Friday, February 09, 2007

Bristol Shenanigans

Adele, Tom and Flick by the river in Bath, where we took a day trip whilst visiting Bristol.

Hello again. Apologies yet once more for the yawning gulf between posts - I'm still trying to find work, and every second I spend not trawling through job sites and ringing up employers feels like time wasted. My hands are trembling with guilt even as I type this; just think of all the job opportunities I might be missing! The horror!

Despite the ongoing unemployment crisis, I managed to find the time last weekend to head off to Bristol with Flick to visit our old Japan friends Adele and Tom. We last saw them just before they left Fukui in 2005, so it was great to finally meet up with them again. It was pretty cheap to get there too - we took the Megabus, which was only 15 quid for a return, although there did seem to be something of a lucky dip when it came to bus quality. On the way there we were in a draughty, knackered old double decker, but on the way back we had a rather plush, modern coach - does this mean that Bristolians demand a higher level of comfort when they leave town? Who knows.

The university building was almost black with soot last time I saw it - nice to see it's had a bit of a clean.

Anyway, we had a cracking 2 days - a mixture of late night drinking and edifying walks through the country; the perfect weekend really. Bristol was surprisingly nice - on my last visit there about five years ago I remember it having some brilliantly quirky shopping and bars near the university, but a rather drab, concrete shopping centre in the middle. The shopping centre is (thankfully) gone now, and it seems the town planners have gone on something of a redevelopment frenzy, creating new squares, buildings and recreation areas left, right and centre, which are, on the whole, pretty successful.

The highlight was definitely one of the old attractions though - the Clifton Suspension Bridge. I've seen it in pictures many times before, most memorably when the protest group "Fathers 4 Justice" scaled it in the guise of "Superhero's Fighting For Their Childrens Rights" (I think their children could teach them a thing or two about using an apostrophe).


It really is a mightily impressive bridge, spanning a surprisingly deep gorge, and I'd highly recommend a visit to anyone who's passing Bristol. At sunset it looked just superb.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge, specially for all you bridge fans.

Of course, there was a downside to Bristol, which mostly came in the form of young ladies and gentlemen chugging bottles of neon blue "WKD", whilst simultaneously being sick all over their shoes. Yes, that's right, it's just like Watford, but much, much bigger. There came a point on Saturday evening, at aroundabout midnight, when the delightful cocktail bar we'd ensconsed ourselves in was due to close. We reluctantly finished our caipirinhas and headed out to find an establishment where we could order one or two more drinks before heading home for bed, but we quickly realised our only options were a drum 'n bass club, or Lloyds Bar. We chose Lloyds Bar.

I can only describe the experience as being somewhat akin to attending a cockfight in Victorian London. After spending five minutes trying to find a table which wasn't awash with alcopops and spent cigarettes we sat down, only to be treated to some sort of ritualistic mating display/wrestling match, involving an inebriated man and a young woman in an alarmingly short mini-skirt. As they rolled around on the beer-soaked carpet, presumably in some sort of drunken courstship display, I dearly wished that there was some sort of late-night drinking establishment where one didn't have to watch teenagers rutting whilst listening to "Build Me Up Buttercup" played at 120 decibels.

Oh yes, and we saw a women on her hen night urinate on a busy intersection in the middle of the city centre. My monocle almost popped out with astonishment.

Bristol: Amazing bridges, venerable university, eclectic shopping, urinating women. It really has it all.

We spotted a Hello Kitty guitar in a music shop in Bath - is there no product the shadow of Kitty-chan has yet to fall on?

2 Comments:

Blogger Kaori said...

hey Lewis!!! it's Kaori. So glad and great to see you two love birds again.

great blog.

Keep up your good work.

Email me sometimes when u get a chance. Flick should hav my address. take care.

3:15 pm  
Blogger Shining Love Pig said...

I loves Bristol I does.

4:39 am  

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