Hello readers!
I’ve been busy settling in at Nottingham for the past coupe of weeks and between attending all the exciting welcome events and an unfortunate bout of “freshers flu” I haven’t been very good about keeping up with my blog posts. Luckily I am finally on the mend and will soon have lots of exciting updates about Nottingham to share. For now, here’s a rundown of my trip to Bath that I took a month ago.
Getting around is pretty straightforward and I took a train from London to Bath without any problems. Because of who I am as a person I arrived at Paddington station really early and had plenty of time to stare longingly at all the Paddington bears I wanted to buy. I ended up not buying any since I really can’t justify spending seven pounds on a bear keychain.
The train ride over was extremely crowded due to track repair at certain stations that limited service. Luckily, I had booked a seat and didn’t have to stand up. Unluckily, the guy I sat next to pulled out a block of cheese and just went to town. For those of you who don’t know, I have a strong aversion to cheese. Cheese in enclosed spaces is a recipe for disaster. I was beginning to grow concerned that the cheese block was a bad omen for my trip, but thankfully the guy got off at the first station and I enjoyed the rest of the ride cheese free.
Once I arrived in Bath, I made my way to my hostel which was adequate but not great. I stayed at Bath YMCA and while the facilities were fine, it was a popular destination for school groups and I can’t say I appreciated the drunken high schoolers chanting outside my window at 2am.
Anyways, on to the good stuff!
First of all, the weather was phenomenal.
Bath’s claim to fame is that it is home to the only thermal spring in the UK which back in the day was used for (what else) communal baths. Of course on my visit I had to check out the Roman Baths and I gleaned plenty of information along the way.
The Roman Baths were up and running by 75AD and were a hot spot for cleaning, socializing, healing, praying, and throwing down curse tablets (more on that one later).
During the first century, Bath was known as Aquae Sulis. The “Aquae” portion of the name refers to the hot springs and the “Sulis” portion of the name refers to the Celtic goddess of Wisdom. When the Romans conquered a new city, it was often their habit to adopt the gods and goddesses of the conquered culture. However, they ended up fusing the goddess Sulis with Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and the Bath Temple ended up being dedicated to Sulis-Minerva.
While thermal baths were old hat for the Romans, the Celts were pretty overwhelmed by the thermal bath that had just sprung up in their town. Eventually, the Celts acclimated to the presence of the thermal baths and everyone gathered there to socialize.
Since the Roman emperor at that time was “a bit of a prude” (according to the tour guide), there were separate baths for men and women.
While the social atmosphere was great, it was also prime time for thieves to steal belongings out of the changing rooms while everyone else enjoyed a nice soak in the baths. This is where the aforementioned curse tablets come in. People who had their belongings stolen were understandably angry and took their anger out in curse tablets addressed to Sulis-Minerva. These tablets were then tossed into the baths. Writing on the tablets was aggressive and ranged from hoping that the thief would never sleep again to hoping that his intestines would be eaten away. Fun stuff.
Another fun note is that in order to heat keep the heat in the baths, the Romans used lead. They apparently knew it was poisonous but went ahead and used it anyway. The average life span back in the day was already pretty short and needless to say, was compounded by hanging out in a lead-soaked bath. At least it was a good time.
Attached to baths themselves was a neat museum that gave some more background to the formation and history of the baths. The museum also had a water fountain where you could taste the bath water. I can say that it most closely resembles the swamp water that can be found in Orlando, Florida.
After the visiting the Roman Baths, I wandered around the city a bit. Bath was easy to navigate and had lots of quaint local shops and small streets to wander down.
With my ticket to The Roman Baths I opted to get the dual ticket that also included a visit to The Fashion Museum. The museum is a collection of over a hundred outfits ranging from the early 18th century to the present. It was astonishing to see so many ornate dresses up close and to get an idea of the amount of work that goes into creating such detailed garments.
One of the highlights of The Fashion Museum was the section where you can try on the fashion! This has been a longtime aspiration of mine and despite my going to school in Colonial Williamsburg, I have never managed to get myself into an 18th century ensemble. I have to say that the dress was uncomfortable, heavy, and not conducive to any sort of physical activity. However, I still got to check one off the bucket list so I was nonetheless very pleased.
On a side note, in the contemporary section of the museum, leggings as pants made the cut. I repeat, leggings as pants are officially in The Fashion Museum.
On the whole, I had a wonderful time in Bath and would highly recommend it as a day or weekend trip from London.
I’ve been having an excellent time at Nottingham post-illness and can’t wait to share more info on British uni life!
See you later!
Claire
Abroad with Claire 
You should check out Bristol
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