English history 202: Bath

Bath, is a city in the South West of England about one and a half hours from London. Bath is known for its three warm thermal spas, that stay at a constant 82 degrees at ground level. Because of this, this site has been used for thousands of years. It was first clearly established by the romans in the first century AD, in which they built a formal building around the main bath, creating a spa(which is why the town is actually called Bath Spa). It consisted of several pools including a warm pool, the bath that you've seen in pictures, and finally a cooling pool. After the Romans left, there is little evidence of the baths being in use until after the middle ages. It was then, that houses kept complaining about a warm drip coming into their home. Further excavation confirmed that there were formal bath's below the current ground level, and made the families evacuate their homes in order to excavate properly. The city of Bath, innitially surrounded the baths, but at the end of the Roman age, and the end of the bath's used as relaxation and renewal, the center changed to the Bath Abbey. Even though these two buildings are very close to each other, their purpose to a city is very far apart. This religious center was a site that people made pilgrimages too, partly because the first king of England Edgar, was crowned at Bath Abbey, before the turn of the 11th century.

Ok, enough history, because honestly I can't recall that much more, and even that I'm not sure of. What I do know is that the Romans really got it right. In the words of Bill Bryson, who narrated parts of the Bath tour via headset "Nowadays we work 9-5, and then sit at home and crash in front of the TV, what if we could just go and sit at a bubbling spa all evening? The Romans really knew what they were doing didn't they."

I spent the morning sleeping, as seems usual when I have nothing waking me up. I then headed into town, bought some breakfast, and shopped a little. I found this cute little store, with fairly reasonable prices, and this dress that I just could not, not try on. So, if you followed that double negative, I tried it on, and then took a whole photoshoots worth of pictures of it, hoping that the viewers at home could help me decide if I should buy it or not.

I then went into the Abbey for some religious history, then into a few more shops and finally into the Bath's themselves. I really got into the Baths. They did a lot of video recreations showing us what they think it would have been like, and then we even got to hang out at the main bath. We could see the steam coming off the water(although the water was a gross green color), and were really able to feel like Romans, or at least I think we did.

Then I did some more shopping and found another dress I liked even better, and simply bought it. It was just gorgeous!

Then Sam texted, and I had planned on going to the Jane Austin center, but it was closed, so I bought the book Northanger Abbey, which is about Bath instead. Maybe tomorrow I'll make it to the center?(Oh, she grew up in Bath, which is why she is relevant). I then went back to Sam's, who was making a spaghetti with meatballs concoction, and then headed off to his friend's house. After briefly meeting, we went off to a pub, and wound up there a few hours. After buying a kebab(an English tradition after a night at the pub), which was horrible, we cycled back.

Today was my last full day in Bath, as I am heading off to Dublin, Ireland tomorrow afternoon. One more chance to try to see Jane Austin.

So what do you think of the dress? The Green one? It was £22, which is like $47, and I don't need it, have to carry it around for 7 weeks in a backpack and have no shoes on the trip to match it. I had to buy it right?? Thoughts please. I can still return it until June 13th.