Manchester, UK: Taco Bell Heaven

Actual date of this event: 13 April

Yes. That date is correct. I am REALLY behind on this one, and its because I just forgot. But I have to document it because taco bell is awesome!

When Luke I made the decision to drive from Aberdeen to London for our move, we decide we would stop somewhere for the night. The quickest drive from Aberdeen to London is about 10 hours, and that's a pretty long way. We also weren't going to be able to get the keys to our temporary flat until Monday, so we were in no rush to get there.

I had done a little research when I heard that Taco Bell existed in the UK. I had never seen one, so I just HAD to look it up. I miss me some Taco Bell! Sure enough, there is a Taco Bell located way east of London (its like a 1.5 train ride from our flat, which is worth it, yes) and there is also one in Manchester. There are only three in all of Great Britain. Get with the program!

When Luke mentioned to stay the night in Manchester on the way from Aberdeen to London, I immediately said "YES! TACO BELL!!!!!" It wasn't exactly on the way to London, but it was the way to Taco Bell. Both of us were so super excited that we would get to eat some delicious fast food. Remember the whole horse meat scandal that is going on in the UK? Yeah, I am sure Taco Bell is involved in that, but who cares?!?!??!!! Cover it up with some sauce and nomnomnom.

After 6 hours of driving, we arrived in Manchester and decided we would swing by the Manchester City stadium as that is one of Michael's (Luke's youngest brother) favorite European football (soccer) teams. We took a few pictures to brag and send to him.

We then arrived at the hotel and had tons of stuff, including a cooler of frozen food, so we had to unload our things from the car to the hotel. We did it FAST, so we could go find Taco Bell. By this time, it was around 5:30pm on a Saturday. We discovered the Taco Bell is located in a mall, which made me very nervous. Shopping stores close early in Great Britain, so there was a chance that the Taco Bell could be closed. Yikes! As we entered the mall, we saw stores pulling their gates down for closing. We were walking as fast as we could through the mall with hungry bellies in search for horse meat grilled stufft burritos. Finally, we arrived and it was open!!!!! Yay!!! And there was no line? And KFC had a line 20 deep?? These Brits don't know what they are missing!!!!! Horse meat? Maybe. So Luke and I stared at the menu with hunger in our eyes. We ordered what would be enough for probably 4 men, and the cashier lady looked at us as if we were pigs. No, lady, we are Americans! I am a fan of the fire sauce and they actually had it! We chowed down! Luke even went back for seconds. It was so good... like heaven!

After Taco Bell, we decide to go do some walking around Manchester. We stumbled upon a BrewDog, so we had to stop in for a drink. We also stopped at a few pubs so I could experience my very first English ales. Love these English ales!

Above: Left - Random Florida Gators sweatshirt in a charity shop?

Center - One of our favorite places in Aberdeen was Abergeldie, so I had to take a picture.

Right - I thought this British outfit would be perfect to wear for my arrival to London. Luke's disagreed.

It had been a long day of driving and we had another long day of driving on Sunday, so we called it a night. Manchester seemed like a really fun town... seemed like it had a good young crowd. I would love to go back for another night sometime! The next day, we made that trek to our new home city of London. As Luke was regretting the decision he made to get Taco Bell seconds, I still had good thoughts of my Taco Bell experience :-)

RANDOM FACT:
According to Taco Bell UK, at some point when it was tested, they found horse meat in their beef. Laughing.So.Hard.Right.Now.