This week has flown by! I cannot believe it is Wednesday night already! I haven’t had a super busy week. I had only had lectures and working out. Monday night we checked out a pub that is close to the student village. It is called The Black Boy after an old tobacco brand. We went there just to check it out and to get out of our flat since it had been raining most of the day. We found out when we got there that Monday nights are quiz nights so we entered in the contest. It was a lot of fun. There were 54 questions in all different sorts of categories and you worked as a group to come up with the answers. The winning team got bottles of wine and the losing team got bottles of wine. We didn’t get either but had a ton of fun guessing and coming up with answers. Also we had a fun time thinking of a team name! It was three Americans and one Welsh girl so we were ‘Three Yanks and a Taft!’ We are going to try to make it there for a few more quiz nights before the end of the semester!
Today after my early class my friend, Luke, and I went to Bath for a day trip. We ended up getting there about 1:30pm and there was a free walking tour at 2pm. We had a cute little old lady as our tour guide. She took us all around the city of Bath telling us fun facts. We learned how one of the hot springs had been covered up, but in 2000 they got a big grant to do something with the spring. They built a huge day spa on the spring and the pools are filled with the hot water. You can go lounge in there for about $35 for 2 hours. It seemed like it would be a very relaxing 2 hours!
We also learned that almost the entire city was made of limestone. I noticed this coming in on the train, but it was definitely proven once we got into the city. During the Roman times they mined the limestone and sent it to Rome to be carved and shaped and then shipped it back to Bath to be put into place. This made the buildings have the great architecture that still remains in a few places. They also once had an entire limestone wall around the entire city. However, once people heard that the Roman baths had healing powers the city greatly expanded and they tore down all the old walls except one to further expand the city.
The bad part about having limestone buildings is that they get dirty really easily. Limestone cannot be scrubbed with rough abrasives or chemicals like other stones since it is so soft. When they had to clean the Bath Abbey they took toothbrushes and cleaned it from floor to peak! Imagine how tedious that would be!! They have found a better way to clean it since then and that is by just letting water run over it. They hook up hoses to the top and cycle the water through to keep the buildings clean.
We walked our way up to the Royal Victoria Park next on our tour. We didn’t see much of the park but I had a few pretty flowers and is something like 5 acres of land. We got to see the back of the Circus while walking through the gardens. The Circus is a three sided set of buildings that make up a circle. It was designed and built by famous Bath-eaons to increase the beauty of the city. The back side was not very interesting, but we did get to go in and see a traditional English garden. It had no grass and no trees. It consisted of short shrubs and a few flower beds. It was kind of boring if you ask me!
From there we went to look at the Royal Crescent. This is 31 houses that make up a semi elliptical shape. They overlook the Royal Victoria Park. The building is not completely symmetric, which meant it was very difficult to build, and was amazing! For its time the architecture and engineering is well beyond its years.
The next stop on our tour was the front of the Circus. We got to see the three different types of pillars that are on each level of the buildings. There are also acorns perched atop the buildings. They are not sure of the meanings of the acorns but the pillars were to represent the stages the city had gone through up to the making of these buildings. We also got to see the outdoor entrances to the cellars that are under the streets all over Bath. Most of the entrances are not visible, but there are a few that are. These cellars were used to dump coal in from the street so you didn’t have to carry it through your house. You could go get it from you cellar underground and carry it directly to your fireplace!
After looking at acorns we headed to the Assembly Rooms. We couldn’t go in all the rooms because some were having events in them but we did get to go into a couple. These were the rooms that used to hold balls and all sorts of different gatherings. There was even a room just for playing cards! I didn’t even realize that people in those days played cards; much less needed a whole room for it. The rooms didn’t have much for furniture but did have great chandeliers and ceilings!
At this point we parted from the tour group so we would have enough time to see the Roman Baths since that is the thing to see in Bath. The baths were pretty impressive. We got a view of them from a top balcony where there were many statues of famous people. After that outside view we were lead inside to learn about how the Romans came to find the baths and thought of them as a religious symbol. The one bath actually bubbled so they thought it was souls going to another world. It was interesting to see their take on something that was once thought to be a phenomenon but now can be explained by science. We got to see some of the old preserved ruins before going outside and seeing the baths close up. They were very very cool and it was really warm standing down by them. The water itself was gross though. It had algae growing on it! Not exactly what I would be bathing in!
After checking out the baths we went and got some Italian Gelato (Ice cream). It was almost like soft serve it was so fresh! I had mocha and sweet biscuit. It made for a great end of trip. Well I thought it was the end of the excitement.
On the train ride home we only had to switch once (in Cardiff). We ended up sitting across from this old couple and their son and his girlfriend. The old couple was retired but the man was learning Spanish. They had clearly had their share to drink on the train ride and were attempting to speak Spanish to each other. It was quite comical to see this happening! After a while we started chatting with them and got to know some pretty interesting facts. They live quite close to where we live in the student village. I don’t know if they will remember us but said they would watch for us in the market! It was an interesting end to the day!
Tomorrow I am off to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate St. Patty’s Day! Check in again early next week for some more fun. After next week I will not be updating as often because I will be traveling. I hope to try to do it as much as possible but I’m not sure how it will work yet! Love you all!