Last week I went on my first solo travel trip since March last year, spending a day seeing the sights of Bristol. I'd seen a few interesting places, including the Christmas Steps, during a trip there with my parents in August last year. But I felt like there was a lot I still hadn't seen, so I decided to take the opportunity to go back again, now that I'm on my summer holidays and have more free time.
Bristol isn't the easiest city to get around; it's too big to easily explore on foot, and it doesn't have a metro or tram system like other big cities do. However, it does have a bus system known as "metrobus", which as the name suggests, is a bus network that (in theory) functions like a metro network. I chose to use this system to go between Bristol Temple Meads train station and other places in the city, and it worked out alright for me. It was a bit hard to find some of the bus stops (the train station one was about 5 minutes away from the station entrance) and the buses didn't always arrive on time. But I managed to get to all of the places I wanted to go to, so overall it was a success.
First of all, I took the bus to The Centre, a part of the city by the harbour, where you can find a statue of Neptune.
From there, I could walk to College Green, where I found one of the sights I'd most been looking forward to seeing: Bristol Cathedral. This Gothic building is very impressive to look at from both the outside and the inside, and is extremely reminiscent of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Inside there are toilets, a café and a little garden. (But sadly, I didn't see Quasimodo or any talking gargoyles!)
Next I walked to Cabot Circus mall to find some lunch and to pick up a couple of things in the shops. On my way there, I noticed lots of people looking at the sky, and looked up to see what was so interesting. It was a surprise to see a plane drawing smiley faces in the sky! I didn't know what it was all about at the time, but the next day I read an article which said that it was organised by a group of school children to say "thank you" to their teachers!
After lunch I got back on the metrobus and travelled away from the city centre, getting off at Spike Island to find some more interesting sights. The bus stop really seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but after I walked along a few quiet, nondescript streets, I found a little courtyard with something very special on one of its walls...
The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum is the world-famous Bristolian street artist Banksy's take on Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, and it was quite amazing and surreal to be mere metres away from this work of art, and to be the only person looking at it.
Following a few minutes' contemplation, I went around the next street corner and was met with some incredible views. I had arrived at the harbourside area, where many boats are located, including the famous ship SS Great Britain, which travelled to many places all over the world, including the Falkland Islands and Australia, during the 19th century. At the moment it's not possible to see much of the ship apart from the very top of the sails without buying a ticket.
But that didn't bother me much, because for me, the most impressive part of the harbourside area was the views of the rows of colourful houses on the other side of the water. They brought back memories of visiting Valparaíso (another port city known for its street art and colourful buildings), though you could also say there was something of the Nordic countries about them. In addition to the houses, I could see Cabot Tower and a little corner of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, so it was without a doubt quite an amazing panorama.
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