I Take a Bath

Hello, Blog! As my time here in London is coming to an end, and I’m in the thick of UCL finals (wish me luck on the four essays I have to submit) I want to write about a couple weekends ago, when I went to Bath, England!

As you may know from previous blogs, fellow Wellesley sib, Adriana, has been studying this semester in the Advanced Studies in England program in Bath. I wanted to see what her life in England has been like and get a quick day away from city life, so I booked a fourteen-pound round trip via FlixBus and waited anxiously for my trip into the countryside.

I woke up on a Saturday at 5:30am and took a bus to the coach station, where I boarded the FlixBus at 7:00am with my backpack, neck pillow, and a dream. The trip went surprisingly smoothly and was probably my favorite coach bus experience I’ve had (I’m looking at you, Greyhound. It should not take 7 hours to get from Boston to New York!). I was in and out of sleep, blasting Phoebe Bridger’s Punisher at max volume in my airpods, as I looked out the window, wistfully, like I was in a music video. I arrived at the Bath Bus Station at about 10:30am, where Adriana was waiting for me.

We walked from the bus station to her townhouse, through the Christmas markets and crowds of visitors flooding the heart of Bath. Once we arrived and I set my stuff down, we made our plan for the day and headed out quickly so as not to waste daylight. We got a quick brunch at a small cafe and got started on our jam-packed day.

Our first tourist stop was the Roman Baths, where Adriana had been working an internship for the semester, so she was the perfect person to go with and prod with all my questions. We walked between the different baths, saw rooms with artifacts and videos projected on the walls, and even enjoyed 4D displays where we could smell things like “smoke and sweat.” We even each drank a small cup of the bath water, which I nearly spat out like a Disney Channel character. It was disgusting and great!

After the Baths, we made our way to the Jane Austen Centre, excited for our tour of Jane Austen’s house, knowing she lived in Bath for eight years. This however, was impossible because the Jane Austen House I booked tickets for was actually in Hampshire, about 70 miles east of where we were. Considering these two very different destinations are both labeled “Jane Austen House” on the map, I blame Apple, and not myself (even though the Jane Austen House website clearly says “Hampshire cottage,” now that I’m looking at it). Rather than buy tickets for the Jane Austen Centre, we went to the Victoria Gallery and saw beautiful paintings, with artists of different backgrounds and time periods. My favorite piece here was “They Would Play For Hours,” by Edward Harris Bequest.

 

We followed the Victoria Gallery with a quick trip to Waitrose to get some snacks before our next stop, the Holburne Museum. Here, we walked through many different rooms with wonderful art, even “Illustrating Austen,” an exhibition with illustrations, sketchbooks, and complete works from Austen’s novels in celebration of the 250th anniversary of her birth. So, we got a taste of Austen after all!

We were all museum’d out, so we went back to Adriana’s townhouse to rest and think about what to do for dinner. On our way back from the museum, we made our way through the Christmas market again and even passed the Pulteney Bridge, which was used as a filming location for the 2012 adaptation of Les Misérables, famously known for its twisted tragedy: Russell Crowe’s singing voice.

Eventually, we landed on Pizza Express (a rite of passage for students in England, I believe) and some roasted veggies from Waitrose. Pizza Express has been on my list of pizza to try in England, so I was glad to try it, but I don’t think it held a candle to the current reigning cheese pie, Franco Manca.

After some food and listening to the Les Mis soundtrack (did anyone else think the lyrics in “Javert’s Suicide” are “I’ll spitty-spitty right back in his face” instead of “I’ll spit his pity…” or was it just me?), we went back out to find a pub as the final event of the night. After visiting a few of Adriana’s favorite spots and not finding a seat, we landed on the Bath Cider House for a cozy mug of mulled cider and a competitive game of foosball, during which I found out that my lackluster athleticism also extends to hand-only games.

We went back to Adriana’s townhouse to wind down and go to bed (on account of my getting 3 hours of sleep the night before and Adriana’s early bedtime), but we ended up staying awake for hours, watching Wellesley Blue Jazz performance videos and several of the old field shows from my time in my high school marching band, which was the perfect opportunity for me to nerd-out about the intricacies of marching band and mourn the Mary Poppins field show as if it were my dead wife. I felt fine holding Adriana hostage to watch these videos, as it was the payback I’ve accumulated over the years of knowing her for the countless videos of Glee and SNL I’ve had to watch with her (ask me to quote the fight scene between Santana and Quinn, because I can, even though I’ve never watched the show. “And TIGHTEN UP YOUR PONY BEFORE YOU GET TO CLASS!).

The next morning, we enjoyed some pastries and pomegranate seeds before she walked me back to the bus station for my journey home, which took about four hours on the FlixBus, a Barebell protein bar, and several more rounds of Punisher.

Ultimately, this was a great, quick trip to Bath and I’m so grateful that Adriana was able to host me and show me around her charming town! Adriana, I’ll see you back at Wellesley this January, and be prepared for a foosball rematch. I’ll be practicing.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next semester, when I’ll recount my final days in London! :,)

Cheers! xx