ENGLISH
I went to Manchester for a weekend not too long ago. So let’s start the story 😀
Getting to/back from Manchester
I flew on three segments this weekend, a direct Amsterdam – Manchester flight with a KLM’s Boeing 737-700 reg PH-BGL and Manchester – Paris and Paris – Amsterdam with Air France’s Airbus A320-200 reg F-HEPA and Airbus A319-100 reg F-GRXE, respectively, haha 😛 .
The weather in the weekend was not in the best condition, though; where especially on the two Air France flights I took on Sunday, there were quite many minor turbulences along the way, especially on the AF1188 flight to Amsterdam. The KLM flight was smooth, though, even though we had to land during rain at Manchester. Here is the landing video was we were landing at runway 23R of the airport:
The KLM flight to Manchester was a little bit “unusual”, though. I was just flying economy but mid-flight, the purser came to my seat, addressed me by name (“Mr. Zilko”), and asked if everything about the flight was alright to me. Wow! As I said before, usually the flight attendants use the neutral “Sir/Ma’am/Miss” in economy! She mentioned that she wanted to make sure everything was alright as she knew that I was flying a lot with KLM/SkyTeam (and for this reason she didn’t ask my seatmates at all, haha 😛 ). Oh wow, I was really impressed by this and was certainly felt really respected for my loyalty. You know, small things like this sometimes can go very far, can’t they? 🙂
Manchester
I forgot to take into the account the time I would need to spend waiting at the immigration when I booked the ticket. The KLM flight was scheduled to land just before 1 PM UK time, so I thought I would have quite plenty of time to spend in Manchester without having to get up too early that day to get to Schiphol, haha. But it turned out that this schedule coincided with the arrival schedule of several other flights from all over Europe as well, thus creating long lines at immigration! And with the Manchester Airport’s Terminal 3 being located quite far away from the train station, all in all I could only check-in at my hotel in Manchester just after 3 PM! Haha 😆 .
As I said above, the weather was also not in the best shape today, where it was raining constantly. So I decided to rest at the hotel while waiting for the rain to stop. I knew this would leave me with very little time to explore Manchester; but nonetheless I had been there once before anyway so it was not like I was going to miss much. Especially that I stayed for four nights the last time I was there, haha.
And so I decided to make use of my short exploring time to go to a site I didn’t visit back then in 2013-2014: Castlefield. In my previous trip I saw the famous Merchants’ Bridge in Castlefield from the tram rides but back then I did not know that it was famous, haha. Since then, I have seen a few movies/tv-series with scenes taking place there, so I told myself the next time I would be in Manchester, I needed to cross that bridge, haha 😆 . Castlefield was indeed a nice cute part of the industrial Manchester.
Speaking of the city, one difference I noticed was that I saw more homeless people in the street now than 3.5 years ago. This was certainly not a good sign of the state of the economy, perhaps. But I am not going to get into this as social politics or economy are not the scope of this personal blog at all. So I will just leave it here.
The Food
I decided to consult to Yelp to find a place for dinner. There, I stumbled across Burger and Lobster that was not amongst the best rated in the app but the “lobster” part in the name caught my attention and made me want some lobster, haha. Now that I think about it, the last time I had a lobster was probably almost two years ago at the famous Neptune Oyster in Boston!
When looking at the menu, I was torn between a full lobster dish (steamed or grilled) or a lobster beef burger. I decided to go with the burger because that was the freaking name of the restaurant: burger and lobster, haha 😆 . A lady sitting across me apparently ordered a full lobster dish and when her order was served, I regretted a little bit that I didn’t opt for that one. But then, I also saw that eating a full lobster was actually not that simple with all the claws and shells and all that; so my regret was immediately gone, haha.
Anyway, the lobster burger was good. I felt like the burger itself was in the smaller size, though; but this was quite possibly because of the expensive lobster meat in it. Though, this was compensated by the chips and side-salad. It was a decent dish, I must say.
The next morning for breakfast, I went to a Frankie and Benny’s. As I entered the restaurant, I realized that it was the same Frankie and Benny’s I had dinner at on New Year’s Eve 3.5 years ago! Somehow it felt really nostalgic! Haha 😆
Anyway, the reason I went there was because I remembered from my previous trip that they served traditional English breakfast. And this time, I felt like having one, haha. And it was, indeed, good! 🙂 It was also nice that the hot drink was “bottomless” so I could ask for a refill for my cafe latte, haha 😛 .
BAHASA INDONESIA
Aku pergi ke Manchester di sebuah akhir pekan belum lama ini. Jadi mari ceritanya kita mulai 😀 .
Perjalanan ke/dari Manchester
Aku menaiki tiga penerbangan kali ini, sebuah penerbangan langsung Amsterdam – Manchester dengan Boeing 737-700 rego PH-BGLnya KLM, dan Manchester – Paris dan Paris – Amsterdam dengan Airbus A320-200 rego F-HEPA dan Airbus A319-100 rego F-GRXEnya Air France, haha 😛 .
Cuaca di akhir pekan ini sedang kurang baik; dimana terutama di dua penerbangan Air France yang kunaiki di hari Minggu, ada cukup banyak turbulensi minor di sepanjang jalan; terutama di penerbangan AF1188 ke Amsterdam yang rasanya kok penuh turbulensi di sepanjang jalan, haha. Penerbangannya KLM sendiri sih mulus, walaupun kami harus mendarat ketika sedang hujan di Manchester. Berikut ini video pendaratan di landasan pacu 23Rnya:
Penerbangan KLM ke Manchester ini agak sedikit “tidak biasa” untukku. Aku hanya terbang di kelas ekonomi saja tetapi di tengah perjalanan, purser-nya datang ke kursiku, memanggilku dengan nama (“Mr. Zilko”), dan bertanya apakah semuanya baik-baik saja denganku di penerbangan ini. Wow! Seperti yang kubilang sebelumnya, biasanya pramugara/i menggunakan panggilan netral “Sir/Ma’am/Miss” di ekonomi kan! Ia menyebutkan bahwa ia ingin memastikan bahwa semuanya baik-baik saja untukku karena ia tahu aku sering terbang dengan KLM/SkyTeam (dan karena alasan ini lah hanya aku saja yang disapa sementara penumpang di sebelahku tidak, haha 😛 ). Oh wow, aku sungguh terkesan dengan ini dan merasa loyalitasku dihargai banget. Tahu lah, kadang hal-hal kecil/sepele semacam ini justru bisa berdampak jangka panjang kan ya? 🙂
Manchester
Aku lupa memperhitungkan waktu menunggu pemeriksaan imigrasi ketika membeli tiket. Penerbangan KLmnya dijadwalkan mendarat sebelum jam 1 siang waktu Inggris sehingga aku kira masih ada cukup banyak waktu lah untukku hari itu jalan-jalan di Manchester tanpa harus bangun pagi untuk berangkat ke Schiphol, haha. Tetapi ternyata jadwal ketibaan ini bebarengan dengan jadwal ketibaan beberapa maskapai lain dari Eropa juga sehingga antrian di imigrasinya panjang banget! Dan lagi lokasi Terminal 3 Bandara Manchester yang lumayan jauh dari stasiun keretanya, akhirnya totalnya aku baru bisa check-in di hotelku di Manchester lewat jam 3 sore loh! Haha 😆
Seperti yang kusebutkan sebelumnya, cuaca hari ini memang sedang kurang oke, dimana hujan terus-terusan turun. Jadilah aku memutuskan untuk beristirahat dulu di hotel sambil menunggu hujan reda. Aku tahu ini akan berakibat pada waktuku untuk jalan-jalan di Manchester menjadi semakin sempit lagi; tetapi toh aku sudah pernah kesana sebelumnya sehingga nggak akan banyak yang terlewatkan kan ya. Terutama lagi dulu aku kan menginap empat malam di sana, haha.
Dan jadilah waktu yang sedikit itu kumanfaatkan untuk jalan-jalan di area yang dulu di tahun 2013-2014 belum sempat aku kunjungi: Castlefield. Di perjalanan dulu aku melihat Jembatan Merchants’ di Castlefield yang terkenal itu dari tram tetapi dulu aku kan nggak tahu kalau jembatannya terkenal, haha. Semenjak waktu itu, aku sudah menonton beberapa film/acara tv yang mana pernah syuting di jembatannya. Jadilah aku pikir kalau aku ke Manchester lagi, aku akan mampir, haa 😆 . Castlefield memang adalah satu bagian Manchester yang menarik dan oke kok untuk jalan-jalan.
Ngomongin kotanya, satu perbedaan yang kuperhatikan adalah ada lebih banyak gelandangan sekarang daripada 3,5 tahun yang lalu. Ini jelas bukan pertanda baik dari ekonominya, mungkin. Ah, tetapi aku nggak akan ngomongin ini karena sosial politik dan ekonomi bukanlah cakupan dari blog personal ini kan ya. Jadi aku berhenti di sini saja deh.
Makanannya
Aku memutuskan untuk berkonsultasi dengan Yelp untuk makan malam. Di sana, aku melihat restoran Burger and Lobster yang sebenarnya bukan termasuk yang dinilai tinggi-tinggit amat tetapi bagian “lobster” dari namanya menarik perhatianku sampai-sampai aku jadi ingin makan lobster, haha. Kalau dipikir-pikir lagi, kalau nggak salah terakhir kali aku makan lobster adalah nyaris dua tahun yang lalu loh di Neptune Oyster di Boston yang memang terkenal banget itu!
Ketika melihat menunya, aku galau antarai memilih menu lobster utuh (dikukus atau dibakar) atau burger sapi dan lobster. Aku memutuskan untuk memilih burger pada akhirnya karena sesuai dengan nama restorannya kan ya: burger dan lobster, haha 😆 . Nah, seorang wanita yang duduk di seberangku ternyata memesan satu lobster utuh dan ketika pesanannya diantarkan, aku sedikit menyesal aku tidak memesannya. Tetapi kemudian, aku baru ingat bawa makan satu lobster utuh itu ribet karena ada capitnya dan kulitnya itu kan; jadilah penyesalanku langsung sirna, haha.
Anyway, burgernya sendiri lumayan enak kok. Ukuran burgernya cenderung kecil sih; dan aku duga ini dikarenakan daging lobster yang memang mahal kan. Walaupun begitu, kentang goreng dan saladnya membantu banget kok. Lumayan lah secara keseluruhan.
Keesokan paginya untuk sarapan, aku mampir di Frankie and Benny’s. Ketika aku memasuki restorannya, aku baru menyadari bahwa ini adalah Frankie and Benny’s yang sama dengan dimana aku makan malam di malam tahun baru 3,5 tahun yang lalu! Rasanya kok jadi agak-agak nostalgia gitu! Haha 😆
Anyway, alasan aku mampir kesana adalah aku ingat dari perjalananku yang lalu bahwa mereka menyediakan sarapan tradisional ala Inggris untuk sarapan. Dan kali ini, aku sedang ingin sarapan itu, haha. Dan memang enak kok! 🙂 Aku juga suka bahwa minuman hangatnya itu bottomless loh, dimana aku bisa meminta refill untuk cafe latte-ku, haha 😛 .
So me and Mr. Seat 31C co-used it as our extra space, lol 😆 . Once boarding completed, we departed and took off from runway 17L of Shanghai Pudong Airport. The weather condition had not changed that much since I landed three hours prior, where low-hanging cloud was still there.
