Our visit to Bath was so dreamy to me. I tend to romanticize everything anyways, but here I felt like I hardly needed to try at all. The quaint streets, little bookstores, cafes, etc. already looked as though they were ready to be in some romance film. There were also street performers out everywhere we went all day, which gave the town a sweet, romantic energy. Walking the streets, especially in the dress I was wearing, made me feel like I was living in a Jane Austen novel. I didn’t go to the Jane Austen museum, but I did go briefly into the Mary Shelley exhibit, with the emotional support of some friends. I am very interested in all things horror, so seeing the life scale model of Frankenstein was so awesome. I also really enjoyed some of the other spooky details about the making of the story. The part that was terrifying, was the basement. I was under the impression that it was just the really gory part of the exhibit but no, it was actually structured like a haunted house. As we went down the stairs, the door to the basement slammed shut and I knew my impression was inaccurate. We very hurriedly tried to find our way around and out, trying to purposely avoid the motion sensors on the ground that activated all the loud noises and huge gusts of air, poorly. When we finally got back onto the street, we all were able to catch our breath and re-enter the intimate, dreamlike streets of Bath. Which definitely made Mr. Frankenstein seem incredibly out of place and scarier.
Seeing the Roman Baths wasn’t something I was initially excited by, but as we went through the museum I started to realize how bizarre it was to actually be where I was. It was so surreal to see the actual structure of the foundation of the baths while walking through the museum, and to think about all the people that had built the space and frequented it so many years ago. I thought it was so intriguing to see all the artifacts that have been recovered from the site as well. I regretfully didn’t get very many pictures of artifacts, however I did take pictures of a few.
I really appreciated having the tour guides talking about each artifact as we went through. It gave me a much more immersive experience and I think if I had to just read descriptions the entire time I would have been less interested. However, learning about how impressively crafted the artifacts were made me appreciate the Roman Baths so much. It’s hard to imagine something of that scale being built 2,000 years ago, and seeing it in person just made the Roman Baths so delicate and meaningful. I deeply enjoyed exploring the Roman Baths and I really came to love the city as a whole by the time we left. It was much quieter than London, but they are both still so rich with history. I think the difference that I enjoyed the most between the two was that Bath was surrounded by so much nature and seemed so far from a bustling city. Whereas London is a bustling city with small, intentional nature parks/spaces trickled throughout. I loved exploring Bath, I absolutely want to come back someday!
Theatre in London U of A 