Back to the U of K

See the clock tower is pretty in Bradford

Some of my last days being European were spent being "non-European" in the UK.  It's amazing what a big difference a little channel can make in defining a people.  The British are uniquely their own, and there are so many similarities between them and us, that I realize this really was where our foundation came from.  Of course, we've become a lot more politically correct/sensitive, generally our worldviews and style of business is more the same (especially compared to other countries in Europe).  And they are also the reason we're using a non-metric system :-).

My company's office is up north in West Yorkshire county, in a lovely town called Bradford.  Now Bradford is a unique and sad place.  It used to be a prosperous, textile city.  It has some really nice old buildings, and if the industry hadn't fallen drastically, perhaps people wouldn't be so down on it.  It's the best place to find Indian food, and is extremely multi-cultural.  That said, there are a lot of boarded up old pubs and shops, and in their place are "to let", pawn shops, or "Asian" fabric stores (I say that because that's what the British call people from India, yes I know, it's technically true - it just always throws me off a bit).  If you ever find yourself up north (about 3 hours by train north of London), try Leeds or York (which I've heard is really nice).  You won't feel so sad with the depressed run-down feel of Bradford.


Since I was going to be in the town for 2 weeks (yay?), on the weekend, I got to meet up with my bestie in Manchester.  A great young, hip town.  We happened to be there the weekend Manchester United was playing, but her risking her boyfriend over us going wasn't worth it (he's a Liverpool fan).  We did venture out that way to buy scarves for friends at least.

It was a fun weekend away.  On Friday night I had a date (remember me meeting people in Ostrava?) Yup, we made plans to go for dinner.  He took me to a really cool old bank converted to a restaurant, called Jamie's Italian - yes, more chainy than I normally like, but the atmosphere made up for it.  The next day, Hillary and I watched some football, went to Old Trafford stadium, and had a fantastic tapas dinner, at a place called La Vina.  That night, we had tickets to go to a reading, "There Has Possibly Been an Incident" - performed by 3 people at The Royal Exchange Theatre.  It was a really enjoyable, thought-provoking show.  Later we found some great local bars the Long Bar and the Oast House.

The next day, we had a lazy breakfast and walked around in a few shops before we parted ways - her south and me north.

It was a fun 2 weeks, and even better to get some bestie time in there, but it also meant my time in Europe was fast coming to an end.

A couple other places I ate which are worth mentioning:
The 3 Acres (near Huddersfield) - a great classic, upscale pub
The Alchemist (which has 2 locations in Manchester and 1 in Leeds) - a bar that has more flair than a typical speakeasy, but more inventive drinks than a normal bar.  Food was pretty good as well.
Red's True BBQ (in Leeds) - probably as close to American style BBQ that I've had in Europe, if you're jonesin' for America, it's worth a stop.  Service was ridiculously slow though - and the UK is typically better than the rest of the continent.