I actually visited Manchester on Saturday with a German friend who wanted to do the whole 'tourist thing'. I'm SO glad I got to experience this, although perhaps there wasn't a huge amount of things to see.

We went to the art gallery first, and spent a very long time just walking around in there. I thought the exhibitions were great, because they included enough to be sufficient, but not enough for you to be getting fed up of more of the same. There was a nice exhibition of interactive art, and I even got to participate in one by tying a little note to a suitcase saying where I wanted to travel too. But don't take your young children in to listen to the ghost story- I'm nearly 20 and it terrified me! Oh, and the buttons were fascinating, and that wasn't sarcasm, they really were interesting.

We went into chinatown, which I found a little boring. And although we walked past the wheel, and had a coffee looking out at it at night, I didn't get to go on it. This was because of the price, £6.50 for an adult. I thought this was pretty reasonable but my friend thought it was expensive. But it looked lovely anyway... :(

The real highlight was the shopping, I thought there was a massive amount of shops, and plenty of places to stop for a coffee. We stopped at a place called Cafe Rouge near the Printworks, and were actually asked to leave! We had finished our drinks and were just talking, but within minutes a waiter had come out and asked if everything was alright (which was a massive hint). And then a bit later he came to ask for the bill, just at the point when we would have ordered more. So don't go there if you like to have a chat and people watch (its a prime location for that), because the waiters rush you a bit, even when its not busy at all.

I thought the city was just lovely, and there were maps on pretty much every main street corner (which didn't stop us getting lost but that was just us). One thing that was quite annoying was the amount of big issue sellers who actually hassled you. I ALWAYS buy a big issue, and usually find the sellers are friendly, but for some reason in Manchester it isn't like this. This actually left me feeling incredibly guilty that I couldn't buy a copy from everyone, and even the seller who I did buy it from hassled me while I was trying to find the change. This is something I've not experienced before.

Overall the trip was a nice day out, and I would actually consider travelling there to go shopping again, even though Stoke-on-trent is much more convenient in terms of transport.