The England Vacation Day 2: The City of Bath

Day 2 started off pretty well, with a delicious breakfast at a B&B in Bath. Plenty of toast, eggs, fried ham, cereal, etc. People that say all English food is crap aren't always correct. Most of it is, but this meal certainly was not. Anyway, I was ready to go, despite the jet lag still having an effect on me. Jet lag is an odd thing. Even though you've had a full-night's sleep, you are liable to fall asleep at any point if you're sufficiently comfortable. Needless to say, it was best that I not drive anywhere.

Our first stop was the Roman Baths. Luckily, we were within walking distance of the baths, so I'd be able to make it without falling asleep. Bath feels very old and European. It seemed as if all of the buildings were about three stories tall, so this kind of makes every street feel like an alley. Not alley in a bad "I'm going to get jumped and beaten" way, mind you. Walking around Bath makes you feel more enclosed than walking around in most cities. It did keep the foot traffic and the vehicle traffic separated quite well -- another plus.



The Roman Baths are pretty interesting. They were discovered originally by the Celts and then taken over by the Romans (obviously.) They used to be quite a sacred place. The water is warm year-round, due to gases released from deep within the earth, which must have freaked out the primitives quite a bit. Once the Romans were repelled, the temple fell into disrepair and wasn't unearthed until the 18th Century. It's amazing how smart the Romans were, really. All sorts of stuff that they constructed is still there, and still works.



These are some of the things that most interested me inside. They are ancient curses, carved into pieces of metal and thrown into the well to appeal to the gods or goddesses. The people who threw them into the sacred spring seem to have been pretty pissed off. Imagine if that was the only trace of you left on this earth. This got me a little worried about the fact that this was the last post I made before I left for England. With my luck, in 1,000 years, when someone is browsing the mind-beam-internet-or-whatever thing of the future, that will be the only post remaining of this little site. Grobnak43 or whatever his name is in the year 3005 will be talking about how petty and stupid people in the early 21st century must have been after reading that. Sorry for letting you all down in advance. I'd much rather he read this or this, but I guess you play the cards you're dealt, huh? I do kind of wonder if the people these dudes were cursing got what was coming to them in the end or not. I guess we'll never know.



Those Romans were pretty ingenious dudes. They would stack these stones underneath the floor, then let the heat circulate between them, creating a sauna in the room above. I can't even keep any heat in my house when it gets cold, so these guys were already a leg up on me a millennia ago. It's kind of depressing to think about, to be honest. Maybe even more so than Grobnak43 thinking I'm an idiot.



If you look at the top photo of this post, you can see the outside of Bath Abbey in the background. This is the inside, which is pretty ornate. That's one thing the U.S. just doesn't have any of -- lavishly-decorated-due-to-government-funding churches. Let those scary psycho religious zealot Dominionists take over the government any more than they have already and maybe we will. Yeah, my glass is half-full right now. Honest. I probably wouldn't be allowed in any of the churches to photograph them if those guys got into power, though. Still, this one was very neat looking.



Getting back on track, this is the guy who was in the plaza outside the Baths and the Abbey. He's juggling knives while riding a unicycle while wearing a tutu and Doc Martens and telling jokes at the same time. I'll mention that it was 40-something degrees and windy out there, so even more credit to him. This guy was awesome. He's my hero. I could try to enjoy performing on the street as much as him, but he'd be a tough act to follow. I don't look good in a tutu either. That is a pure assumption on my part, I will add.

After this we met up with our friends' Welsh friends and made our way into Wales. There was a great pub attached to our little tiny motel in the middle of nowhere, in which lots of Murphy's was consumed before my jet lag caught up with me. I also had the best shepherd's pie ever in there. It was a good day.

Coming tomorrow:
Day 3 In Cardiff, Or How Maki Learned To Stop Trying To Read Welsh And Love The Pint.