Out in Manchester

Manchester United, Queer as Folk, pop music Heaven, industrial desert, Northern megapolis, first computer birthplace, post-industrial waste zone, urban chic living...

City of Manchester is all of the above and much much more. It is not a city to fall in love with from the first sight, but whatever your feeling might be, you will most certainly not stay indifferent to its emerging urban identity.

There are no striking postcard-beautiful sights, yet something drives one to explore its  cosmopolitan streets with an intense curiosity of an inexperienced tourist, a feeling you most likely have not had for ages...

Easy train ride from London will take you to Manchester Piccadilly station in the heart of the city in just over two hours. Difference between two cities cannot be more striking. Be prepared to see ultramodern Hilton bordering shabby hotel with no name or even windows. Stroll down Piccadilly street, lined with various shops and turn to one of the smaller streets where all world brands seem to nest or even check out dodgy alleys with side entries to night clubs and restaurants; stop for lunch in one of the numerous basement restaurants. That said there are not so many culinary treats awaiting you in Manchester. In fact, dining in the basement might not be all that enticing and yet it seems to be preferred place for restaurant owners. I am to find out why...

Manchester has a vibrant night life. Numerous clubs are located within walking distance from each other- a real luxury for a Londoner. Slightly provincial air to the night venues is largely compensated by people you are likely to meet.  If your life was touched by British series Queer as Folk, check out Canal street just few blocks off Piccadilly. 

There are several interesting museums in the city. I was very eager to discover very promising police museum only to find out that it was open on Tuesdays only... Come on, really?  Be prepared to that sort of controversy in Manchester, as tourism is not what drives its economy. There is also rather interesting museum of science and technology featuring first computer called "Baby" , unfortunately pavilion where "baby" was displayed was closed until December.It was just my luck. There was also an interesting underground passage depicting stories of water shortage and public facilities from previous centuries. Go figure... Art Gallery is certainly worth a visit, you will find most unusual combination of art work displayed in an unusual way in the same exhibition.

In any case, if you stop playing tourist, you will have much better time and will probably come back to visit the City of Manchester.

Free House and Theater

Care for a pint? Head to your local independent theater and get your beer combined with spiritual joy of stage performing arts. If you told me this few months ago I would probably engage myself in a long discussion what could be defined as a theater. However our opinions do change and mine is no exception.

Pubs play an important role in British social life, I don't even need to restate this obvious fact. We also know that beer may very well be a national drink of this Kingdom. Londoners, like true European New Yorkers, are also fond of contemporary theater and performing arts, in general. Now, why not to combine all three together? I guess this question lead to creation of the numerous theaters all around London that are, in fact, real pubs with the the theater rooms adjacent to them. You can enjoy your cider before the show or take it with you for the duration of the one. If you are really up to it, you can grab a good snack or even a decent dinner at the same time.

OK, drinks and entertainment often come together in same establishments, but this is completely different. Some of such places call themselves free houses. Which does not mean you can drink for free or have a complimentary lodging. It has something to do with the independence from any particular brewery and a free choice of beer brands in stock. I am not a beer drinker but it was an interesting experience to observe pub crowd in the middle of a loud conversation slowly filling theater seats and preparing for a show. I admit like any good continental theater lover I had my glass of wine before the show and did not dare to bring it with me into the theater, but I certainly enjoyed this new discovery in a way which is only possible if you cross the Channel.

*photo flickr.com

Spring Blues

What is it that makes us so enlightened, so cheerful and so convinced in even better tomorrow every time we cross yet another mid March calender milestone? Year after year, country after country this feeling stays with us. Even if you are lucky enough to live in a place with no winters and rainy autumns, you cannot help but notice those extra flowers, appreciate those extra hours you spend on the beach or admire that extra sheen in the nature everywhere around you...March has always been a special month for me and I did experience that special internal cheer when I was in Eau Claire, Washington, Miami, Kyiv or London at the time...

In Kyiv March usually means a slow transition from muddy dark winter days to periods of a bright sunshine, leaving office in a day light and feeling of liberation when piles of snow slowly leave sidewalks and you can walk home without a constant danger of draining yourself in puddles of melting snow that occupied the city for the previous four months...Kyiv seems to undergo a major face lift and you cannot help but admit how beautiful it is with its numerous parks, vast squares and powerful river dividing the city into two banks...

My first spring in the United States was in Wisconsin. What can I say about winters in Mid West? Well...there is plenty of sunshine, there are no puddles of melting snow but there is a constant breathtaking feeling of an extreme cold that follows you everywhere and I mean everywhere you go... and there is snow... a lot of snow... Digging cars after the latest storm or simply trying to find a way home when all you could see was blinding whiteness coming upon you from every side and taking possession of your windshield was a weekly occurrence. Spring had never been more appreciated. :) People usually got surprised when I was constantly shivering and trying to hide away from the snow in Eau Claire. In every one's mind I was coming from Ukraine and was supposed to be used to bitter cold winters and meters and meters of snow falling over one night. Nobody suspected that Kyiv experienced only about two weeks of Wisconsin winter and the rest of the time people "enjoyed" rain mixed with snow and a constant lack of sun but nothing even close to the coldness of bright sunny days in Eau Claire...

When I moved to Washington, I knew I would have a completely different spring from anything I experienced before. It was amazing... The intensity of DC spring does not come from a temperature change or disappearance of the snow. Winters in Washington are pretty mild and blue sky is nothing but common...The breathtaking beauty comes from an endless parade of flowers taking over the city in a mere week or so. Early cherry blossom around Tidal Basin, pink magnolias on the National Mall and colourful azaleas around the Capitol building are simply mesmerizing. If you are ever in DC around this time, go to the Jefferson Memorial before the sunset, sit on its marble stairs and watch all the cherry trees, people passing by and warm sun setting over the city...Moments like that makes me feel how lucky we are, how much beauty there is around us and how treasured every day is...

This year for the first time I experienced my March blues in London. There is no real winter in this city and spring usually comes very early. Beautiful crocuses were poking their heads as early as the end of February and sunny days were becoming longer and longer every minute. Regent's and St. Jame's parks are my favourite spring spots here. Every week you can enjoy new flowers opening up to warm spring sun rays and flocks of birds cheering to a new beginning...

Pub Culture

What is it about Brits and pubs? London is just filled with all sorts of local establishments that cater to different communities and all call themselves neighbourhood pubs. You can surely find a dozen within an easy walk from wherever you are in the city.


How does one go about describing the most common pub? Wait... did I say the most common? Rule number 1: never use "most common" when talking about pubs. They are all, but the same...Someone may say that bars are just bars even when they are different. That's when we come to rule number 2: pubs are not bars (well, at least, not in the U.K.). They are more like networking unions you refer to after work to socialize with your friends and complete strangers over a pint or two and one of the daily special pies.

In fact, it all starts with a name: ''Boot", "Hung, drawn and quartered'', "Nobody Inn'', ''Dirty Dick's" just to name a few." Owners' creativity had no boundaries and, in many cases, there was a historical explanation for names that may sound a bit extravagant in the 21st century. If you really think about it, some of the pubs were established as early as 17th century or even earlier and names like "Hairy Lemon" might have had a completely different connotation back then.

Once you are inside, you find yourself in a surreal world of Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter or owners recent nightmare gone wild (it depends how lucky you are with choosing a place). Wooden floors and wall panels, heavy oak tables, stained glass windows that look like someone tried to poke them with a fist back in the 18th century...Airplane models hanging from the ceiling, angel heads looking at you from above the bar, exquisite chandeliers and dimmed lightning produced by scarce candles and old fashioned lamps... it all makes an unforgettable impression that you are sure to remember for a long time...

Drink menu in many cases consists of beer and... beer and many types of whiskey and sometimes even cyder. Some of the places may offer you a cocktail... but if you are into flavoured martinis, cosmopolitans or margaritas you might as well look for your luck somewhere else. I desperately tried to order an apple martini in one of such establishments...After I tried to explain to a bar tender a concept of mixing one and how martini can actually be apple, I finally decided to settle with a cyder...

Pub can also be a place to get a delicious English breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning or even celebrate your child's birthday. This second one came as a complete surprise to me. One Saturday afternoon I was trying to understand what ingredients went into my mushy mushroom pie and why my gravy sauce had a particular intense colouring when a large group entered a pub. It was a bunch of adults with blankets and about 10 kids (age 3-5). As soon as they entered, adults made a play ground for their kids with blankets right on the floor and hit the bar for an early glass of an English Ale...The funniest part was that kids looked completely at home and behaved like real regulars...That was when I understood why pubs were such an important part of a daily life in the U.K. When you become a regular at the age of 3, you might have a difficult time picturing your Saturday afternoon without one ...

Cheers, mates!

First Day of the Rest of the Year

2010... Sounds almost magical...It was a beautiful day in London. Sunny clear sky with a slightly crispy air made it a perfect first day of the New Year. Taking a long walk in this beautiful city I could not help but think where my life brought me during the holiday season of the past 12 years...

It all started in 1998. Holiday season was truly special back then. I was just starting my winter break at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire and together with my friends, also foreign exchange students, was making ambitious plans to discover as much America as possible with as little budget as possible. Excited and very eager to capture North American continent we purchased student monthly passes on Amtrak to discover West Coast of the U.S.A. by train. The beauty of the pass was unlimited rides on Amtrak anywhere west of Minneapolis. It was all we could think about. Suddenly U.S.A. felt like a small country calling on our expedition. Who cared whether we had hotel arrangements during that month! We had means of transportation and it all that mattered... or so we thought:). Our journey started in Minneapolis and went South along Mississippi river through Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio and on to Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco, up to Seattle and back to Wisconsin. A real feeling of adventure still catches my breath almost 12 years after...4000 mile journey and we did it! Sleepless nights on the train contemplating what to do on the next stop; sharing a plate of Chinese in an obscure restaurant in TX; dancing a night away and discovering tequila in New Orleans; booking one room for five people at Hilton Universal Studios... we did it all! And it was a feeling of discovery that kept us going.

As you can guess from what I am telling you, Christmas was very special in 1998! Does Carbondale, IL mean anything to you? Well it will now. Carbondale is a small town in Illinois with a population slightly over 25,000. In that very town we celebrated our first American Christmas Eve. Was it spectacular! We had to change trains on our way from Chicago to Memphis exactly in Carbondale and we had to do it on a Christmas Eve. As you can imagine there was nobody after 8 p.m. on that station, except an unlucky manager on duty and few homeless guys hiding from snow and frost and... five of us, foreign exchange students, with a bottle of red sparkling wine toasting to a Merry Christmas... I bet station manager still remembers us if you ask him.:) We did not care that we were freezing, we did not care that we had no proper Christmas dinner... we were just about to discover the United States and it all that mattered. That Christmas Eve will stay with me as one of the most cheerful days for the rest of my life...It was what I now consider a beginning of my discovery...

Another remarkable Christmas was in 2002... I was working in Washington at the time and together with my friends went to National Cathedral for a holiday mass. National Cathedral is a spectacular place. The first stone was laid as early as 1907. Ever since it was constructed it became a spiritual symbol of Washington and inspiring center for everyone. It does not matter what religion you belong to, if any, everyone is welcome there. That was one of the things that struck me during that mass. Really...does it matter where we come from, what our background is, whether we belong to any minority group, what language we speak? We are all humans and should treat each other as equals and respect each other regardless of our believes or life styles. 


After all, diversity and not monotony makes this world go forward... After the mass we walked back home to Dupont Circle and it snowed... It was a beautiful and really pure snow. We sang, played with snow and were simply merry walking down Connecticut Ave...


I hope this post is not too long and I do not sound like Sophia from Golden Girls talking about Sicily in ninety fifty something... :) Come back for more posts if you are up for reading about New Year's Eve on Times Square in New York City or champagne toasting in front of Notre Dame in Paris.


Happy New Year and let it bring only good discoveries in your lives!


*photos broadwayworld.com; visitingdc.com