Honestly, until Sunday, I was going to do somewhere far flung and glamorous. Then I went on a little day trip to one of my new favourite places. I am currently facing a dilemma: what on earth to do with my life. Everyone on my course is obsessed with it lately, with application time upon us; CV workshops, careers things, applying for stuff. People keep asking me what I’m doing- and I just have to change the subject. I’ve never been one to think long term. Well, I’m cautious in my decision making, conscious of how my decisions now will affect me down the line, but thinking directly about the future, well, it scares me. I thought doing a degree was enough, that’s four years of my life, forever! Leave me alone ok! But for the first time, when I wandered around this great little city about an hour or two north east of Exeter, I thought, I could live here. It felt like I could really enjoy the place and the people. So I thought I would honour it with my first Travel Tuesday.
What a pretty city. And somewhere that embraces art and young people, with the “Make Sundays Special” events in the streets, and the See No Evil Festival murals. The street art of the city blew me away; they have a thriving culture for it there, for example Banksy is from Bristol. Check This out for when you go to see for yourself. It even has a street map with it all marked on!
Bristol is great. It has loads of history, having been around since 1155 as a city and is currently England’s sixth largest city (thanks Wikipedia) making it for me the perfect size- big enough to be diverse, have a rich mixed culture and people, and small enough so that you don’t have a heart attack trying to drive around the place. It has a thriving art scene, a river with many floating restaurants and pubs- that is, boats where you go to eat drink and be merry, a university and so a young ‘hip’ population, lots of fun cheap things to do (and buy with charity & vintage shops and indoor/outdoor markets a plenty), good food…the list goes on. I had a veggie burrito from the incredibly friendly and well decorated Mission Burrito on Park st that took me back to my summer in New York…but more on there another week. Oh and the accent makes me so happy. I don’t know why, but its my favourite accent! Listen to Steven Merchant or Russell Howard speak for a while, and try not to smile at that cute vernacular.
The museums are worth mentioning; though we didn’t have that much time, we popped our heads in the free Bristol Museum and Art Gallery at the top of Park St next to a very big and old looking Bristol Uni building/tower, and saw a great array of Egyptian artefacts, a cool Sea Dragons exhibition with some big fossils, and some great art, I especially loved the works in the Foyer. We also visited Millennium Square down the hill by the water, a really clean new space, with shiny water features and statues sitting about under the trees on the west side honouring famous Bristolians. There’s also the planetarium in the square, a big mirrored sphere that looked beautiful in the afternoon sun, and with some bikers riding around doing stunts. We popped into @ Bristol (At Bristol?) the science museum, which although it was geared to younger audiences we absolutely loved! Its really hands on, there’s loads of amazing things in there to mess around with. Highly recommended, and we got there about an hour before closing and didn’t have to pay for some reason, so try your luck! We also went in Bristol Cathedral (free) and saw some super old tombs and beautiful stained glass windows, and the choir were practising too which gave it a lot of atmosphere with the stunning acoustics. The lady on the door didn’t seem keen for us to linger for the 3.30pm service though, she must have thought I didn’t look the type, good guess haha.
For shopping, I couldn’t say it better than This blog at ceriselle.org for shopping on a budget.
So I think I have wittered on enough, I didn’t provide places to stay as it was a day trip, but I know there are hostels- a YHA just across the bridge from the Millennium square, and also a Marriott Royal by the cathedral, as well as everything in between. If you’ve stayed or been to Bristol and have something to add, let me know!
These are fantastic reading:
Why these are exciting times for Bristol
Girl & Stars 