Hello everyone!
I hope you had a lovely Reading Week and are settling well back at University. In regards to Reading Week, I decided to take my own advice and visit a different city: Bristol.
Let me tell you I fell in love with it. Bristol is such an artsy city, so diverse and I loved its vibe. It is very different from Birmingham so if you’re looking to visit a new place I would totally recommend Bristol. There’s just one thing I hated: the hills! I’m used to walking everywhere in Birmingham since it’s a ‘flat’ city, but I’ve got to admit that in Bristol I did call an Uber once or twice.
Anyway, what’s important is that Bristol is the perfect city for students to visit, not only because it’s cool, but also has lots of free things to do. I went for just a day and felt it was not enough to see everything!
Castle Park: This is a peaceful area overlooking the river where you can sit and enjoy the view or just walk around.
Wander through the streets: Bristol is beautiful and full of surprises, so if you wander through its streets you will find pretty buildings like these:
Harbourside: The harbourside is one of Bristol’s unique selling points, and it’s easy to understand why. The peace that the river transmits; the boats passing by; the coloured houses in the background; and lots of cute dogs around! Strolling around the harbourside is completely worth it. My suggestion would be to rent a bike and actually discover the city like that (this would be a great initiative to bring to Birmingham). YoBike has bikes all over the city and it’s only £1 per hour (I promise this is the only paid thing I will talk about).
Clifton Suspension Bridge + Clifton Village: The Clifton Suspension Bridge is THE symbol of Bristol – if you go up to the Observatory you’ll see the magnificent views of the bridge, the river, the cliffs and the city beyond.
Just a few minutes away is Clifton Village- a colourful town full of indie shops, quirky cafes and beautiful architecture.
Stokes Croft: You probably know by now that the amazing Banksy is originally from Bristol, and in Stokes Croft, there are some originals from him (or her) on the street walls. Stokes Croft is the creative quarter of Bristol and is very much worth it to stroll around and check the street art as well as the independent shops.
Around and about Christmas Steps: I’ll be honest, after Stokes Croft the idea was to visit the Cathedral, but our legs and lungs were too tired so we decided to go down Christmas Steps and wander around there. We weren’t sure where we were, but we didn’t care because we loved it.
Unfortunately, we underestimated Bristol and thought we could visit the city just for a day- and we were obviously very wrong. There are many other free things to do and see around Bristol, and I’ll definitely come back to visit and hopefully write about it. But in the meantime, I’ll write the names down so that if you visit Bristol with time you can go there.
- M Shed
- Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
- Cabot Tower
- Park Street
- Wills Memorial Building
- Bristol Cathedral
If you do visit or have ever visited, tell me about your experience in the comments and let me know new places that I should definitely visit.
Beijinho
Maria