One of the best weekends so far! On Friday, my friend and I took a Megabus (yes, they have those here too!), to a Northern England town called Chester. My friend Allie, has extended family who lives in a small town called Hawarden (pronounced Hard-en) which is 20 minutes from Chester, but is considered to be a part of Wales! It was a 6 hour bus ride, and her family friends met us at Chester station which was only another 20 minutes to their home. Their town is a super cute and small with one gas station, one grocery store, one main restaurant and one pub. Everyone knows everyone, and what a difference it was to go from London to here! Friday evening they welcomed us with some hot chocolate and muffins! They had a cozy room for us all set up with our own coffee and tea station in the room. Saturday morning they cooked us a delicious home cooked meal, and we prepared for one of the things on my bucket list in life: to see my favorite soccer team, Manchester United play at their home field. Manchester was an hour away from Hawarden, and the husband drove with us to Manchester to attend the game, and it was such an incredible experience.

We bought the tickets online and expected the basic, cheaper tickets because most tickets to any Manchester United game are expensive. It turns out, we had VIP passes, and had access to a private club where we were able to hangout with other VIP fans before the game and avoided the cold rainy weather outside! We were shocked! It made the experience even more worthwhile and incredible. It was amazing to be at the stadium in person, and my dream come true! Manchester won, 1-0, which also made my trip there even more special. It’s a huge stadium, 80,000 fans approximately attended the game. I loved every minute of it! After the game we stopped at the local pub where all the fans attend after to talk about the game. Then we headed back to Hawarden for dinner at the one main restaurant in town, and had a relaxed night. Sunday we had to head back to London on our long bus ride home. It was such a cozy and warm weekend. The family was so hospitable, and made us feel right at home. We are looking to possibly going back again another weekend!