Whitby, the seaside town!

Whitby! A seaside town and port situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of River Esk. The skyline of Whitby is dominated by the ruins of St. Hilda's Abbey, high on Whitby's East Cliff, while a maze of narrow streets and alleyways spreads below Whitby to the busy quayside.

A glimpse of Whitby town

Obviously, you are not completing your trip to Whitby without getting a bite on the Fish & Chips in this town! There are two very famous restaurant which sells the best seafood in town, Magpie and Quayside. We bought our Fish & Chips from Magpie, and there's two types of fish to choose from, cod or haddock. As I've never tried haddock, so I chose it, it turns out I made a good decision, it was.... HUGE, and it's so fresh that you can actually taste the sweetness of the fish. *Drooling*

Friends were queuing for the Fish & Chips at Magpie

Yummy! Huge piece of fish!

There's one thing you have to beware of when you're enjoying your precious lunch in Whitby, the seagullssssss... We were told to becareful of them, as they will fly to us and grab our lovely fish away.

Say peace to this Seagull.

If you walk to the very end of the mouth of River Esk, you will see two beautiful lighthouses located side by side. These two lighthouses are positioned East and West piers to act as the illuminated navigational aids.

Famous lighthouses in Whitby

So we had our lunch on the Whitby's West Cliff, while enjoying the beautiful scenery from there. Besides, on top of Whitby's West Cliff, you will find the famous Whale Bone Arch which was erected in 1853, as that time Whitby was an important whaling town.

A group photo after lunch, nice view isn't it?

Whale Bone Arch

Walking around Whitby's West Cliff beach will also lead you to these colorful beach huts that located along the shore where they were rented out to tourist to put their belongings. 

Whitby Beach Huts

Finally, we switched our exploration to Whitby's East Cliff. If you're looking for souvenirs from Whitby, this will be the right thing to get here, Whitby Lucky Ducks! They were designed with different color according to month of birth, and also there is one will change its color along with the humidity in the air.

One and only Lucky Ducks Store

Ignore the Minions, these are the Lucky Ducks I got for myself...! Haha

Finally, we climbed up to the top of Whitby's East Cliff, and the very first tradition building we saw here is the St. Mary Church which surrounded by lots and lots of tombstone accompanied with the strongest wind that we ever had during our day trip in UK. It's creeeepy! Lol

St. Mary Church

Last but not least, the must-not-be-missed attraction in Whitby, the Whitby Abbey, located on top of the cliff. Entrance fees are need if you want to explore it thoroughly, however, we thought it would be enough for us to see it from the outside.

Whitby Abbey!

Jump jump jump!

Manchester United stadium tour & Manchester city tour

So what is the first thing come into your mind when you heard about Manchester? Manchester United Football Club! the very famous football club in England, even a non football fan like me heard of them. If you're visiting Manchester and you have not been to the M.U Stadium in Old Trafford, I would say it's such waste!

Tadaaa! First glimpse of MU Stadium

The next thing we did is step our foot inside the legend and start to explore every bit of it. I'll say it's worth visiting even though am not MU fan nor a football fan. Frankly speaking, visiting ONE football stadium is enough for me, because I don't feel very excited like how my classmates who are the diehard fans of MU did during the stadium tour but I still enjoyed it. Haha...!

2012/2013 Barclays Premiere League Champion Cup!

Manchester United players' jerseys!

So this is what we did during the tour, taking tons of pictures of the jerseys and trophies. Of course, the whole point of the tour is take a glance of the football field! Unfortunately, they were replacing the grassy field that time, so we didn't get to see the green field that we used to see in the TV, but it's still looks awesome!

Brownish MU football field

Sitting on the VIP's Seat  =P

Well, I guess that's it for Manchester United Stadium tour. Next, Manchester City tour! We went to the city center of Manchester after finished our tour at Old Trafford. According to our friendly tour guide, we should not miss our visit to one of the most beautiful libraries in the world - John Rylands Library.

Outlook of John Rylands Library

Thinking about my future... hmmm

Besides, we also walked around the city centre to explore the beauty of it, so we went to places like the town hall, Arndale Shopping Centre, and etc... 

Manchester town hall

A random picture of Manchester city centre

So what's the best way to explore a city? Fly high enough so you get to see the whole city from the above! Yes, I did that, I get to the highest point in Manchester city centre. How? With the Starflyer located in the city!

The scary Starflyer that take us to the sky!

One last pic before we took offffffff.....! >O<

That's what happen when we're up there...

York, City Engulfed by Castle Wall

The very first city we started off with our day trips is York, the ancient capital of Yorkshire. From the word "ancient", you can actually start to imagine how would it be! No doubt York is one of the world's most fascinating cities.

With the guidance and introduction of our friendly tour guide, we get to know more about York so that we wouldn't miss any must-visit-spot in York. So, the first thing that catch our eyesight is this round and old castle that was built on the small hill. It's called the Clifford Tower, originally built by William the Conqueror to subdue the rebels of the north, it was twice burned to the ground, before being rebuilt by Henry III in the 13th century. If you're really interested to know what's in it, just get the ticket at 4.20£ to explore it!

Group photo in front of the Clifford Tower

Not far away from the Clifford Tower, there goes the Castle Museum, but too bad it's closed, so we only get to explore the outside of the building. But guess what we found? A very old and big gun machine! I wondered how it still looks so new after so many years!

View of the Castle Museum

So this is what they say...

But who cares? Let's climb it! Bang!!! Lol...

In York, they don't say "road or street", instead, they call them "gate", sounds weird right? Well, that's how they named their road for centuries. Now, let me introduce you the York's shortest street.......
Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate! It means "what-a-street"... and yea, what a street! It's  so short that you won't even notice it if the signboard wasn't there! haha

The shortest street in York!

Besides visiting every must-see-spot in York, we did walked around to explore the other part of the city, and we found this, not only in York but every tourist site we've been to, a souvenir-coin-machine. So this is how it works, you put a penny inside the machine, and choose the pattern that you want, then turn wheel, ta-daaa... a very nice and special coin is made from the penny! Of course you need to put one pound in it too, for the making fees~ Lol...

My mate was making his own souvenir coin by turning that wheel.

This is how the penny looks after processing!

If you're visiting York, this is surely a must! Explore the magnificent world-class cathedral in York with its medieval stained glass and stone masterpieces. Somehow I didn't get inside to see how stunning it is, but according to those who went in, they said it's worth visiting.

Our very first group picture of all day trips.

It's lunch time! So, we had our lunch in the park situated somewhere in York before continuing our explorations. Guess what happen during our lunch, there is this bunch of friendly British women (I think they're a bit drunk), they were so excited and invite us to join them! Lucky me, got the chance to taste a bit of Champagne during the trip, and had a lot of laughter with them, happy lunch time!

Everyone is happy! Lol...

As I mentioned earlier, York is an ancient city, and it's encircled by its ancient castle wall, sounds great isn't it? The castle walls are accessible, and so we get to walk on the walls and explore the beautiful scenery of York from above!

Group selfie on York's City Wall

The world's greatest railway museum is here too, your trip to York will not be completed without a visit to it! From the oldest train that you never heard of and to the fastest bullet train in the world, they are all in there, it's a very good place for everyone to explore the evolution of train. Free entrance, so don't miss it out when you're visiting York. =)

This classic train looks very awesome isn't it?

Exploring Parks and Garden in Sheffield.

There are few parks and gardens in Sheffield, but due to time and distance constraint, we didn't get to explore all of them. One of the nearest park to our accommodation is Norfolk Park where it is located at the south of Sheffield city centre. There's nothing much can be introduced about the park, what I can say is, it's a very great spot for photo-shooting! So, let the pictures tell the story!

Road that direct us to the grassy field of Norfolk Park

Dandelion! A very common "flower" that you can find on summer.

A group selfie on the greenie field is a must! Haha

Relaxing selfie with my best mate

Another park or they called it Sheffield Botanical Garden is located a little far from city centre, it take us more than half an hour to get there by walking. As compare to Norfolk Park, Sheffield Botanical Garden is a great place for people to see all the various types of flowers and plants. There's a glass house located in the garden called Glass Pavilion where people can hold their wedding ceremonies here.

The Glass Pavilion

Happy exploring the garden!

So, there's this squirrel pop out of nowhere and keep following us, it's so cute that I keep lure it and play with it. Hahaha.

Pretty boy with his cute squirrel friend. Lol!

On the way back to our accommodation, we met a couple with a pair of huge and beautiful Husky! All of the sudden, I'm so excited and  I did approach the couple and of course played with the two huge fluffy cotton huskies! It's sooooooo fluffy, I'm gonna dieee! Lol...

Look at me, I'm so happy! haha

Little things we did in United Kingdom.

Sweet memories are always made by adding up all the little things...!

When we were in Sheffield, we were looking forward for every weekend we had there as we would go for day trips to explore other interesting cities in UK the weekends! Of course, these day trips are organized by both our university and also the travel agency - Tong Hang, so we had to pay for them. I'm kinda regreted that I missed out one or two interesting places such as Stonehenge, but still the other places were awesome too!

Day trip tickets

There's a fun thing that I did during every city exploring trip, I would buy the local postcards and send them to some of my friends who's in Malaysia. I actually played a postcard-sending game with my besties who's in Melbourne, we would send each other postcard. It may sounds silly but it's very fun! Open up the mailbox, and found a postcard that fly all over the places can be very exciting and it'll definitely made up your day! So, start sending postcards today! Haha...

Postcard from my bestie in Australia

A postcard that I bought from York

Do any of you guys still remember the little yellow banana thingy? Yes, The minions from Despicable Me! It was quite "trendy" that time, MacDonald was actually giving out these toys along with the purchase of Happy Meal, but in UK, you can just buy the the toy for 1£. They have different type of minion every week, so we actually went to MacDonald very often to check out the latest minion. Collecting minion toys, sounds very childish isn't it? But we had a lot of fun with it.Haha...

Banana or Potato?

There's another thing that everyone will collect when they are in UK, the coins! You will be surprised that the coins can have so many different patterns on them, and it's very exciting when you get those rare coins. One of the most common collection will be the series of coins that can be arranged in such a way that the patterns combined to be come a shield.

Royal Shield from the UK coins

Coffee shops are very common in UK, it's a very nice place to hangout on a the summer, so instead of Starbucks, we decided to try something new, Caffe Nero. If you're ordering a Frappucino you just grab it from the rack and give it to the counter where the Barista will process it for you!

Coconut and Chocolate Frappe Creme