With the Level 4 Radio Production team, we hopped on a train to Manchester this week to visit Media City UK. I had a lot of anxiety over the trip, from staying overnight to the whole trip just making my anxiety super bad. Admittedly at 3am of the morning we were due to leave, I did not even think I was going to be able to make it there at all.
I like to be organised and know what I am doing and so myself and fellow blogger Jas planned a few places we wanted to visit on Tuesday before media city on Wednesday afternoon. It was a day of museum and library trips which was a really fun way to experience a city that I had never visited.
The first stop on our “Manchester Tour” was the Portico Library and Gallery, which was sadly a little disappointing but still very stunning. The picture above is the ceiling in the library! You had to be a member to look at the books but there was a little exhibit inside that we could look at for free. Featuring the mask and shoulder plates worn by Christopher Nolan in the Batman films and also Tim Burton’s scripts from a couple of his films. Although it was good, I think Jas and I had far much more fun talking to a little old lady we met on the way back down to the road who used to be a member at the library and her love of books, which was a lovely little chat.
We then moved onto the John Rylands Library which was stunning. We walked into the room about and I just cried at how beautiful the building was. It was by far the most magical library I have ever been in and Jas and I spent a good hour inside the library just looking at all the different books dating as far back as the 1500’s! It was a really incredible visit and we were very sad to leave in the end.
On the way back to the Northern Quarter of Manchester we stumbled upon the Manchester Art Gallery. We hadn’t planned to visit the gallery but as we walked past and saw that it was a free entry museum we thought it would be a shame to miss out of the experience. This was the funniest part of our day by far as we walked around pretending to be fancy art critics with Jas being extremely pretentious over the art work. A few people gave us some dirty looks and we were followed closely by a security guard but it is somewhat impossible to be serious in buildings like this.
We then moved on to a little tea room called Annie’s for a a break and took in the most quaint atmosphere for a while. Annie’s is one of Jas’ favourite places to find green tea and I had a gorgeous mint tea that was served in these gorgeous china tea sets, that made my inner child very happy!
We then headed back to the hostel to group with the rest of the class before heading out to Nando’s for dinner with the teachers. It was lovely just to spend some time as a class and have some fun. But after a busy day I was exhausted and went back to the hostel with my teachers. As I was getting ready to go to bed, I took some time to look at the art work on the building opposite my room. I thought it was gorgeous and as it got darker the blue became wonderful!
I can’t wait to tell you about Day 2 but until then I will see you soon!
Rebecca
xxx
