Apollo:Overnighting vikings?

There's that many flaming therads going on about the apollo, I can't seem to spot if there's been a decision taken regarding where those of us who are staying the night in manc are doing so.

I thought my bus home was really early, and i could get away with drinkin all night and doing the zombie on the coach. But it seems the bus is at 12:45 so I'm pretty certain I'll need some sleep.

So has a hostel (wooohoo) or hotel(booooo) been agreed on for mass invasion so we don't have to slum it with lesser mortals.

Gardens Hotel in Piccadilly Gardens is temp home to several Vikings!

Dare I ask as to the prices?

That's why hotel got a boo...I'm about to spend a whole giro on this and starve for a fortnight, but even at that, I dunno if I can stretch to real hotel money :)

Oh dear, no I don;t think I'll be staying there. Looks like a yoof hostel full of crusties and roaches, if I'm lucky, just roaches.

Sure we'll get you in, if you don't mind floorspace!

I just realised how hard it is to find a hostel near somewhere in a city you don;t know, ideally I need something half way between Chorlton street coach station (unless National express operate from somewhere else in manc as well...althoguh it'll be ulsterbus delivering me, they hand over to national ex for all destinations not straight between stranrear and London).

I also just realised that the last time I was in Manc at said bus station, I noticed all the buildings and thought, wow, the whole town is built in the style of FAC51......NOW I realise was probably IN fucking whitworth street at the time. what a dufus.

So, having failed to come up with anything better than "the hatters", which is a LOT closer to the bus station than to the apollo, which is probably bad, I must now ask for reccomendations for the financially challenged viking.

I suppose something close to the pub and gig is needed, that keeps the pub-gig-bed triangle as small as possible, and puts the long journey at the beginning and end. Mind you, that does not take into account what may be going on between gig and bed....knowing my luck the pub, the gig and my hostel will be in a row on one street, and the after pissup will be in Salford :)

I noticed that the bus gets in very near to picadilly station, so there's no reason I couldn't meet up with any London Order who would be arriving 1630-1700 ish, and proceed en mass.

{Bumpkin Mode} how's the centre of town, and indeed any other place we'll be for the wide eyed innocent wandering around? Streets paved with gold and a scent of fresh cut hay in the air, or armed muggers on every corner and a highwayman in every taxi?

oldmonkey wrote: Sure we'll get you in, if you don't mind floorspace!

I don't do post gig sleep :) My abject nightmare would be to be back in a dorm staring at celiing at about 2330 :) I once stayed up like 3 days after an Orb gig, and it was a pharmaceutical free evening (never get wasted at gigs, just pissing yer cash away) if roomcrashing's a possibility, I'll pay me share (probably in the bar :) )

Steve Campbell wrote:

oldmonkey wrote: Sure we'll get you in, if you don't mind floorspace!

I don't do post gig sleep :) My abject nightmare would be to be back in a dorm staring at celiing at about 2330 :) I once stayed up like 3 days after an Orb gig, and it was a pharmaceutical free evening (never get wasted at gigs, just pissing yer cash away) if roomcrashing's a possibility, I'll pay me share (probably in the bar :) )

Steve - I'll almost certainly be staying in Manc that night - your welcome to crash wherever I am. I will be so pissed I won't even notice. The deal is: you make sure I get there after the gig/aftershow; you get somewhere free (with beer charge, obviously!) to kip. OK?

sounds cool to me....unless you're one of those drunks on a mission ("I'm going to a party in leeds, now fook off"), or one those ones who gains mass faster than a black hole when passed out, like my sister :)

Looks like, if i get it together to GET there, someone will look after me one way or another:)

Right now I'm leaving tickets and transport to the gods, I couldn;t take my GF's money on this one, so if there are still tickets when I have money, I'll see you all at the apollo, and if not, then it was not meant to be.

Worth pointing out, that my presence may jonah the gig really badly :)

And I solved my mangled glasses in the pit problem.....I'll wear my prescription sunnies to the gig, then if they get trashed it's no biggie :)

Steve Campbell wrote: sounds cool to me....unless you're one of those drunks on a mission ("I'm going to a party in leeds, now fook off"), or one those ones who gains mass faster than a black hole when passed out, like my sister :)

Looks like, if i get it together to GET there, someone will look after me one way or another:)

Right now I'm leaving tickets and transport to the gods, I couldn;t take my GF's money on this one, so if there are still tickets when I have money, I'll see you all at the apollo, and if not, then it was not meant to be.

Worth pointing out, that my presence may jonah the gig really badly :)

And I solved my mangled glasses in the pit problem.....I'll wear my prescription sunnies to the gig, then if they get trashed it's no biggie :)

Oh, I'm always on a mission, but eventually the mission leads to bed. And that's usually before the desire to go clubbing in another city kicks in!!

My flight home is at 7.50am, so I hoping i wont need a place to kip at all!

CuanaD wrote: My flight home is at 7.50am, so I hoping i wont need a place to kip at all!

I kinda thought my bus was 730, but nope, it's 1245. Sleep will almost certainly be a plan then, or at least attempted sleep:)

Me bro's tryin to talk me into flying, but it'll cost the same and inolve more hassle....AND the "why do you want an international travel pass to travel inside the UK" argument.

I suppose if the WORST came to it, and hotel security start flinging arm-chancing vikings into the streets, there's still a chance to get into a yoof 'ostel....tho the thought of tear-assing around a strange city in the dead of night doesn't appeal to me.

Thank you Ulsterbus, why could the flamin bus not have been midnight to let me get back on it after gig.

oldmonkey wrote: Gardens Hotel in Piccadilly Gardens is temp home to several Vikings!

Oh, no! Tell me this is not true!

One option (which I have done several times myself when not wanting to go to the hassle/expense of getting a hotel) is get a return train ticket from Piccadilly to Manchester Airport. Costs less than a fiver and you have a choice of cafes/etc or going to sleep for a couple of hours before getting the first train/bus home. Trains run throughout the night, albeit fairly infrequently.

I still haven't booked any accomodations..so anyone having an extra couch I could kip on would be gladly appreciated!!

Hostel will cost about 20 quid it seems. I don't slummin it but just not on me own. If the 400 people in a hotel room idea doesn't look like working, we should, as someone else suggested, block book a couple of hostel dorms, so at least we're only sharing with "family".

Obviously the ideal is to party all night, then spend a few hours pre-bus in the morning wandering and drinking coffee.

Don't know when I will get access to NOOL to post this, but I have some information about hotels in Manchester. Had a chat with my mate over the weekend, we couldn't think of anywhere in the hostel/B&B bracket other than in areas that we would be loathe to send anyone we didn't wish harm.

There is a YMCA at Castlefield, might be worth investigating. I don't know anything about it though - didn't even know there was one.

Other best options are probably the Ibis, Portland St, the Jurys Inn, Bridgewater St and the Travel Inn on Oxford Rd/Portland St. We THINK that all of these have Room Rates (as opposed to per-person) and rooms should be in the £50 range.

There should be no shortage of rooms - Manny geared up for the Commonwealth Games a couple of years ago and quite a few hotels got built then.

Hope this helps.

bloody hell colin. not only did you say something non alcohol related, it was also productive. you feeling alright?

The Official Hostel of the GERMAN order:

YHA Manchester Potato Wharf Castlefield Manchester

p. +44 (0) 161 839 9960 f. +44 (0) 161 835 2054 e. manchester@yha.org.uk 4 Bed 15 GBP

looks good, I might turn german for the night.

Unless you're all schumacher fans in which case I'd rather sleep in the canal :)

I've been looking at "the hatters" it's in cetnre of town, prettty much equidistant from picadilly and chortlton street. But apart from their website, I know nothing about it. Lookin at about 20 bills a room.

While the offer of floorspace is tempting, I cant help thinking that hotel security may work out there are 29 people in a double room ??? :)

You know they have later flights back into Dublin than 7:50am :)

Angel with a Catapult wrote: You know they have later flights back into Dublin than 7:50am :)

I think CuannaD is thinking of avoiding staying anywhere at all.

For those of us on the low-cost/low-stress run, it's 12:45 before we can go home. That's Bangor-belfast-stranrar-carlsile-mankfester. AND back the next day. Bro was tryin to talk me into flying, but it meant liverpool airport, and a new passport cos airlines are bunch of clueless chickenfuckers, and far too much terror if I want to bring a joint or two. 10 hours on a bus (OK 7.5 on a bus and 2.5 on an HSS) each way.....done it before, it's doable.

OK folks time grows short......

I've had a couple of very generous offers from some folks who'll be stayin, to share floors and what not. While I've no airs and graces, I'm not sure we can get away with such things, I mean don;t hotels notice stuff like that?

Will it work, I mean definitely work...I don;t fancy spendin me first night in manc as a statistic. I don;t mind shovin the rightful room owner a coupla quid, I'm just nervous it might not work out.

SO, the question is, are there any others who haven't arranged somewhere to stay? We could block book a dorm in a hostel....you;re lookin at about 12 bills a head.

One other thing, if it comes down to stayin in a hostel, any idea where I can leave my tiny bag while we're in the apollo, I mean I know they'll have cloakrooms and all....but seriously....guy from NI says "watch me bag".....everyone will scatter.

Steve Campbell wrote:

Angel with a Catapult wrote: You know they have later flights back into Dublin than 7:50am :)

I think CuannaD is thinking of avoiding staying anywhere at all.

that, and the fact that I've to be back in Dublin to mind my kids by 10.30 on Tuesday - drunk or sober, no matter.

You should have thought about getting the train to Dubland & flying with us - no idea how much it would cost you to get here, but flights to Manc were only €60-ish. Belfast or Bel-International have not got in on the Ryanair act yet then?

The main reasons I went for the bus are....

1. Am considering bringing enough weed for about 3 joints...partly cos it'd be nice to be stoned to see NO, and partly cos it seriously reduces the chance of the Morning's dose of prescription crap coming RIGHT back up. And while I'll still be terrified in a ferry terminal, I'll look so freaked out in an airport ( what with dogs and xrays and all) they'll think I'm planning to blow the plane up. Hardenned drug traffiker I aint.

2. Airlines seem to have some problem with their brains, they want a fucking valid passport for internal UK travel, AND for travel from the RoI (with whom the UK has signed as passport waiver agreement, even before the whole EU deal). Mine's outta date and I'm too skint to score a new one AND make it to the gig.

I'm just panicky about having things all planned out, I don't like to find myself having to improvise far from home.

SO, the question is, are there any others who haven't arranged somewhere to stay? We could block book a dorm in a hostel....you;re lookin at about 12 bills a head.

My husband and I still haven't found a place to stay. Could you pls give us the info of some hostels that you've already looked at?

Anchor Girl wrote:

SO, the question is, are there any others who haven't arranged somewhere to stay? We could block book a dorm in a hostel....you;re lookin at about 12 bills a head.

My husband and I still haven't found a place to stay. Could you pls give us the info of some hostels that you've already looked at?

Hostelworld.com will have all of them in it.

We settled for this place

http://www.hattersgroup.com/location.html

Cos it's cheap and right beside bus and pub.

And they have twin rooms too if you can't bear to be parted :)

I really wish I was going to this, just have to wait till next time.

I know, you'd even have playmates for the cheapskate's bus too :(

Mate's ticket came today, good job too, the coach and the hostel are booked in his name :)

Anyway, cheer up snoop, there's always the webcast.

My own fault for leaving it late Steve. Would have stayed at the Hostel alright. Probably would have went over with bmi baby, not much of a sailer i'm afraid especially when its so windy of late.