Life in Bristol: Update 1

Like I did when I was living in Chile, I'm going to write some posts about life in Bristol while I'm here. I've already seen quite a few interesting places around the city and beyond, and so it makes sense to put them on this blog.

So far I have mixed feelings about living here. I like my job - although it's not that similar to what I was doing at the marketing agency I worked at in Malta, it's within the general area of marketing. I work in the French market and get to use my French every day, which I'm really happy about. My colleagues are also really nice, and I enjoy my days in the office, which is located in quite a picturesque part of the city.

But I guess I just didn't really imagine myself ending up in Bristol - a city less than an hour away from where I grew up - after having lived in different places around the world. I had hopes of getting a job somewhere on the continent after my internship in Malta, but there weren't that many opportunities available that were suitable for me and my experience. Although I did get an interview for a job in Berlin, I realised during said interview that it wasn't really what I was looking for, and I didn't go further in the application process anyway.

When I was offered my current job, I was given the choice of working in London, Bristol or fully remotely, and although my heart wanted London, I went with my head and chose Bristol, based on the fact that my salary would have been the same in both cities. Besides, I'd always liked Bristol, and considered it to be my 3rd favourite city in England, after London and Bath. 

My Nana and my two great aunties all lived in the Bristol area, and I always enjoyed coming to visit them and found it entertaining to drive into and through the city. Going towards the city from the M32, you pass the Dower House (a big yellow castle), the interestingly-designed BT Tower, the Shah Jahal Jame Mosque, which looks like a Middle Eastern palace, and finally some colourful and very Nordic-looking apartment buildings. And then as you go through the city itself, you encounter some of the best street art on the planet, and more interesting and colourful buildings, which look like they could come from various places around the world. I always particularly liked going past the Bristol Royal Infirmary with its colourful rings! It was also nice to visit the area where my Nana lived, which has a little castle monument and a row of white houses that look like they're from a Greek island.

So I thought that I would like living in Bristol more than I have so far. While I like some parts of the city, I'm finding it a bit grim and depressing at times. It also feels like a bit of a setback to have gone from living in a really nice apartment with my partner on the other side of the world just over six months ago, and spending the summer working in the Mediterranean, to now be living in a flatshare in a city near where I grew up, at 28 years of age.

So I don't really see myself being here in the long-term. But it hasn't been all bad! I have visited some nice places in and around the city over the last couple of months, and I'm going to share them here today...

The Centre and Harbourside

This part of the city, with its tall townhouses and many boats, looks like it could be located somewhere like the Netherlands or the Nordic countries.

Bag of Nails

I've been to several cat cafés but this is the first ever cat pub I've been to! When my friend Sophie came to visit me in Bristol, we went for a drink here and loved seeing the adorable kitties!

The Clifton Suspension Bridge

The Clifton Suspension Bridge is definitely the most iconic sight to see in Bristol. I had been across it in the car, but had never had the chance to have a proper look at it before. So, I went on a walk there a couple of weeks after arriving in Bristol, and crossed the bridge on foot. The views of the Avon Gorge below are really incredible, and to make things even better, I met a lovely cat sitting next to the bridge!

There is a free museum on the other side of the bridge, in the village of Leigh Woods in Somerset, which was interesting to visit. It has lots of information about how the bridge was designed and built - it's amazing how complex it is.

Batida Restaurant

I went to this Latin American restaurant with my parents when they dropped me back in Bristol one day, and we all really liked it. It has some great Mexican and Argentinian food, super nice décor, and very catchy Latin music! Going there was a nice reminder of my times living in that part of the world. 😊

Castle Park

My partner Claudio encouraged me to go to this park, as it was a place he saw on the Chilean travel programme City Tour on Tour. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a castle anymore (the park is built on the ruins of Bristol Castle) but it's a very picturesque park. Here you can find St Peter's Church, which was bombed during World War II. There are also some nice views over the river, which also remind me a bit of continental Europe.

Cabot Tower and Brandon Hill Park

Another iconic place to visit in Bristol is Cabot Tower, which is located in Brandon Hill Park. This tower is 32 metres high and over a hundred years old. It's quite a claustrophobic climb to get up to the viewing points near the top of the tower (there's a second, even narrower staircase that goes right to the top, but I didn't feel brave enough for it!), but the views from the top across the rest of the city are quite spectacular.

Bath

One of the nice things about living in Bristol is that it's right next to Bath, so it's easy to pop over there for a day trip or a few hours. I met up with my parents there a couple of weeks ago for a bit of shopping and lunch, and afterwards I went on a big walk around the city. Bath's always been one of my favourite places to explore, and spending a day there really was a nice escape from the worries of everyday life.

Severn Beach

Another thing I like about living in Bristol is the suburban railway that goes between Severn Beach and Bristol Temple Meads. There's a station on the line that's about a five minute walk from where I'm living, so it's easy for me to get to Bristol Temple Meads and then on towards other places. But a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go to the other end of the line and visit Severn Beach. It is more of a stretch of mud and pebbles next to the Severn Estuary rather than an actual "beach", but it was good to be out somewhere more peaceful and rural. I enjoyed seeing the two Severn Bridges, looking across to Wales on the other side, and seeing all the cute dogs out for their Sunday afternoon walk!

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Severn Beach was actually a very popular summer holiday destination for people in the local area. As it's not exactly an area where you can swim and sunbathe, they built a massive swimming pool, a fun fair, and many hotels and cafés. But once more and more people started to get their own cars, they began going on holiday further afield, and Severn Beach became much less popular. Now there isn't much there anymore in the way of entertainment.

However, there is a nice café called Shirley's Café, where I went after my long walk for a vegan chocolate cake and a mug of tea! It was a nice, retro kind of place (with a cute dog next door!) and I'll definitely try to go back at some point.

Some other nice buildings and places I've seen around Bristol!

Overall, it has been hard to adjust to life in Bristol, and I think the cold, dark weather we're having at the moment definitely isn't helping. But there are things to like about living here - I don't know how long I'll stay here, but I'm going to try to make the best of it. 😊

Newport and Caerphilly

Last Saturday, I had a nice little trip out of the country and visited Wales! This was a trip taken partly for practical reasons and partly for touristic reasons; my morning was spent in Newport, seeing what the city would be like as a potential place to move to, and my afternoon was spent visiting Caerphilly Castle!

My job is based in Bristol, and I go into the office twice a week, so I need to live somewhere within reasonable commuting distance, but not necessarily in Bristol itself. At the moment, I'm living in a flat share in Bristol, and to be honest, I've found I've gone off this city to some extent since moving here, even though I always enjoyed visiting before. There are lots of issues with things like drugs and homelessness, and it also has one of the highest costs of living in the entire country. When Claudio comes over here, I'd like us to live in our own place together (which would be super expensive in Bristol), and I'd also like to us live somewhere that feels less seedy and depressing. Newport doesn't have the greatest reputation, but it's cheaper than Bristol, so I decided to go and see what it was like.

Overall, it was better than I expected. There's a nice old-fashioned arcade with shops and cafés, as well as a big market/food court, which reminded me of one I used to go to in Valletta.

The city centre also has a shopping area with a cinema and all the shops and restaurants you'd expect to find in a British city. Generally, I felt like the city centre was safer and cleaner than Bristol's.

The part of the city I liked the most was the riverside, which is where you can find Newport Castle! A castle is definitely a plus point for any city, as far as I'm concerned, and I found the riverside quite picturesque in general.

During my morning in Newport, I walked up a massive hill to get to St Woolos Cathedral. It's more of a church than a cathedral really, but it was interesting to see it, and to get more of a feel for the city.

I wanted to make a bit of a day out of my trip to Wales, so in the early afternoon, I took a very crowded train to Cardiff, followed by a very clean, comfortable and quiet train to Caerphilly (which reminded me of trains I've been on in continental Europe).

I was very excited to go to Caerphilly, as its castle is the largest in Wales, and that's saying something, considering how many castles there are in Wales!

The town of Caerphilly itself seems quite unremarkable when you come out of the train station, but once you get to the castle, you can't help but be impressed. It's so huge, and the fact that it's surrounded by a moat makes it even more spectacular.

At the moment, the castle's great hall is being reconstructed to make it look as it did at its peak in the 1320s! They're also making the site more accessible and building a café and toilets there, so in around a year's time, it's going to be an even better place for a day out than it is already. As it is now, you can go up inside some of the towers, and onto the rooftop of the main part of the castle, which is still a pretty decent amount to see, and took me a good hour or two to go round.

It was really fun to step into history and explore the interior of the castle - it was built in the 1200s and a lot of it seems to have not changed since then, particularly the steps to go up and down the towers! The place had a lot of atmosphere, and the typical Welsh weather and Halloween decorations further added to that.

Of course, one of my favourite parts of my trip to the castle was seeing some dragons - always a must when visiting Wales! You can even press a button to listen to a story about the dragon family either in Welsh or English. 

To conclude, my day trip to Wales was a nice little escape to a different country, and felt like a bit of a holiday, even if part of the trip was for practical reasons.

Actually, since I took this trip a week ago, there have been some potential new developments that have come up in terms of what Claudio and I will do and where we'll live in the near future, so I'm holding off scouting out new places to live close to Bristol until we're more certain about that. I definitely don't see myself living in this part of the world long term, but I could be here for several more months, so I'm keeping Newport as an option for now.

Well, that's all for today, but I'll be writing again sometime soon, probably with some travel adventures from around the Bristol area. And next month, Claudio and I should be spending some time abroad, which will be exciting! See you back here soon!