Prologue: In the summer, well before my first trip to the kingdom over seven seas (few less or more, who cares), I had bought tickets to 30 Seconds To Mars concert in Manchester in December. It was completely on the spur of the moment and much influenced by the fact that so many familiar screen names were going there as well.
So, December 3 found me sleeping on a tiny bench in Riga airport. Again. I’m getting quite comfortable with that place, to be honest (although I am glad to find that Ryanair now flies from Tallinn). This time I was mainly worried about the weather. A few days before, Liverpool airport (which was again my destination) had been closed down because of the snow. I hoped for the best but in my mind I also feared the worst. Lucky for me my flight was completely on time and much more pleasant than the one I had in the summer. I couldn’t sleep on the plane and got to talking to a Latvian girl who was going to work in Blackburn. She was slightly confused, so I tried my best to calm her but was glad to land and catch a bus to Manchester.
Having arrived there, I took out my excuse for a map which I had printed out from Google Maps and marked my way to the hostel with a yellow highlighter. Although I started moving in the wrong direction, I quickly understood my mistake and was soon on the right track. It was about a 20 minute walk (without me getting lost and to me, Manchester was the city to get lost in, I just could not find any logic to it) and I made it there. I managed to check in and quickly dropped my bags and soon I was out again to get to know the city… or should I say, to get lost. The latter I was excellent at. Luckily, it was just next to the Visitors’ Centre that I was getting a slightly panicky about my utter confusion about my whereabouts. There I equipped myself with a map and after rotating it a few times and staring at it for a few good minutes and after stopping at every street corner I managed to get back to the hostel. There I met one of my three roommates: a lovely Italian fan G. (I resort to using initials only for the sake of people’s privacy; I agree, this will lead to some confusion)
I had a quick snack and a lie down, when S., my lovely German roomie made it to Manchester. I learned from her that final roommate E. will be late as her flight was delayed. She wasn’t the only one that day… After a while I got a message from J. that they are gathering in their room at their hotel, about a 10-minutes’ walk away, so S. and I also made our way there. It was a heart-warming moment of finally meeting J. after so many years of online communication but there were so many other people I met there! (I could here present a list of initials but for the sake of anyone’s sanity, I refrain from that). I will say this, that everyone I met was so friendly and so wonderful that it still makes me smile when I think about all these beautiful people.
We tried to find a place in a pre-Christmas Friday night to eat with about 12 people but failing to do that, we sat down at Jurys Inn bar and had a bite to eat and a drink. (I tried to keep to my tradition that when on British Isles, I should have at least one Guinness.) Oh, it was a fun eveing just talking and laughing with this amazing group of people. Thanks to people’s BlackBerries we were constantly getting news about who has taken off and who has landed. One by one we were joined by more people. My third roomie E. from the Netherlands also arrived. It was already the early hours of Saturday when C. from Switzerland arrived finally, safe and sound. S., E. and I made it back to our room well past midnight and promised not to wake too early the next day.
Saturday, December 4 started with shouts “Training! Training!” coming from the hostel corridor and the three of us, S., E. and myself, slowly got up and ready to meet others for breakfast. We finally chose to sit down in Wetherspoons and have the all day brunch (full English breakfast with chips). We ended up sitting there for a few hours with new people coming in and others leaving to go shopping. Again, I met with some great people and had lots of fun. I found it a bit of challenge to fully understand the full and fast-spoken Mancunian accent but a confident look and a rightly placed “Okay” saved me from greater embarrassment. Later S. and I also went to HMV but I was not in the mood for shopping and just looked around. After having bought some edible gifts for those at home, me and S. made it to the hostel for a quick rest before the concert.
We again met the others at Jurys Inn bar for a bite to eat (and a pint to drink, in my case). Again, the time was spent with good banter and laughter; this might become the most repeated sentence of this post but I’m truly amazed how friendly and nice everyone was! I mean, I didn’t know most of them. I had seen their names on the boards or in someone else’s Facebook comments etc. but I had never personally spoken to many of them. But it fills my heart with joy thinking about how I was welcomed by all of them. My humble thanks to all of you!!! And my parents are still amazed if I read out all the nationalities that were represented on my pictures.
I didn’t bother to queue, unlike K. and a few other brave ones. Also, since my ticket was in the box office to be picked up anyway, I was glad to find that our great company didn’t plan to go to the venue too early. So, I managed to pick up my ticket, come back to the hotel, meet others, take pictures and only then did we slowly make it to the venue. The first support band was already on (Enter Shikari, I think) but I wasn’t particularly interested in them, so J. and I went to get some drinks. There was a lovely girl selling there, who liked my henna painting on my hand, so we talked for a few moments. So, before 30 Seconds To Mars started, I, J. S. and a bunch of other German girls and the lovely twins S.&P, and, of course, E. from Greece had positioned ourselves at the back where there was plenty of room to dance. We were shown the censored version of “Hurricane” and soon after than “Escape” started the show and the giant triad glowed over the stage. Although I was at the back, the big screen helped me to see all I needed to see. I didn’t take many photos, I concentrated on silly dancing and singing/screaming aloud (which probably ruined quite a few S.&P.’s videos.. sorry!). The set list was safe, no surprises. I think I had a bit of advantage over the people around me because my first and last concert had been nearly 3 years ago, so I enjoyed it much more. (Looking back, though, I will most probably remember the people from this trip rather than the concert.) Nevertheless, I will say no bad word about the concert. It was what it was, and the back row with some beer, good company and plenty of room to dance is my way of enjoying the concert.
After the concert, a quite a big group of people, who were all connected through some people gathered for a group picture taken by S.&P. It’s such a great shot and I think that in a way summarises these days in Manchester for me. After the concert we went again to the hotel bar for some drinks and for a last chance to spend time together. We just talked there and again one by one people went to bed, so it was time for some good bye hugs. I really liked the idea that L. threw out, that there needn’t necessarily be a concert to come together from all the corners around the world… And I like that idea.
Dead-tired, S. and I finally hit our sacks at about 2am, when our other roommates were already fast asleep.
On Sunday, December 5 S., E. and I quickly packed our bags and checked out just to get a quick breakfast before checking out. After that I hugged E. good bye and as I still had time till my bus, I sent S. to the train station, so she could catch her flight back to Germany. Until next time…
I myself thought I’d take one more look around in foggy Manchester and headed to confront the confusing maze of streets. I made it to the Town Hall and to the sweet Christmas market, which was filled with smell of Glühwein. I thought of it as a perfect place to find some fudge for the family and my search was successful. I bought a bagful of that sweet thing and then wandered around the stalls for a while before heading to walk around Manchester. I must admit that once again I was mainly lost and kept checking my map. Never before have I been so utterly confused in a city like in Manchester. Really… But after taking a few photos I managed to find again my bus stop and soon my ride back to Liverpool arrived.
I must admit that it was rather cold, so when I arrived to Liverpool airport, I tried to get warm with a cup of hot chocolate before heading to the city centre because my flight departed only early Monday morning. When I arrived at Albert Docks, the foggy weather had disappeared and I stepped out into the most wonderful sunshine. I fell in love with Liverpool all over again… I took a few pictures by the river Mersey and just enjoyed that wonderful city. I walked around in the familiar and a few unfamiliar streets. I stepped into a few shops but again, I’m not a very good shopper. In the end I witnessed a lovely dance on street, heard a brilliant joke and then sat myself down at a Starbuck’s, where a lovely girl persuade me to have cream with my hot chocolate (“Go on, it’s Christmas!”). I just love the friendliness of people there. I still have a huge grin on my face, when I think back to a paper salesman who answered my “No, thanks!” with a “Take care, love!” (in that beautiful Scouse accent) Ahh, my cold Estonian heart just jumps with glee….
It was getting cold and the fog was getting thicker and thicker, so I got on a bus and decided to get back to the airport to spend a night there. What a mess did I find there! The thick, thick fog and below zero temperatures meant that all flights from Liverpool John Lennon Airport were cancelled. Since my flight didn’t leave till next morning, I wasn’t that much worried… yet. So, I just went and bought myself a fresh issue of Sunday Times and sat down to read. I soon discovered that it’s bloody cold there. So I tried keeping warm and read the paper as around me there was a complete chaos. Nevertheless, some Irish people around me started playing a guessing game with film titles and I was nearly pissing myself with laughter. It proved once again that the Irish are my favourite nation in the world! (No offence to anyone)
Anyway, as the clock ticked forward, it got more quiet at the airport and colder. I was sitting there with my coat on and contemplating whether I have any more clothes to put on to keep me war. Unbelievably cold it was there! I know I’m Estonian and should be used to it but not indoors!! Anyway, somewhere around midnight I discovered that there was a girl alone with her huge luggage and I decided to make friends, so we could both move around without having to take our bags with us. She had had her flight from Manchester cancelled, got a new flight from Liverpool for Monday morning. It was much easier to pass the time with talking and complaining about the cold. Amazingly I did actually get about an hour and a half worth of sleep on the floor there… Anyway, as the time got nearer for us to move to check-in, she was called to the desk as I stayed to watch over her stuff. She comes back saying, “You won’t believe this!” Her flight was scheduled to leave from… Manchester. So, instead of having to spend the horrible night in Liverpool, she could have been at home! We hugged good bye and wished good luck with our flights. Only later did I realise that we had never even exchanged our names…
Just then it was also announced that my flight is 45 minutes delayed (in the end, it became 3 hours), but I still decided to go through security in hope of finding a warmer place. I got padded down at the security, they also checked my concealer and mobile phone through some fancy machine (entertainment for all my money!) So, finally 3 hours later my flight took off and I found myself sitting in the middle of a very funny Anglo-Spanish company. I saved one guys iPad and was shown pictures of my neighbours sleeping. This helped to make it a quick flight.
I arrived in Riga just when my train was leaving, so I missed that. I contacted my sister and made new plans for getting back to Estonia, had a breakfast and then went to city centre, got my train tickets and waited for the train. I slept throughout most of the ride to Valga but unfortunately the train was late as well, so I missed what I thought was the last bus home. Luckily, a cheerful local lad told me there was another one coming as well. And it came but the driver said he cannot take passengers from Valga to Tartu. What?! The man and I made had negotiations with the driver, in Russian. I’m still amazed at the amount of Russian I could speak… stressful situations really bring out unexpected sides of us! Finally the driver agreed to take 100 kroons and get me to Tartu. When we arrived to Tartu I thanked him and he actually gave me half of my money back saying that he also had a daughter and was just happy to help me. I could have given him a hug right there!
So just before midnight I finally made it back home… tired as hell and desperately in need of a shower but as happy as I could be.
Epilogue: I went to England to find some peace of mind after the horrible autumn I had had.. And I found it. The people I met there restored my belief in human kind and in myself as well. I’m happy to say that most of that peace I found there still lasts with me to this day… So, once again: thank you, thank you, thank you!
