Day 8: Fish & Chips, The Manchester Gay District & a relaxed Evening with an Irish Folk Band
We arrived in Manchester, late morning. And in the Coach station we booked a coach which left Manchester at midnight to arrive in Amsterdam the next day in the evening. We then headed tothe Ticket office to pick up our Tickets, but the box opened at 14:30 so we went to a nearby Chinese Fish & Chip Shop (funny eh?). Then we hung out in a dinner, had a nice coffee, basically killing time.
At 14:30 we got our tickets and had a word with a couple of Local Volta fans. This crazy guy in a T-shirt (it was bloody cold) and another two people were gonna wait from 14:30 for the band toarrive so they can talk to them (the stage entrance was onthe side of the building so it was possible to meet the band). We considered waiting with them but we had to book a hostel for Amsterdam so we headed back into town.

Back in Manchester centre we hunted for an internet Cafe. The best one we found was in a Gay Bar in Canal Street. Very good deal, if u buy a drink you get free internet. So we got ourselves a couple of pints and booked a hostel for Amsterdam.

Buy about 17:30 we were back at the Carling Apollo, all hyped up for the second Volta gig, when we found something very distressing:














The guys we had seen before were still there. Apparently they had met the band. the band walked uipto them and told them the show was to be cancelled. The lucky people got their photos taken with all the band members. Ok maybe it's not as good as an actual show but they're still pretty lucky. heh if only we stayed there eh?!
We went round back and the crew were loading the equipment back in the Truck, they weren't very pleased, lots of work for nothing.

We were really depressed at this point. You can imagine eh? The first night in Birmingham had really hyped us up for the second gig.

Oh well we went to drown our sorrows in an Irish Pub.
At about 21:00 a little Irish folkband were playing. They were two guys, probably in their mid-Thirties, one playing Guitar and singing (he had a very very nice voice) and the other playing bagpipes, recorders, mouth organs (an assortment of wind instruments) and singing at times. The nature of good Irish folk music is that it just cheers you up.
These guys were amazing, and really they did cheer us up. It wasn't the kind of show we had prepared for but I totally forgot about The Mars Volta for a couple of hours.

We left before the end to catch out Coach. The coach ride we were about to begin was to be the longest journey of our trip.

Night 8: Manchester - London - Calais - Lille - Belgium - Amsterdam - Bleh!!!!!!

We spent the night on the Coach down to London, where we changed coach.
We arrived at the White Cliffs of Dover, early morning, where we boarded a P&O ferry.
Very uneventful.