Anniversary Weekend- Bath and Southend

For our 1 year anniversary, Matt surprised me with a trip to the city of Bath!!! We took a train to Bath on Thursday, the 23rd of October after our classes and then spent all of Friday the 24th exploring the city! First, we woke up really early and walked to the Royal Crescent, which is one of Bath's famous sights. We walked around that crescent and then decided to hike up a hill to see more crescents (Bath is famous for them!). The others weren't nearly as impressive though.



We went back to our hotel, which was right in town and perfect walking distance from the majority of sights! After checking out, we walked to a near YMCA to stow our backpacks away in a locker we rented for the day.
Then, we walked toward the city's center, which is where Bath Abbey is (pictured below).


We decided to hike up to Prior Park, which overlooks Bath. The woman at the entrance to the park convinced me and Matt to buy National Trust Memberships (which were then on sale!), which means that we can now get into any National Trust site for free!! :-) As a student, I really like the word free! With our memberships, we got a huge pack full of brochures and a book detailing every National Trust location in the UK- there are a lot! Considering how much it costs to get in these places, the membership is so, completely worth it!!


The park was absolutely beautiful! Below, I am standing in front of The Palladian Bridge, which is one of only 4 in the world.






We headed back into the historically rich city again and the photograph below shows us in front of the 18th century Pulteney Bridge, another famous sight of Bath. (You can see the National Trust packets that I'm holding as well!)Because the city is so large and there's so much to see, we then took a City Bus Tour, which takes you around all the famous areas in Bath.




After the bus tour, we bought a "Sally Lunn Bun", which originated in Bath. The house shown here is the oldest house in Bath. We ate the bun with strawberry jam and to be honest, it wasn't anything special :/

Afterwards, we went inside Bath Abbey, which was really different than anything I had seen before. The floors and walls were covered in large stones with people's names and life stories on them. I then found out that those people's bodies are in the walls and floors of the Abbey.





The Roman Baths from the outside. We didn't get a change to go inside, as they closed early on for a wedding. So at the end of our long day we went to a pub for a nice dinner and dessert! :-) Bath Abbey was lit up when we finished our meal- and looked very similar to Parliament back in London!

The second part of the weekend was a trip to Southend, which is where Matt's Aunt and Uncle who just had a baby live! Southend is very similar to Santa Cruz back in California. There's what I would call a Beach Boardwalk- rides and arcades all along the sea front! After getting off the train, Matt and I headed past the shopping center and to the sea. We walked down the longest pleasure pier in the world!! For people who didn't want to walk, there was a train that went from the beach to the end of the pier. Of course, Matt and I walked both ways- even though it was a viciously windy day!! There were a few shops at the end of the pier, but most of them had been burned down in a recent fire.
After walking back to the shore, we went to Matt's Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner and to watch the football (soccer for us American folk)!
It was truly a wonderful weekend and my favorite of my time abroad! :-)xxxx