So yes, I decided to do the day trip to Bath offered subsidized by LSE. I didn't realize it was a two and half-hour drive to Bath from London on the coach. (Britishism!!!) It's actually pretty close to Bristol (15 minutes away), so yeah this was a hike to get there. I had to wake up at 7:20 to get there for our departure. I think that is the earliest I have woken up at LSE and at college ever; also the earliest since Construction this summer (8AM start time for work is not fun...) Anyway! So I get to the International Student House first in the morning which is a ways away by Regent's Park. So I get there and everyone speaks German and everyone is from Westminster University. Guess I'm going it alone this time.
We get on the coach and leave the city on the highway and this is where it gets odd. For the whole trip, everything was blanketed in fog. I've seen thicker fog, but this fog continued on forever and ever and ever. Damn, are the stereotypes correct! So then within a little while of leaving the city limits and being in the English farmland (Jersey cows and sheep everywhere), everyone on the bus simultaneously passes out and goes to sleep. 2 hours later on the outskirts we wake up and our tour guide gives us his spiel.
We walked around town for a bit, seeing the sites and went to the Roman Baths. The water is 46.6 degrees Celsius and this is the only hot natural spring in Britain; also the water of Bath
supposedly has therapeutic powers. The Roman architecture and engineering was impressive as usual. Most of the town is made from this golden limestone called Bath Stone. It's very pretty and gives the impression of Imperial grandeur, Eastern European cities, and Italy. A zoning board keeps strict control over making sure everything is aesthetically pleasing and historically accurate looking.Finally I got the Fall colours I was looking for. Especially before the fog burnt off in the midday sun, everything seemed perfectly autumnal. All surrounded by foliage and Bath Stone architecture, I walked around watching street performers play Vivaldi's Four Seasons on xylophones, a military ceremony (in preparation for Armistice Day perhaps?), and two men with
torches attempting to extinguish the flame with their groins. Yes you read right: their groins. then I walked around looking at shops and buildings and then asked myself "What does Bath actually do as an industry?" and then I realized it relies on tourism and rich city-goers who own second houses for 700,000 quid.Quaint indeed.
So we boarded the bus and drove back to London. Obligatorily everyone again passed out in their seats and fell asleep. Little did we realize what would later wake us up as we neared London...
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Ah yes the 5th of November! Guy Fawkes Day! "That V guy blows up that clock-tower-thingy!" (you know who you are! :-P) So little did I know that over here they actually celebrate that Catholic traitor's attempt to blow up the buildings of Parliament. And they celebrate with a shitload of fireworks. Now to warn you first, they are not as impressive visually as the United States' for the 4th of July, however what they lack in size and scale they make up for in random-ass chaos, pandemonium, and ubiquity. Also adding to the chaos was the fact, since November 5th is a weekday, they decided to have the fireworks over the weekend.
But it seems like every municipality and borough decided to have their own little fireworks show and have it whenever the hell they wanted. So you would be walking or driving around and randomly all around you, there would be fireworks. And the town budgets were so small and the shows seemed so short, you couldn't tell which were legit shows and which were drunk guys firing god-knows what off their back porches. Explosions everywhere for two nights straight. It even kept you on your toes: the explosions would stop long enough that you though the shows were over and you lost your guard and then BOOOM! explosion again. It felt like someone was shelling my dorm Saturday night and that mortar fire was raining down around me. I'm in London, not Baghdad right? Also how were these people managing to do so many randomly in the city? Who knows...
So that was my fun weekend (note: my put photos in back posts as they are amusing me)
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