baths

Day trip to Bath today.

Had very high expectations for the town, but was disappointed due to various reasons. There was a redeeming factor though!

A view of the original Roman bath:

The museum surrounding the bath is very informative (sometimes I think too much so), which resulted in too much spent there. Definitely worth the ticket price though! Didn't get to see the royal crescent, nor walk around town much. The weather was uncooperative anyways, drizzled throughout the day.

The Pulteney Bridge is a lot smaller than I expected, again can't compare to the Rialto in Venice. There were some interesting shops there though! One sells antique maps (so cool! and so expensive), while another is a design boutique.

It is in that boutique that I discovered Cereal magazine. I was hesitant to purchase it on the spot due to its heft. It might as well be a book (intentional design), which is not something I wanted to carry around for the rest of the day. However, I very much regret it now. It is gorgeous and I love the concept behind it. Been searching stockists for a good hour when I got back this evening. So many shops are in Bristol! Why did I not go to Bristol! (because of laziness sigh).

So now I obsess over the blog and spend $25 to ship it to Canada. Really want to read about pepper in volume 2, but that's sold out everywhere.

Anyways, Bath.
Another attraction is the Sally Lunn's House, which serves up it's famous Bath Buns. I also had very high expectations of this place, and unfortunately the experience was quite terrible.

Clockwise: strawberry cream and meringue, lemon curd, chocolate spread.
They were decent, toppings were good, but buns did not feel freshly baked (my assumption since they arrived within minutes of ordering). The texture of the buns are overhyped too.

The service, on the other hand, is at best described as they don't care that we're there at all. When we first entered the queue, I inquired about the wait time. The hostess replied with almost a hostile attitude informing me that it will be 15mins and if I want to wait or not. Okay hostile is exaggerating it a bit, but it didn't sound like she wanted us to become customers at all.
Furthermore, we brought our own tubs of yogurt to eat, which I understand is not welcomed in restaurants. However, they could have easily accommodated that but chose not to. My friend asked for a teaspoon, was denied and specifically told that "no we don't give out spoons for your yogurt". A friendly lady at the table next to us offered her unused spoon, which was a nice gesture. Additionally, at the end of our meal, while our waiter was clearing the table, he told us to "take the yogurt containers with you". So the restaurant can't spare a single spoon nor have room in their trash bins? Is 3 yogurts containers such a huge burden? Yeah that sucked and put the rest of the day in a foul mood.

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So to end this post on a positive note, I've been so spoiled by the sunsets.


Also unrelated: another fantastic commencement address.