...The next day, I shower and head for the baths. I bought a ticket that could get me into the baths as well as the Museum of Costume...which sounds cool though I have no idea what might be there aside from maybe...costumes? The baths were nice, but too crowded. You get little audio guides and it’s like a huge 80’s cell phone on a string. You walk around and you type in a number that’s on the wall or near some exhibit and you can hear a description of what you’re looking at. I think it’s very cool, but I eventually get a little frustrated by the small French rug rats that just appear to be following me around! I couldn’t hear anything. And it’s getting packed so you can’t really walk anywhere you really wanna go. So, I take off and I head for the Museum of Costume.
That place was awesome...and it was practically empty. It traced the history of dress from maybe 1600’s to the present. It was pretty interesting. There was a small temporary exhibit about the costumes worn in adaptations of Jane Austen novels. Jane used to live in Bath and mentions it in a couple of her books. The exhibit covers 7 films: Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park (UK and US), Pride and Prejudice, Emma (UK and US) and Persuasion, I believe.
It was interesting. At that time, I had been reading the 2nd Bridget Jones novel which I’d picked up used at a campus book sale. In a weird bit of novel/film irony: Bridget’s love interest is Mark Darcy who is played by Colin Firth in the film. In the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, Colin Firth played Mr. Darcy. Bridget and her friends like to watch this (apparently) infamous scene where Mr. Darcy swims with his britches and shirt on and when he gets out of the water, he’s dripping wet and (apparently) gorgeous. The gals like to replay that one little scene (...women after my own heart. My friends and I prefer scenes from Unfaithful and to a lesser degree Queer As Folk. ANYWAY...) Bridget gets to interview Colin Firth and instead of talking about his new movie (Fever Pitch) she keeps asking about that P&P scene and the shirt. Because I’d never seen Pride and Prejudice, I couldn’t grasp the significance of the scene...I was more confused by the triangle of Colin Firth, Mark Darcy and Mr. Darcy and how this might play out in the film version. But, in the Museum of Costume they have an outfit that Colin Firth wore in the BBC Pride and Prejudice and on the audio guide both the costumer and Colin discuss the background to the scene and why he decided to swim clothed (The script said he was naked, but they wanted him to swim in his britches -- I explain that I use britches because in the UK “pants” means underwear. -- Colin said it didn’t make since for his character to talk off all his clothes and then stop at his britches; he would either stay fully clothed or get fully naked. They decided to go with clothed). Apparently, tons of women loved this scene and the shirt he wore in the scene was auctioned for charity and sold for £550. It was just cool that I happened to pick this book up at a used book sale and of all the museums in England, I go to the one museum in the one town that makes that story more significant. By the way, I’m a huge nut for background documentaries and audio commentary of DVDs, so I ate all of this up.
After that, I go back to the dorm and eat and have a pint. I go to my new room and it’s alive with this hen party. The main hen (Torrie) insists I join them in a champagne toast, apparently she slept above me in the room I’d been in the night before. She and her sister, Nickie, talk to me and insist I join them down in the pub before they go out and party. I’m not dressed to go out (Bath is as hip and chic as London, I’d say). But they insist and I go drink and reluctantly dance with them as the pub brought in a DJ for the night. It was really fun. Nickie taught me how to roll a cigarette and I have two of them as souvenirs... I kept joking that I get to say “Hey Mom! I learned how to roll a cigarette in England!” It was actually very cool, tying in to my class on British culture class. EVERYONE rolls cigarette here because it’s cheaper. I didn’t know that you tear off a bit of the papers cover to hold the shape in a mock-filter, though you can buy ready-made filters. It was all stuff they’ll never teach you in a class room. I’m learning life lessons!
We leave the pub and find some underground club somewhere and hang there for a bit. Eventually we stumbled back and slept. I think some of them hung out with the bartenders until 3, but I crashed. I’d intended to go out on a day trip the next morning but end up sleeping until very late. The women head home and give me their number and insist I visit them in Cornwall...They will walk around with me and their kids and take me out at night. It’s pricey because it’s south England and on the coast, but I think I will. It’s supposed to be absolutely beautiful.
Next day, I sleep like most of the day. I have to move rooms, so I go to the bar, eat and try to do a little homework until 2pm: when the room will be ready. At like 2:00:01 I go to my room and sleep. I awake to find a guy staring at me. I smile, say hey and turn over and sleep some more. When I woke again, he was gone. The third time I awoke, he was there. Ryan. From Boulder, Colorado. Sort of a girly face and he has the longest feather duster eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a human being, male or female. His lower lashes were so thick they looked fake! Anyway, he had arrived that afternoon and was visiting Bath because he was sick of London. He was going back to the states a week later.
We walked around the city...to places I had yet to see. We walked into a cool jazz bar and it was like strangers walking into a western saloon. EVERYONE turned and looked at us...but it was like young white guy with long eyelashes in a Kangol and some random black chick. Obviously strangers, right? We leave. We walk around some more and find a flyer advertising some comedians performing later on. We eventually find our selves to the club and order sandwiches and pints until the show starts. Half way through I lean to him and say “This is a vegetarian bar.” He laughs because I said it as if I realized it was a gay bar or something. We noticed the menu had no meat, but we didn’t put it together. I recalled having passed the place on my way to the Museum of costume and I thought it was interesting because it was a veggie bar. The good thing about the veggie bar was that it was cheap. We had hummus and salad on whole wheat. Pretty good. We pay for tickets and luckily there were a few seats left. We didn’t want to sit in the front, so we shared a table near the front but off to the side - later the couple said it was cool we were there because we blocked them so THEY wouldn’t get heckled.
The comedy was hi-friggin-larious. Basically, it's guys warming up before they perform at the Edinburgh Festival in August. The MC was from Ireland and he was great. He noticed Ryan’s hat and teased him a bit. Of course, it came out he was American and when MC asked if there were any more Americans, I fessed up. He didn’t tear us down...but I must say it was a trip to be in an English club listening to an Irishman joke about Bush. I dunno, I think that rocks. For the life of me, I can’t remember the 1st act. I wanna say his name was James. The main guy was amazing. Russell Howard. He is performing the Edinburgh Fringe festival and if I could actually get near Edinburgh at that time, I’d go just to see him again. It was cool to see them just to see what they joked about. Mostly the difference between places in England, which I didn’t get but they kept referring to Bath as a posh town and I didn’t know it was that posh, but afterwards I could see how it was. I’ve been in London and Brighton, which are both pretty posh in their own rights. After comedy, we headed to the club I actually got dragged to the night before. It was just below the veggie club, actually under the street! We’d gotten flyers from the veggie club that let us in free to see this Bossa Nova Band. Ryan didn’t like it, so we went out to find the jazz bar from earlier. We got there and the music was ending, but it was jazz guitar. Very Todd Oliver...I miss my band. :::sniff sniff::: Anyway, it was nearing 11 and most bars close around then. We did have time for Guinness and shots of Scotch and we chatted to the bartender, who was very cool. It was a total “locals” bar and there were guys rough-housing and there was a really drunk girl who kept getting dragged out and she’d find her way back in. It was fun though; cool experience. We walked back to the hostel, chatted some then crashed. The next day, with a tear in my eye, a knot in my stomach, and an ache in head (along with many fond memories), I bid farewell to Bath.