Manchester

It was another wonderful weekend here in England.
Friday, the girls and I went into town to shop around for our Halloween costumes which we dawned Saturday night for a Halloween Party in Manchester. Leeds city center has a really great shopping atmosphere and we wandered around, lunched in a cafe and made it back to the flat for some tea. Friday night, despite the fact we were headed to Manchester the next morning, we gave in to the urge to go out. So we put on our dancing shoes and went to check out a club called Oceana that everyone has been talking about. We got in free since we went before ten, but as we guessed, it was pretty quiet until around 11.
Oceana is definitely my favorite club so far. It has so many themed rooms like a disco-complete with the light up dance floor, a ski lodge with fire places and wooden decor, a boudoir with lots of red velvet and then a few other general dance floors. Plus, they were giving away free glasses of champagne at the start of the night, so you know, they won my heart right away.
Unfortunately, we made it back around 3:30am, leaving a mere 4 hours of sleep before it was up to catch the coach to Manchester.
We left in the morning, a bit like zombies, but still excited. The reason for the trip was Rachel's brother's Halloween Party. Manchester is only about an hour away, so when we arrived, we walked around the city a bit and grabbed lunch at the art gallery. It was here in the gallery cafe that I tried my very first English scone with cottered cream and jam. Its so cute, because every time I come across something new the girls instruct me exactly how to eat it the English way. Of course, they end up debating which of their methods is the best. Butter then jam? Jam then cream? How much? Haha. I went for no butter and it was amazing. Really delicious.

After lunch we looked around the gallery for a bit, which is always enjoyable. Then we took the train to where Rachel's dad and uncle live. Rachel's uncle was generous enough to let us sleep at his home in the most comfortable beds ever. I will miss it tonight.
It was so nice to be in a home again and see family getting together.
We took a nap back at Rachel's Uncle's after chatting and having a beverage with her dad and step mom, only to wake up with about and hour until we had to leave.
We put on our costumes-black widows because we scored some cool hats at Poundland-and went to the party.
Rachel's brother and his girlfriend, who are about 26, really did such a great job decorating their place. I tried to get pictures but it was difficult since all the lighting was done with jack-o-lanterns and candles.
They had "evil punch", a bonfire out back and bobbing for apples. They also lit fireworks about half way through the night. It was nice to see some people actually getting into the Halloween spirit, since the English don't do it like us crazy Americans. :)

It was a pretty relaxed party and thankfully we didn't get home late and had a good nights rest.
This morning we had breakfast at Rachel's dads and some lunch at her mom's before taking the bus back to Leeds.
Yay for family visits! Bex's mom comes next weekend and she's taking us all out to dinner.
Happy Halloween everybody!!! What are you all dressing up as? :)