Bath!

Stop 2: Bath! 

This was my most favourite city of the 3 :)

Fun Fact: The whole city of Bath is a UNESCO heritage site and Bath is located in a valley which explains how you can see past all the buildings and houses at the top of the inclined roads to the forested areas at the outskirts of the city, at almost every position you stand at in the city centre!

After an 20 minute train ride from Bristol, we arrived at Bath! We checked into YMCA hostel and headed straight for lunch as we were starving. This hostel was so much better than the previous as it was cleaner and their breakfast spread had much more variety! They even had soy milk:) We went to this little cafe called the Wild Food Cafe where I had muesli with orange juice topped with fruit, granola and coconut shreds - it was really yummy! 

What I didn't really like about this cafe was that they literally sold 'Wild' food cos they had rabbit pie...

Anyway, I absolutely love the architecture in Bath! The light/faded brown tones to the buildings just made the whole city look so bright and cheerful and the sunlight that reflected off it just made everything so pretty 

After lunch, we wanted to visit the Roman Baths, but ended up going for a free 2 hour walking tour of the city! It was an impromptu decision but was such a good one because we would never have known about the history of bath, or even bothered to find out about it, if it weren't for the tour! The tour guide was a lovely old man who cracked jokes every now and then whilst narrating the history of Bath 

Much of the architecture in Bath was inspired by John Wood who's goal was to make Bath a very beautiful city with uniformed housing. His emphasis was on the appearance of the housing areas, making them look all pristine and identical but had totally neglected/ignored what the back of the housing estates looked like. So, whilst the front of the housing areas were beautifully in sync, we took a trip to the back area of the housing estates and each house was so different and not as well maintained, the contrast was really big. It was quite funny when the tour guide made a joke that "In the city of Bath, it's what's on the outside that counts rather than the inside", contrary to popular belief

We then stopped by the Royal Crescent! 

( we came back to take pictures after the tour ended )

The Royal Crescent, described as the finest in Europe, was inspired by Georgian architecture and consists of a sweeping arc of 30 houses, originally built to provide luxury accommodation for the aristocratic visitors who came to take the 'magical' waters from the bath and enjoy the social season. It now consists of a luxury hotel, a Georgian museum and private housing.

I also got a little excited when I figured out that the snapchat filter for Bath was The Royal Crescent!

We took photos till the sun started to set and then headed out for dinner! 

We had dinner at Thai By the Weir, and I had a green vegetable curry and it was seriously amazing!! It was comparable to actual Thai food standards which is so rare in the UK

The next morning, we headed to Bathwick Hills for a skyline walk of Bath! The hills were stunning and I was belting out songs from the Sound of Music along the way because the scenery made it very apt (hope everyone on snapchat enjoyed my lovely singing - I hit all my notes)

I sang 'Climb Every Mountain' here - how could I have not?!

Everything was fun and laughter until the point where google maps brought us through the muddy woods and landed us in someone's backyard - yes I know, weird

We spent about 30 minutes in the woods just alone with nature and singing "Out of the Woods" before we thought we had finally made it out when the maps led us to a path towards a residential area. But no, this residential area that we landed ourselves into was a person's backyard and he was just happily gardening before the 3 of us had to peer over the ledge to ask permission if we could get out from his front gate hahahah 

Honestly, it was so hilarious and he must be so confused of how 3 Asian girls just somehow landed up in his house? But thankfully he was nice and not aggressive at all in demanding we leave immediately and just told us that we could leave from the front gate which was not locked 

After finally reaching civilization, we walked in the wrong direction towards the University of Bath and then we retraced our steps and headed back to the city centre

We found ourselves back at the same location we came from and took the opportunity to take photos since the weather and the scenery was perfect

We also played fetch with a dog named Caspar for a good 20 minutes and we chatted with its owner who decided to escape to Bath to settle down after spending most of his life living in busy busy London

With our freezing hands, we decided to stop by the Green Rocket Cafe, which was a vegetarian and vegan friendly cafe run by Vegans :) I had a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake and Tessa had a hot chocolate! it was sooooooo yummy

After defrosting for a bit in the cafe, we headed out to see the Royal Baths! This is the Bath Abbey which is a famous church in Bath

Tada!! This is the Roman Baths! We tried drinking the water and it tasted like rusted metal - bleghhh

After the baths, we sat down on benches that were surrounding a square area outside the Bath Abbey. There was a man playing the piano in the middle of the square and he was playing from before we went to the Royal Baths - meaning a really long time, probably more than 3 hours

We managed to just listen to 2 of his songs 'Let It Be' by the Beetles and 'Your Song' by Elton John before he stopped playing for the day 

I then went up to him and asked how much his CDs were and decided to purchase one at £7 because I really did enjoy his music and it really must be so hard making a living out of playing music in public :( I hope I made his day!! 

We couldn't decide on a place for dinner and were quite lazy to search for a new restaurant, so we headed back to the same Thai restaurant and I ordered the same thing and we were served by the same guy hahahah. We chatted a little with him and we asked if he could bring his business to Edinburgh, promising that we would ask all our friends to come to his restaurant. When he was clearing our dishes I also just cheekily asked if I could have more curry and he just laughed ahhaah 

In the end, he did not charge us for service charge which was so sweet of him! Good things do come out of being nice and friendly to others ;) 

The next morning, we packed and checked out and went to Sally Lunn's Historic House (it is the oldest house in Bath!) to have their famous sweet buns - which was a complete let down 

I had one with jam while Tessa and Beverly shared a cinnamon butter one and it really just tasted like regular bread? I feel like I could just buy this at any regular bakery in Singapore and it cost £3.50...

Oh wells, you'd only know when you try it!

We then headed to the train station to await our train to the next stop - Brighton!

Bristol

Went on a triple B trip (hahaha...) to Bristol, Bath and Brighton with Beverly and Tessa during Innovative Learning week aka a week off school to take different courses that the uni organizes but everyone really just travels

First stop: Bristol

Day 1 of Bristol was sad and gloomy and our faces clearly and very accurately depicted how we felt with such horrible weather :( It was raining almost the entire afternoon and the weather just made Bristol 'not pretty'

After a 6 hour train ride from Edinburgh and getting checked in to our hostel (which I thought was filthy and I pride myself for surviving 2 nights of sleep here), we walked around St Nicholas Market which sold so much yummy food - I bought a heart-shaped cookie hehe, and other home-made goods.

 Couldn't really decide on what to eat so we decided to go to a cafe for lunch instead. However, we had a really disappointing lunch at a cafe called BaoWow which had great reviews but I guess British standards of Asian food is really just not the same! I had this Kimchi bun where 2 of it cost £6.50 - so not worth it for that real generous portion of fillings as you can see

After lunch we just walked around the harbor area, entered 2 museums, 1 of which I really enjoyed as it showed clips of nature as one would see on National Geographic and I felt a little emotional inside as I watched the seals swimming in pairs, a lonesome whale just minding its own business, flowers basking in the sunshine, lightning seemingly tearing up the sky and shots of amazing landscapes - nature is seriously just so so magnificent and beautiful

After that, we headed to another museum called the M shed, a museum all about Bristol. Sadly, it did not really interest us much and we left after 10 minutes.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Three Brothers Burger and the atmosphere here was so nice and chill, I loved it! Half of the restaurant was on a boat as well :) 

I had a portobello mushroom burger which was really quite good but I just wished it came with fries or a small salad at the side rather than just a burger on a plate? Looks rather pathetic doesn't it? 

Day 2 of Bristol was so much better! Great weather made all the difference! 

We went to Brandon Hill that morning which was a beautiful park!

The flowers reminded me of cherry blossoms in Japan! 

I really loved the houses here

 

After Brandon Hill, we made our way to the Clifton Suspension Bridge! Bridges really amaze me - I don't get how something so heavy can stay up without any support in the middle?! Thank you to all the architects, scientists and construction workers out there!! 

We stopped for lunch on a bench facing the bridge where you had the view of the entire suspension bridge! The three of us had bought a meal deal for lunch from Sainsbury's in the morning but we also stopped for hot chocolate after because we were freezing and who doesn't love a hot chocolate!

After the bridge, we walked around Clifton village for about an hour and headed back to the city centre.  The village was littered with small and unique local shops and I loved the whole vibe there:) 

This was my favourite shop! If only I had the money, I would've bought so many magazines! It had the vibes of Typo in Singapore but 10 times better

Back in the city centre, we headed to Stokes Croft, an area famous for their street art and some of Banksy's as well! This one above was my favourite :) 

After a long day of walking (16.62km according to iPhone's health app), we settled dinner at Wagamamas:) I had a green curry with vegetables and tofu and enjoyed every bit of it! I literally drank every drop of soup that I could possibly get hold of!

We then retired for the night and went back to the hostel at around 7pm to pack our bags and to just chill since it got so dark and cold quite early into the night

The next morning, we checked out of the hostel and lugged our bags for what felt like ages, all the way to Arnos Vale cemetery! Not that I've been to many, but it was the prettiest cemetery that I've seen - there was so much greenery and the tombstones were really well taken care of with colourful flowers adorning them :') 

Then we got on the train to Bath! (next post)

Whosanes in Edinburrahhh

Nadira came to visit!! 

(she's my cousin on my dad's side of the family, she studies in UWC in Maastricht, we're the same age and we don't meet up often but when we do, it's like as if nothing had changed)

I got to Waverly Bridge bus stop to pick Nadira up at 1pm on Sunday, hugged and squealed and just couldn't believe that this trip was happening, went to Sainsbury's to get some yummy cereal and milk and then headed to Kalpna for lunch! It was an Indian vegetarian restaurant and we shared garlic naan, lentil dahl, an aubergine dish and basmati rice - yumyumyum 

After settling down, we decided to head up Arthur's seat which was a little crazy of us seeing that the winds were insanely strong but I'm glad we went up anyway and we actually did quite well climbing quite a distance up the hill!

Then we decided to have a chill night in since we were still a little full from lunch but we got hungry a few hours later and had cereal for dinner cos why not! 

I decided to ditch a whole day's worth of lectures (ok there were only 3 so no biggie) so that we could hang out together! I have no idea why I didn't think of this before but I'm glad I did - better late than never!! And so first stop of touristy things to do that day was to visit Holyrood Palace ! 

Turns out you had to pay to get in the palace so we just wandered around the area :)

Stop 2 was Edinburgh Castle!

Nawww, love these photos of my cuz :')

Next, we headed to Dunbar's close garden which is apparently a hidden gem of Edinburgh! It was just a tiny garden which was still rather pretty but I'm sure it'd more beautiful in the summer

(We tried to laugh naturally but I just couldn't hahahahaha)

Stop 4: Grassmarket! There was nothing much going on cos the actual market is only open on Saturdays, but I just like the whole feel of this area plus there are so many little local shops here that sell the cutest things!

After the Grassmarket, we headed to the Museum of Childhood but we left after 10 minutes because we couldn't really relate to the toys since it was a Scottish childhood kind of thing, and so we went to the National Museum for a bit. On the way to the museum, we were just asking each other what our favourite cuisine of food was and Nadira chose Thai whilst I chose Indian (its not my absolute favourite but I do love Indian food) and 10 minutes later, we came across a sign that read " Eat all you want Thai and Indian buffet for £7.95 " !! What were the chances that we would chance upon a restaurant like that! So naturally, we went for it and the buffet was really worth it :) We also managed to FaceTime our parents there which was nice! 

Last stop was Carlton Hill! I've only been here once in the day when it was nice and sunny, but coming here at night was totally different yet equally magnificent, if not more magnificent! With the city lights and the hint of sunset on the other end of the city, it was so beautiful :')

We then headed back and had a little pamper session! We just talked and talked and talked and snuggled up in bed together (we were sharing a single bed, that was fun hahahah) and fell asleep at about 2 in the morning

The next morning, we got up at 7:30 and then had breakfast and got to the bus stop :(

From the sneaky little gifts here and there, to realizing how similar we both are in terms of personality and our views, to conversations that flowed so smoothly, I am so so so thankful for these 2 precious days that I had with Nadira. She brought up the fact that we live such privileged lives and that we should never forget that and I couldn't agree more!

I really hope my exam schedule fits such that I can fly down for her graduation in May but till then, see you soon Nadira, I love you <3