If you find yourself in Manchester hit up the Mod Pop Cafe--awesome vegetarian and vegan food, including traditional English breakfast and vegan cupcakes. The menu made me wish I was still hungry, and the cafe is nuzzled in the basement of a 60s and 70s vintage clothing and memorabilia shop which is also pretty cool. It's amazing how good real coffee tastes when you've been drinking nothing but instant Nescafe for two weeks.

Tonight I get to see some old friends in Manchester and go to a giant DJ/bands/crazy dance party. Our driver for both UK Giving Chase tours, the illustrious Martin Ciderspiller, is part of a collective that puts on mostly free parties in the Manchester area. Free usually implies squatted apartment house or old mansion in some shady part of town filled with loud music, crazy people, and lots of drugs. I'll never forget showing up for our first tour here and crashing for several days in squatted apartments in Bolton, just outside Manchester. The laws concerning squatting are very different here, and if a property has been vacant for a certain period of time it's completely possible to occupy it and then even get the utilities turned on, etc. The kids we stayed with then had electricity, heat, even internet! Basically, squatting is legal and it's illegal for the police to force entry to a property that is occupied. So once the owner figures out you're there and the authorities get involved there's a whole civil legal process they have to go through to remove you from the property. As long as you follow The Squatters Handbook (http://www.squatter.org.uk/) you can make it work. I've stayed in similar places in Holland and it's really kind of amazing how it all works.

Anyway, tonight looks looks like a pay at the door, semi-legit version of the warehouse parties Manchester is famous for: four different collectives with DJ's, burlesque performers, bands, and all sorts of other ridiculousness. And luckily, it's only a five minute walk from our hotel.