New Year, New City

Yesterday was New Years Eve, but it definitely didn't feel like it.  We are all still trying to adjust to this whole new country thing, but of course we had to celebrate someone.  We decided to go out for awhile, but the no-sleep thing was definitely kicking in and me and a couple hours decided to come back to the Y.  I really wanted to stay up till midnight.  So Ashley and I just sat in the lobby and watched a New Years special on the telly (TV for all you Americans hah).  When it struck midnight, it was so cool seeing all of the fireworks going off around Big Ben.  I really wish we would have been in London for that.

On New Years Day, which didn't feel like that at all, we spent our whole day walking and exploring the city of Bath.  The first thing that stuck out to me was the architecture.  It was so neat seeing the different column types that we have studied in the past and being able to point out different aspects of the buildings.  History has always been so interesting to me and being able to walk around the actual city was extremely cool instead of just learning out of a book.

The first tour we went on started at 9am and we went and saw the Royal Crescent.  For those of you who don't know the Royal Crescent is a row of terraced houses that are shaped in a crescent shape, hence the name.  The building itself had so much detail in it and their is so much history within its structure.

Following this we got the opportunity to tour the Bath Abbey which is an iconic church located here.  the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the windows oh my I couldn't even.  It was gorgeous!  When looking at the floor I noticed little plaques in memory of people that lay there, I later found out that about 4,000 people were buried there!  It was so weird to think that we were walking on top of people's grave sites.

After touring the church we were free to find a spot to eat lunch.  After walking around the city for awhile, we finally decided on a little café that had crescent sandwiches and coffee.  We ate our food outside, because sometime if you choose to eat inside a restaurant they charge you a fee.  And even though we are in England, we are still broke college students.  If I had to raise one complaint about this city, it is that it has WAY to many pigeons.  They just fly everywhere they want and it creeps me out.  It's like they can sense that I don't like them, because they just like to come toward me.  It makes sitting outside very unpleasant, but beside that lunch was very enjoyable.

The last tour that we went on was to the Roman Baths.  The building that is there now was actually constructed on top of the building that was there over one hundred years ago.  When touring the lower parts of the building you could even view the parts of the existing structure.  The bath itself was really cool to see, and at the end you could taste the water if you wanted.  One suggestion to anyone who decides to visit here...don't try it, it is awful.

We had a long day of tours and chose to just go back and relax and then find out where we would like to go for dinner.  All we knew was that we wanted a place that had pasta, wine, and that was inexpensive.  After endless searches we stumbled upon Jamie's Italian Restaurant.  After going there we discovered that the famous chef, Jamie Oliver, is the owner!  How cool!  The food was delicious too.  Italian food and wine, I must say that is the best combination.  This was a great way to end the day and I can't wait for the adventures tomorrow, cheers! -Heather