We took an overnight train from Nice to Paris on May 5th and then took a train from Paris to Calais and crossed on the ferry to Dover. We shared a sleeping compartment with a 65 year old French man who spoke almost no English so I got to brush up on my French a little bit. We decided we would take a bus from there to Manchester because it’s a lot cheaper. We got about 2 hours from Manchester when our bus broke down. They ended up splitting us up so we got on a bus to Leicester where a bus was waiting to take us to Manchester. We didn’t end up getting in until about 1:30am so we ended up sleeping in late and not doing much on the 7th. We got up on the morning of the 8th and left the hotel at around noon to head to the area where Old Trafford is. So many people were on the sidewalks and the surrounding restaurants had huge lines. We stopped and ate lunch and then decided to walk to the stadium to get our tickets and watch warm-up. We have been to a United game before but nothing would compare to this one. United was playing Chelsea and the only way we were able to get tickets was to buy seats in the VIP section. We got to our seats about an hour before kick-off and watched warm up. The seats were amazing and it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. The crowd was so loud it felt like you were at a concert and you could feel the stadium rumbling from all the screaming and jumping. There was a lot of security at the game especially surrounding the Chelsea section with security sitting at the ends of each row. With United scoring within the first minute of the match the crowd went wild. The game was great and I don’t think we could top the experience. With a game this big you really got to see how important the fans are to the players and how much the players rely on them to cheer them on. You could definitely see how soccer is more of a religion and how the fans are a huge part of the match. After the game we had dinner in the Red Cafe at the stadium which was included in our tickets. We got to meet a former United player Stu Pearson and talk to him for a bit while we ate. When we got back to the hotel you could hear people celebrating in the streets singing and yelling. It was a great weekend in Manchester and hopefully we can see United play again next time.
After the first goal
Everyone celebrating at the end of the game
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