomas st' - i wish i knew what they put in their eggs to make them so amazing. we then wandered around the actual city of manchester, me with one eye on the road, one eye on the lookout for damn trams that kept coming past - scary stuff! we then met up with bec from blanket magazine, who gave us a tour of all the hot spots in the northern quarter for later that night...

we started off the night with what i think is the best dinner i have ever had at brown's (which is inside a very old bank, it's so cool) then went to this bar recommended by bec in the northern quarter, the name i cannot remember!

the next day, they showed me the sights of manchester.... the trafford centre, a huge, opulent shopping centre:



inside the centre - here are my manchester guides!



i want to cover london in this post too, but i might just do half. read on for more story and photos!

the canals in manchester - i really don't think they make enough use of these. if they were in sydney, there'd be floating restaurants and cafe's spilling out onto the path nearby...



we also went to the indoor snow fields - so cool!

but then it was time for me to catch my next train, this time to london. so after a teary goodbye and some silly faces pulled through the train window at them, i was off. i was riding on one of the trains that, because they go really fast, they lean when they go around bends. i noticed at first when we went around this corner and all of a sudden out of the opposite window, i could see the ground! but i managed to get to london in one piece and got off at euston station and walked to the hostel i was staying in. ok, one thing you should know about me, i am not considered a 'hostel' type of person when i comes to accommodation... certain people found it funny that i was going to stay in one. but i managed, and it actually wasn't too bad!

my first day in london, i ventured out to notting hill and portobello road. i have to say, i love the tube system - its so handy and easy to use, even for a traveller without good map-reading abilities! i walked through notting hill, down portobello road and all the cool little shops down there.





one shop in particular caught my eye - all saints. i had never heard of it before, but it was very cool - they had this wall covered in old sewing machines, plus some very nice, but very expensive, clothes and accessories:



i then walked down to kensington gardens and explored the gardens and the palace





this was a massive walking day, because after walking down through the gardens, i headed on to the natural history and V&A museums

the natural history museum:





the strawberry thief fabric (original) in the V&A museum, a liberty copy of which i used for my chair upholstery, see here



i then went on to harrods, which was crazy busy, then finally walked up to the marble arch tube station to go back to the hostel, completely and absolutely exhausted. that night i had dinner at the hostel because i could barely move. then i did it all again the next day... which i will cover in the next post because i have already waffled on way too long!

thanks for reading!