Bath

Today I went to Bath. For those of you that don't know, Bath was the place to be seen in 18th century England. Two of Jane Austen's books, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were set in Bath, and Jane Austen herself lived in Bath for a few years, so if you want to get a picture of the city, think of all those high society English movies.

The name Bath comes from the fact that this place had (and still has) hot springs, which were made into Roman baths. You can pay to go into the Baths, but that wasn't particularly high on my to do list.

So the day started with a road trip with the Pinningtons.

The girls were going to stay with their uncle in Frome (pronounced "froom") for the weekend, so the parents decided to make a trip of it. We all drove to Bath where we went for breakfast at an Italian deli Da Vinci, then they dropped me off near the city centre then took the girls to their uncle's.

So I made my way to the tourist information centre where they tried to get me to pay £1 for a map. I was like screw that my phone has a map, AND it tells me exactly where I am. Obviously I didn't say that. What came out of my mouth was "no thank you"

So yes. While I was researching things to do in Bath the other day, I found a free audio guide of the city, so I downloaded it onto my phone and just went around with it. I took it slow, and walked into any shop I fancied along the way (I found the guildhall market!), and parts of the city were crowded, and it was a little bit drizzly, so the tour took me about 2 and a quarter hours. (It was only meant to go for one and a half hours).

The tour took me around pretty much the entire city: the Abbey, the Roman baths, the River Avon and Pulteney Bridge, the Royal Theatre, Beau Nash's house, Laura Place, the Circus, Royal Crescent, Milsom Street...

*exhales*

I did list down some museums and exhibitions that I thought I'd like, but in the end I could only take so much looking in one day, so I just did the tour. It was pretty informative.

Then I just went shopping with all of Mum and Dad's money.

Ahahaha nah, I DID wander the street with shops though. Sat down and listened to a really good, classically trained young singer busker (she was really sweet!) and decided to toss in some change. That is actually possibly the first time I've given money to a busker. My parents never do, so I never have. But this time I felt like she deserved it cos she was good and I was enjoying it. And she looked like a poor student like me.

Sat down, enjoyed the environs, ate a banana, wrote a postcard to Emily. Had to buy a pen cos mine STOPPED WORKING >:(

Um anyway. THEN I went shopping. Bought some stuff from a stall in the middle of the street and managed to bargain it down. Then just walked around, looked at some shops. I was glad that I'd done the tour earlier in the day, because while wandering the streets I walked past some of the sights again and it was crowded as. WIN.

By that time it was almost 5. My cousins told me that I have to try a traditional Cornish pasty, so seeing as I had to eat I thought I'd try one. I went into the Cornwall Pasty Company, cos I'd seen a few around so I thought they'd know how to make a good pasty. Had a little freakout in the bakery cos I thought I'd lost my wallet, but it was in the plastic bag with my shopping. Phew.

Then thought it was about time I made my way to the train station. And now the train is 20 minutes late :|

Oh my gosh a Harry Potter train just went past! I have to go in one of those one day.



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