Frills 'n' Spills

It's been a shamefully long time since Mark and I last visited Manchester but we headed up at the weekend to catch up with Mark's brother and pay a flying visit to one of  our favourite cities. You can see just how excited we were by these photos, we both really love Manchester and could happily live there, we did see some lovely flats too, I just need to find a job up there! 

Wearing my Seasalt coat (necessary for the rain!), H&M striped top and Mac Impassioned lipstick. 

Manchester Central Library is awesome and I could have spent all day in there, how beautiful are those windows?!

We also made a brief stop in Chinatown to try and find some Chinese figs but to no avail :( I love this archway though, the colours are gorgeous!

Takk Manchester is a super cool Icelandic inspired coffee bar/restaurant in the Northern Quarter where I felt very uncool, this was hipster inspired dining at its best! ;)

This amazing mural was by Nicholas Chaffe (@nickchaffe) and I absolutely love it. There are so many little details in it and I keep noticing new things every time I look at it. Now I just want one of my own! 

OK, so the food and drink at Takk was amazing! I had the avocado, bacon and tomato sandwich on sourdough bread with a flat white (check out the genuine graffiti-covered school desks! ) which was absolutely delicious. Mark had roast potatoes, shallots and pan-fried chorizo with scrambled eggs and sourdough which I was super jealous of! 

This was the first time I had visited the Northern Quarter and I loved it- the rickety fire escapes and quirky shops felt very Brooklyn to me, I may have to pay another visit to keep my New York cravings at bay!

The exhibits on Manchester's textile industry were so interesting, just look how complex this machines look!

I mean wowee! 

This thistledown coat was super cool- a must have for every fashion blogger I think ;)

They also had an exhibition on 3D printing which was brilliant, I loved how brightly coloured these all were!

These are 3D-printed frames of an animation of a bear climbing some stairs, they don't look like much here but quite something 'in action'. 

My little brother was always a fan of Bob the Builder when he was little and these were the original models they used in the show (before they remade it!)

A very cool cine camera, I love the Italian stickers on the case!

The forst all-metal printing press was invented by the Earl of Stanhope, this one was made sometime between 1810 and 1830...

More cool murals...

I love the contrast of the old buildings and the uber modern Beetham Tower, that is one shiny building!

This is an awful picture but it was an amazing pie! We went to Pi in Chorlton for dinner after a long day walking around town and it was the perfect finish. I am now a fully fledged Pieminster pie fan (this was the Shamrock) I just need to get my hands on some more to try...

We went to the North Star deli in Chorlton for brunch before heading back on Sunday morning, the perfect finish to a wonderful weekend! 

Where should I try next in Manchester?

Manchester has been on my list of places to visit for a long time now, both Mark and I have family who live there but we have never actually got round to visiting. This weekend we finally made it up there and did a whirlwind tour of the city before heading over to Mark's brother's house for a barbeque to celebrate his birthday. We only had a couple of hours in town but I fell in love with the city and I will definitely be back. Warning: this does sound like the Tourist Board have asked me to write a gushing piece about the city but I was just bowled over by the place; I mean how could you not love somewhere with more trams than you could shake a stick at?!

The Old Wellington near the Corn Exchange looked brilliant, I love the wood panelling on the eaves of the pub and it was absolutely heaving with people. Apparently there was some kind of festival on over the weekend and it was pretty busy but despite the crowds, everyone was in a good mood because of the sunshine...

The Oast House is an absolutely amazing building, next time I visit, I definitely want to go there, the food looked incredible!

I know not everyone is a fan of buskers but this guy was incredible, he had such an amazing voice! Apparently the 'Hoochie Coochie Mancunian' is the 'self-proclaimed king of buskers'- it's hard to disagree when you hear him sing...

...whereas I wanted to take home the Arkham Asylum, just look how amazing Poison Ivy is!  I have major hair envy...

In the end though I settled for a worried looking Frodo, a jazzy Wonder Woman and a Stormtrooper for Mark. Next time I go, I will definitely be bringing Gimli home with me...

The building for the National Football Museum was really cool and looked amazing in the sunlight. Apparently the museum used to be in Sheffield but not enough people visited it so they moved it to Manchester in 2011. 

Spinningfields is a 'business, retail and residential development in the west of Manchester city centre' (ooh fancy!) and it really reminded me of Canary Wharf or the Mailbox in Birmingham. How great are these flats though?! I'd love to live in the ones in the middle!

We called into the People's History Museum for a quick look at the post-1945 political posters (the perils of hanging out with two politics geeks!) and I really wish we had had more time to spend there as it was absolutely fascinating. I will definitely be devoting a full day to look round the museum next time, there looked like so many interesting collections. I especially wanted to see the one relating to Emily Wilding Davison and women's suffrage but we didn't have time :( 

Possibly my favourite poster in the collection...

Sir Robert Peel looking out over the city - I love playing guess the famous figure with statues, I had never even heard of half of the people whose statues we saw, I think I need to brush up on my history!

 

The birthday boy looking decidedly unimpressed. I'm not sure if that face was because of the chocolate cake or the insanely strong vodka jelly, who knows?! 

I hope you enjoyed my whistle-stop tour; have you ever been to Manchester? Where do I need to visit next time I go?