Episode 44 - Bath/Bristol

I finally make it out of London, and into the West Country!

A wonderful and delightful phrase is “another day, another slay”, which can be used to describe a generally positive and optimistic view toward life. It’s another day, so it is time to crush it and slay.

Carpe diem, if you will.

So now I propose a variant of this fun phrase — another blog, another slay. And would you look at that? It’s another blog, this one for the second leg of the tour around the British Isles!

Wow. Simply wow. The crowd goes wild. The blog readers fall out of their chairs. The momentous moment is finally here!

If this is your first episode and you’re like “what in the world is happening”, start off here!

Apple Store Bath! 🍎

Monday, April 7th, 2025

After getting our delicious meal deal lunches at Tesco’s in London, Joe and I headed over to the Victoria coach station to take the bus to Bristol. We got on uneventfully, I shoved my way-too-big-backpack up above my seat, and we were off!

In my mind, I was going to spend the entire bus ride writing my London blog, but the roads were so bumpy and nauseating that that idea was scrapped immediately. I asked Joe why the bus was so bad, to which he responded that there was a reason the bus was only 10£. lol

On the bus

So instead Joe and I spent the entire time talking about American capitalism (what a great conversation that was!) and reading. Classic bus conversation. Three hours fly by, and in no time at all, we make it to Bristol. Isn’t it cool how I can just magically transport you 3 hours into the future in just one sentence? How chucklesome

Joe had a lot of studying to do¹, so he headed home to drop off his bag and go to the library. I, on the other hand, had no studying to do², so I walked along the river to take the train to Bath.

Ben awaits!

The walk to the train station was actually so lovely — the weather during my stay in England so far has been perfect³, and my walk along the river could not be more pleasant. Great walkway, students and families all around, and clear skies with no clouds in sight.

I made it to Bristol Temple Meads quickly, and went to the ticket counter to get myself a student rail card.

Joe told me about this rail card thing on the bus over from London — apparently if you’re a university student, you get all rail travel 1/3 off! I tried to get such a rail card online, but the registration process only accepted British IDs.

Which is how I found myself at the customer service counter at a train station in Bristol, talking to the friendly staff there to get one. They were super nice and shared my confusion over the rail card application process, describing it as a “one size fits no one” kind of thing⁴. The best part of the entire situation was that my passport picture was too small to scan, so they used my California driver’s license instead.

So now there’s the driver’s license picture of 15-year-old me in the UK rail card database. lol again

Now that I had the rail card, I bought myself a delightfully-1/3-off ticket to Bath, got on the train, and was surprised to get there in literally 15 minutes. Turns out that the two cities are really close to each other, and there was only one other stop before Oldfield Park.

I get off the train, and Ben is just.. standing there. WHAT! I had no idea he was meeting me on the platform, and it was the best surprise ever. I was just a little bit shocked to see him in 3D again because I hadn’t seen him since Paris last April. But just like with Joe and Emma, I got used to him again very quickly.

Ben lives a 2-minute walk from the train station, so I dropped off my bag there, and we went off into Bath for an epic adventure!

Naturally, the first stop on the tour of Bath was to see the Roman Baths⁵. We got there, and they told us that it was 20£ to get in and there was actually no water. Apparently, the baths were being drained for cleaning.

It was clearly not the best deal, so we left immediately. Funny thing was, there was a place where the walls around the baths were quite short, so I just stood on my tippy-toes and was able to see the baths from there.

Good enough for me!

Right next to the baths was the epic abbey⁶ and crucially, an ice cream store. And it was quite momentous, as it’s where another axiomatic difference was quickly discovered.

Ben and I both wanted ice cream, so the very logical conclusion for me was to buy a double scoop, ask for an extra cup (they’re called tubs here lol), and put the top scoop into the other cup ourselves. This way, we’d save ourselves quite a bit of money by buying a double scoop to split between us, rather than two single scoops that cost more together.

Ben thought this was the craziest thing he’d ever heard, but fortunately, I’m stubborn about these kinds of things and won the argument. And the funny thing was, the ice cream store anticipated this kind of genius customer⁷, and was charging for extra cones and cups.

But the joke was on them! Even when buying the extra cup, it was still cheaper to buy a double scoop and split it rather than buying two singles. We did just that⁸ and walked along the river to enjoy our ice creams in delight.

Ben and I proceeded to have an intense philosophical discussion about the morality of splitting a double scoop rather than buying two singles. I really didn’t realize this would be that big of a deal, but it was quite interesting to hear the British perspective on the issue. lol again!

The rest of our stroll around Bath was lovely — we did a little labyrinth with a gorgon at the finish⁹, saw the famous bridge at the city center, walked down a very Versailles-esque street, checked out Apple Store Bath¹⁰, checked out a really nice bookstore¹¹, and got a pint at a local pub.

The weather was so nice that the rooftop canopy on the outdoor seating area was open, which Ben told me he’d never seen happen before¹². We chatted about studying in the UK¹³ and saw two people at a nearby table going on a date.

It looked like it was going well. Good for them!

After pints, we got some barbecue stuff at Sainsbury's, grilled some burgers¹⁴, and chatted for another hour about life. We watched the amazing single-take mountain biking video, how to buy a mountain bike, and discussed how short-form videos destroy our attention spans.

We then sat on the couch watching short-form videos to destroy our attention spans. Nice!

A day around Bath

Tuesday, April 8th

We woke up feeling refreshed and celebrated this refreshment with scrambled eggs. We chilled for a bit, then were off to conquer the day!

We headed toward the botanical gardens (recommended by Joe), discussing AI and human agency along the way. Classic topic for a morning discussion.

And as we crossed the river, we saw the cutest thing ever — two people feeding dozens of swans on the riverbank. Naturally, we had to investigate and learned that the two folks were a son and his mom, both elderly. We (translation: I) asked for some of the seeds, and fed the swans, too. What a magnificent start!

At the botanical garden, we got some coffee¹⁵, checked out a really cool carved tree, saw some folks completing a Geocaching Adventure Lab¹⁶, and headed over to the Great Dell.

I had no idea what a dell was, nor what made it so great. I asked a random gentleman walking his dog if he knew, and luckily for us, he did! Turns out a dell is any large depression in the ground with trees, and indeed, there was a large depression in the ground, and many trees to boot.

Nice!

Ben and I had a great time in the Great Dell, and even saw some redwood trees imported from California (was not expecting that, let me tell you!), monkey puzzle trees (I love these), and some benches that would make a great spot for a date.

Jolie, if Ben takes you to the Great Dell, you have me to thank!

We also saw some statues, including a monument to Shakespeare that looked really old. I have to say, the fact that the Romans predicted Shakespeare by like a thousand years is crazy to me. Good job Romans!

After a great time at the botanical garden, we started heading back to Ben’s house, with a little detour to see the Great Crescent along the way¹⁷. We made it back to Ben’s, and it was soon time to head back to Bristol.

A botanically delightful time

My initial plan was to run there along the scenic River Avon Trail, but I was still a little cooked from the Southampton Marathon two days prior and decided to scrap that idea. Fortunately, Ben’s flatmate¹⁸ had a bike in the corner, and I was allowed to borrow it to go on a nice ride around Bath (thanks, Will!).

And it was stunning! Besides biking through the longest cycling tunnel in the world¹⁹, I rode all along the gorgeous Avon Canal and saw a bunch of narrow boats. They’re these very skinny and long²⁰ boats that are used for housing and transportation, and they were going all up and down the canal. So so pretty.

I made it back to Ben’s after an hour, and we were on the train to Bristol 10 minutes later. We took the bus across town and walked up the hill to the university, and there was Joe! He and Lara were chilling with a few friends outside the main library, so of course we joined them and enjoyed the meal deals we bought on the way. That was my first time meeting Lila and Jolie (hi!!!!), my first new British friends of the trip!

After a great 30 minutes, we headed inside the very beautiful library to do some work — I dropped off my things with Joe, and headed upstairs to write the London blog²¹. Eventually, we needed to take a break, so Joe and I headed outside for a lovely walk around the university. Joe showed me all the highlights (most importantly the ass²² building), and the views of Bristol of simply stunning.

I have to say, I’ve really been enjoying Bristol so far — it strikes a really nice balance of being quaint and small, but also hustling and bustling. It’s the best student city I’ve ever been to, that’s for sure. Even better than SLO!

Back at the library, I was feeling a rush of writing adrenaline after talking to Joe about my axioms of existence theory, so I scrapped the London blog and wrote that instead. I was feeling super locked in, so it was finished within an hour and proofread by Lila. I chilled for a bit after that, and then the entire group packed up our things for dinner.

And we trekked across Bristol!

Ben, Joe, Lila, Jolie, Lara, and I walked all the way to Joe’s (somehow we all made it there together, wow), got some ingredients at the Co-op downstairs, and made a delicious pesto pasta²³. It was such a lovely dinner, full of recounting tales of our Parisian adventures, especially the night of Ben’s birthday last year. That was wild.

With dinner completed, it was time for the British activity of choice — pints. I was super tired, but you’re only ever in Bristol your first time once, so I got my shit together, rallied, and made it out the door with Joe.

Camera eats first

And my oh my, was it a great time! The Rocktopus²⁴ was a big hit, Santa even more so (iykyk²⁵). I talked to Lila a bunch about writing (sorry that I talked your ear off), and we shared some pretty hilarious jokes. The best one from Iona, of course: “Where does a mansplainer get his water from?” From the well, actually.

And I can’t forget to mention that Arsenal was playing Real Madrid in the Champions League that night, and Declan Rice scored two of the most perfect free kicks of all time. Being in a British bar for a live Champions League game with a UK team playing was an unforgettable experience, let me tell you!

Our group eventually dissolved our separate ways, with our branch heading back to Joe’s. The parting joke I said to Jolie was one of my favorite sentences of all time, but there’s no way I’m ever putting that in writing.

What a night!

Wednesday, April 9th

Wednesday was the perfect example of another day, another slay.

I woke up a bit later than Joe, and spent the morning blasting music in his apartment (they have a really nice speaker). Joe and Iona had already headed off, and I eventually left the apartment to check out the nearby Clifton Suspension Bridge.

It’s really cool, and quite famous, too — it was a huge engineering accomplishment when it was first built, and the Golden Gate Bridge’s design was actually modeled off Clifton’s. I walked down the cliffside to the road underneath, walked under the bridge along the river²⁶, hiked back up the cliff, and appreciated the amazing views from the observatory overlooking the gorge. It was so beautiful!

After a bit, I went down to the bridge itself to walk across and realized that it was shaking. I later learned that the bridge was designed to shake on purpose since that’s a better way to deal with wind and vibrations than being fully immobile. The girl behind me didn’t realize this, however, and was complaining to her mom the entire walk across that she was going to die. I barely was able to hold in my laughter.

The bridge explored, I walked back to the library to rejoin the group of academics (Joe, Ben, Jolie, Lila) already waiting for me outside. We chatted for a bit, headed inside the library, and tried to finish up the London blog. I failed.

Eventually, I went outside to get Gregg’s for lunch with Joe and Ben²⁷, ate outside of the grass (Joe really likes this very specific patch of grass outside the library for some reason), and accepted the fact that I wouldn’t be doing any more blogging that afternoon. I spent the rest of the day reading my book.

Around 5, the group reassembled for the much-anticipated climax of the day — Wing Wednesday! The pub near campus has a deal where every Wednesday, each chicken wing is just 40P²⁸, and the record was eating 40 wings and drinking 2 pints in 90 minutes.

Clearly, there was only one thing left for me to do — destroy the record, and bring the friend group glory back to America. I even wore my USA T-shirt for the big event!

And after I was done with it, the record was history. I didn’t even notice the first 20 wings, they were just a snack to me. By 30 I was full, by 35 I was struggling, but I rallied and made it to 45.

And so I felt the glory for about 15 minutes until another guy who showed up for Wing Wednesday ate 46. Well done! The 15 minutes of glory was great while it lasted.

Feeling proud (and bloated), Joe and I walked back to his apartment to relax for the rest of the evening. We put on Beautiful Escape, our favorite song, and sang the whole thing together. Honestly, it was just so magical and reminded me of being in Paris with him so much. I love that song. And I love Joe.

Iona eventually came back from uni, poured herself a glass of wine immediately, and together we three decided to have a brain rot evening and watched No Hard Feelings on Netflix. Honestly, it was really good. Highly recommend!

Thursday, April 10th

Joe and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 8 for a planned 8:30 am with Lila. Surprisingly, we made it out on time²⁹, and on the way to Lila’s, we saw a man pissing against the side of his tow truck in the middle of the alleyway. I thought that was fucking crazy, but Joe was like, “he was just having a little wee”. Bruh

Culture shock, I guess.

The run with Lila was super nice, and I really enjoyed the route through the Downs — it’s a huge grass park overlooking Bristol, with great views of the valley and Clifton Gorge. We cruised an easy 3.5 miles, during which I got to hype up California and its public university system. I have to say, I always do get excited talking about California with non-Americans.

Running through the Downs

After the run, Joe and I headed to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast — I got a beloved Americano³⁰ and Joe a white latte³¹. I wanted to get a pain au chocolat as well, but was confused by the fact that all the pastries contained “GIDIE”.

I had no idea what a gidie was nor why the pastries all contained it, but was then told by the barista that the “I’s” in GIDIE were actually “/’s”, and it wasn’t GIDIE, but G/D/E — gluten, dairy, eggs.

Bruh moment. Joe laughed, as did the random other dude in the cafe. On the bright side, the pain au chocolat was delicious!

Joe and I headed back to his apartment, got ready, and made our way back to the main library. I really needed to lock in for the London blog, but fortunately found myself a council chamber room (of course) and was able to really focus in there.

I finally finished it up³², had a nice pasta lunch with everyone outside (on the same patch of grass, of course), and went to get a cheap coffee at Pret³³. I read a cool magazine I found in the library³⁴, called Brooke, and walked across the street to visit the Bristol Art Gallery.

By this point, it was time for me to go back to the library, grab my things, and start heading to the airport to fly to Dublin. I said bye to Jolie and Lila ☹️ (it was so nice meeting y’all!), and walked out with Joe and Ben. We made it up the nearby hillside overlooking Bristol, where we got ice cream, enjoyed the view³⁵, and ascended a narrow staircase to the top of the nearby tower (of course). The views there were beautiful, and the perfect end to my three days in the West Country.

I said bye to Lara, Joe, and Ben ☹️, got on the bus, and made it to the Bristol airport without any trouble. It’s off to Dublin for me — Ireland awaits! 🇮🇪

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Some major axiomatic differences:

• Ice cream stores charge for extra cups and cones in an effort to combat customers splitting double (or even triple) scoops between themselves. Rest assured though, dear reader, that that was still no match for me!

• Besides the ice cream, I really haven’t noticed too many more axiomatic differences these last few days. There have been culture shocks, yes, but I think I’ve already noticed all the earth-shatteringly crazy new axioms. It’s pretty crazy how quickly one adjusts to a new place, that’s for sure. America already seems so far away

Media appendix:

1. British students all need to write a thesis for their bachelor’s degree. I didn’t write one. But then again, I’m not British

2. Wow, being a student myself already feels like such a long time ago!

3. I’ve been repeatedly told that this weather is, in fact, an extraordinary anomaly and to not get used to it. Maybe I just brought sunny weather from California?

4. What a great quote! I’m 100% stealing that

5. Bath is named after, you guessed it, the Roman Baths. The Romans created the city long ago because there were some natural hot springs there, and built a city around them. Now, there’s an entire city there and a university, where Ben studies

6. Where Ben’s graduation is!

7. As you can tell, I’m really hyping myself up here

8. Thanks Ben for treating me!

9. Ben had never done the labyrinth before but still completed it well before I did

10. No trip to a city that has an Apple Store would be complete without visiting said store!

11. There was a really cool photography book there about Brazilian gold mining called “Gold”. What a creative name

12. Ben’s dad joked with him that since the weather was so nice, I’d say that I wanted to move here. And that’s what I said verbatim

13. Apparently, you can’t switch your major at a UK school! If you want to switch your course, you have to completely restart the degree program and effectively abandon your graduating class. This was particularly crazy to me, especially considering that the average UCLA student switches their major 3 times

14. Ben did this while I sat on the couch and looked pretty

15. Again, Ben treated me 🤭

16. I can recognize the sound of a completed Adventure Lab stage anywhere

17. I must say that I’m much less impressed by street crescents now that I’ve been in the UK for a week

18. Look at me using British lingo!

19. Again, not expecting these random side quests in Bath but they just seem to happen. The tunnel was an old train tunnel that carried mined Bath Stone (used for buildings all around England) down to the river, and was reconverted into a regional train after the train line closed down

20. Please don’t laugh at that description, I know I did

21. Everyone else was doing actual schoolwork, like writing their theses. I wonder if there are 95 of them? Martin Luther was a busy, busy man it seems

22. Arts and social sciences, of course

23. Again being generous here by saying that “we” cooked it, I was sat on the couch looking pretty the entire time

24. One of my random hobbies the last few months has been 3D-printing the head of Dwayne Johnson with 8 tentacles

25. Let’s just say that writing smut may potentially be very profitable for me

26. Since the River Avon is so close to the ocean, its level is quite affected by the tides and was very low when I was there

27. Ben was like “You have to get the pork sausage roll, they’re so good”, but it was nothing to write home about in my opinion

28. P = pence, the British pound equivalent of cents

29. I was surprised by the fact that I was on time — Joe’s always punctual

30. In an effort to hide my obvious Americanness, I order a “black coffee”, and they always respond with “Oh, an Americano?” 🙃

31. This is British for what an American would call a dirty latte — a latte with an extra shot of espresso

32. Thank goodness, it takes way longer to write these than you’d think

33. They’re only 49P if you bring your own cup; I borrowed Joe’s :)

34. There was a really interesting article about Faker, a South Korean guy who’s the best League of Legends player

35. Ben got me the ice cream, he’s really been treating me this trip!