Visiting Old Trafford, Manchester, UK

Due to pressures from some of my friends (who are obviously fans of Manchester United), I have compiled this blog post with all the perseverance I could muster and have finally produced a readable story-like account of the trip I took on 18^th June, 2011. I was going to do a short quick briefing with just few pictures but like I said, some friends can be nagging. No offence! Was kidding. It's a bit longer than my other usual posts, but I do hope its entertaining and worth while; I put a lot of waiting-for-the-pictures-to-upload time into it!

Considering how much I was looking forward to this trip (mainly due to boredom from not travelling for a long time now), I certainly didn’t start the day in a way I would’ve preferred - the alarm I set on my phone didn’t go off in the morning 'cause turns out my phone died during the night (low bat), so when I suddenly awoke at around 7:30am, which usually doesn’t happen very often (I should be really happy I did this morning), I panicked; I’ve never dressed so fast in my life plus I ran all the way to HUBS (the Student Union building) since the meeting time was 7:45am and the coach was going to leave at 8:00am. So yeah, I had reason enough to be thoroughly panicked! I’m more than 2 decades old, why is getting up early still so hard for me??!

My friend had a laugh when she saw me all freaking out with a flabbergasted expression and ummm caffeine-deprived haggardness! The ride to Manchester was only about an hour, and the first place we went to was Old Trafford. Alright, just to set the record straight before I start my discourse on the whole exploring-the-stadium-experience, I am NOT a Manchester United fan; never been a fan of any specific football club in my life ever and I intend to keep it that way. Period. There, now I feel better hehe...no hard feelings alright if you’re a fan and you’re reading this :)

We had a tour guide who was really really helpful since most of the places we saw were not understood by any of us; the only specific location we actually understood by ourselves was the Changing Room and the field area. So as we walked around the whole area/rooms of the stadium (which was massive albeit the field was smaller than I expected), he just kept on explaining about all the various stands inside the stadium and how much they cost to build, club history, manager's seat in the stadium stands (I tried it out :D), VIP lounge, players' lounge, press conference room, the Munich air disaster 1958 memorial, museum tour, etc. He let us in on some of the club’s secrets too, but then again maybe not so secret if he’d just give them away to tourists like us...I suddenly don’t feel so special :(

So anyway, let me break down the tour as short as I can with the help of some pictures. Here we go...

All set for the tour with my badge cum ticket on my neck:-

The stadium from outside:-

The tour guide:- A gentleman with a quirky sense of humour; made the tour even more exciting. I tried but I really can't remember his name.

The field and stands:- Grasses on renewal process, so it wasn't very green.

These seats were covered for now, but during matches the cover's off and they're where the manager and officials usually sit.

The sponsors board right nearby the field where whoever's important enough (I supposed) give short comments after matches:-

Press Conference room:-

The board which was put up on the wall of the player's lounge (no visiting teams allowed in!!) :- Listed are the names of Manchester United players who have played for UK.

VIP lounge:- Well ummm just the mirror hehe :]

Manchester United players' changing room:- We didn't go into the visiting team's changing room.

The Museum:- There were lots of stuff in here but I didn't take pictures of everything, but here are some of them.

In case of misconception, this 'is' the real trophy - life size. I'm just having some fun with it from outside the glass case.

Munich air disaster memorial:- For explanation, click link.

Ceiling:- These are actually really big! I zoomed the camera so it doesn't seem big; they were in the corner of the ceiling and massive.

I enjoyed the tour a lot but the highlight of the tour, at least according to me, was when the tour guide got us out into this outdoor corridor of some sort. He told us to form two lines; one line of Manchester United fans and the another line for the rest, and yes I was in the latter line hehe. There were about 30 people in the tour group, and we pretty much separated in half. He wouldn't tell us anything and just stood there at the front looking very serious. Suddenly this blaring music came on the speaker and then the voice of a commentator followed, announcing the past glories of Manchester United, then finally presenting both the teams. And then just like real players....we walked out onto the stadium!! It was amazing; the excitement I felt, the adrenaline rush I got even though I knew it was all fake. Right there I think I got a glimpse of how players (of any team) would probably feel before matches, especially important ones. Here's a picture of the tour guide shaking hands with me before the match while the announcer was speaking (he went round and shook hands with everyone) :-

We also went to the Megastore where they have loads and loads of souvenirs and Manchester United merchandises. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures there :(

Almost done with the post now whew. After about 3 hours in Old Trafford alone, we finally made our way into the main city area of Manchester. But there wasn't really much to see, almost same as any other city; we just kept walking around the City Centre and checked out shops. Then we searched for about half an hour for a nice place to have lunch - we were positively starved and by the end of 40 minutes and going into 2 restaurants then getting out again, passing about 6 pubs, turning down Burger King, almost getting lost once, we ended up eating from the road-side! Haha! We took that long to search 'cause we wanted local food and not some fast-food or restaurant chain, I mean, anyone can get that kinda food almost anywhere in the world; I follow the 'eat local wherever you go' policy.

Last pictures:- On our way back to Sheffield in the evening from Manchester.

And finally, that ends this blog post. Groan...I'm going straight off to bed now. So..oooh...tired! (I worked 8 hours today on non-bloggy stuff).