Bristol, Banksy and Bleary-eyed Adventures

Well Hung Lover

Mike, Laurie, Sheri and I ended our days of walking through fields of sheep-laid landmines and made our way to Bristol. It was a relatively easy train trip and then a short cab ride to where we found ourselves in our home for the next month. We would spend it exploring the city a bit, soaking in the street art, going to the movies, feasting on cookies, spending too much time at the doctor's office and most remarkably of all, we even socialized a bit. So, lets take a look at Bristol!

Our Place

Laurie Relaxing

Nothing compares to the views in Balestrand (yet), but our place is Bristol was probably my favorite in terms of the actual living space. This was our first place with two bathrooms which turned out to be quite fortunate as one of the toilets needed some maintenance. This toilet had a "feature" that was new to me. It had a macerator. A pump was attached that would grind any porcelain tithing into a slurry so that it could pass through smaller pipes to the main sewer line. Fortunately, this was only needed on one of the toilets. This BM blender was loud and appeared to have a hair trigger that the slightest disturbance would set off. Sheri and I quickly moved to using the guest bathroom (after Mike and Laurie left) which did not have a need for the poop pulverizer.

The living room was the highlight of the place. The flat was on the ground floor (with flats above and below us.) It had high ceilings with the gorgeous window that looked out over the park across the street. We would spend many hours in this room just enjoying our down time.

Banksy and the Street Artists

Street art is an important part of the Bristol culture. The undisputed king of this style is Banksy. Banksy's identity is cloaked in mystery but we have his (hers, theirs...no one knows for sure) art which is what matters. The Well Hung Lover was put up under the cover of darkness and the city was immediately going to have it removed (as much of his art is) but at the last moment they decided to take a poll of the people walking past it and ask if it should stay or be removed. The overwhelming (more than 90%) response was to leave it. So it remains to this day. It was hit with paintballs after Banksy made some negative comment about the local football team.

We saw a couple more Banksy's. One on the side of a school and another from the hull of a ship that was cut out and now resides in a museum. He also has a statue in a local museum. Not sure what the message is but I still found it interesting.

Next up was a garden of sunflowers. These were planted by an anonymous artist in solidarity with Ukraine. Each flower represents 1000's killed in the war. There are 100 plants. A sad state of affairs.

We then moved on to an art medium I had never heard of before. Gum. The artist would find gum on the side walk and then use a blow torch to melt it into a flat disc and from there etch and design his creation. The two examples shown are each only an inch in diameter. The things artists think to do!

We were then treated with other examples of different street artists. My favorite is the skeleton lounging in a seductive pose. This is purportedly inspired by the only good scene from the movie Titanic.

There you have it; the artists of Bristol. I am not one to judge or critique art, but I really did enjoy all of it.

The Horrors of Socialized Medicine

One of the most common concerns that Sheri and I got about our nomadic lifestyle was "What about health care?"

My eye wasn't feeling too good when I went to bed and when I woke up it was very painful and incredibly sensitive to light. I took out my contact and thought I had conjunctivitis. I was pleased to discover that I didn't need to see the doctor in order to be treated for it and that I could go directly to the pharmacist. Sheri then lead me to the pharmacy as I only had half my vision. Upon arrival the pharmacists said "That is not conjunctivitis," and that I needed to go to the Royal Infirmary. This sounded quite pompous and grand to me. It was less than a mile walk and basically it is just an emergency room. Unfortunately, there was a 6-7 hour wait to see a doctor. Fortunately, I was triaged quickly and the nurse immediately told me I needed to go to the Bristol Eye Hospital which was a block away.

Upon arrival at the eye hospital I waited about 10 minutes to see a technician. He looked at my eye and made noises and then told me I had 3 little ulcers on my eye. He turned around in his chair opened a drawer and pulled out two medications and just handed them to me. I was given two separate antibiotics and one required a drop in my eye every hour, even over night.

Upon leaving, Sheri and I went to the front desk to get a follow up appointment and see what we owed. We asked how much and the lady simply said "Nothing." We told her we were not citizens of the UK and that we had insurance. She just smiled sweetly and cocked her head to the side and said "Are you Americans?" It just never stops being embarrassing to have to answer "Yes" to that question.

Fortunately, we had an extra bedroom, and I slept in there for the next couple of nights so as not to disturb Sheri when I was awakened by my alarm every hour to administer my medications. I didn't get much sleep.

Over the next 8 days I would return to the eye hospital 4 more times. Each time I was seen within minutes. I saw technicians, opticians, and ophthalmologists. On one occasion they took a razor blade to my eye in order to get a sample for a culture as it wasn't healing as fast as they hoped. Slowly, my eye healed but I was not allowed to wear my contacts for 5 weeks. Fortunately I have a pair of glasses which I hate wearing. Each time we simply walked out, sometimes with additional medications.

I was resoundingly chastised by multiple professionals for wearing my contacts 24 hours a day. The look of disappointment and judging was a bit embarrassing to me and it worked. I now take my contacts out each night before going to bed. Hopefully, this will prevent any further need to visit my new friends at the Bristol Eye Hospital.

So there you have it. I was seen every couple of days by professionals with state of the art equipment and given all the necessary medications. This was all done at no cost. It is amazing that Americans learn nothing from this.

Adventuring

We took a walking tour of Bristol, and, in addition to the Banksy artwork, we were treated to the stories and history of the city. Our guide was extremely professional and could tell a good story. In the first picture he stands in front of a pedestal with no statue on it. A statue of Edward Colston used to stand here. He was a very rich merchant whose name is on many buildings and foundations. For many years he was considered a hero of the city. However, he made his money in the slave trade. As more and more of this came to light a call was made to remove the statue. Eventually, during racial injustice protests on June 7th, 2020 the statue was pulled down, dragged to the docks, and thrown in the river. It was eventually fished out and put on display in a museum. I like that they display it in its fallen state.

Once again, the United States could learn something. It seems so obvious to me that the confederate monuments and statues should be removed but they should also be put into a museum so that we don't forget our shameful history.

Next up was a clock near the markets of Bristol. Before time zones Bristol was 10 minutes behind London which could cause problems with train schedules etc. Bristol did not like playing ugly step sister to London so they added an additional minute hand to the clock to show the time in Bristol vs. London.

Bristol is a college town and the students put googly eyes on the horse of one of the statues. It just really made me laugh as it made it look ridiculous.

Mike, Laurie and Sheri did a cave tour while I stayed home and slept off the long walk. They had to wear a hard hat and traverse narrow passage ways and navigate many stair ways. They were rewarded with a great view when the emerged outside the cliff face.

Finally Sheri and I spending some time in the park across the street from our place just watching the dogs chase the birds and the school children chasing each other.

Family Visit

My cousin and his family would be in London to see the Vikings defeat the Browns. Skol!!! Sheri and I hopped on the train which was an hour and half ride to London where we met up for brunch. We spent the day touring the city with Ryan, his wife Dana and their daughter Svea. We did a murder mystery walk. We had to follow clues around the city to discover the murderer. We successfully solved the case but missed some of the key plot points. It was just a nice day spent with very good people. Hopefully they will return some day soon and we can spend more than just a day together.

Food

We are still trapped in the culinary desert that is the United Kingdom. We did however go to Cream Tea. Sheri got clotted cream with a scone that inexplicably had the abomination known as raisins inside. Fortunately the cream and jam could overpower the evil raisins into submission. I cannot really describe what I got. It was a frozen fruit thing with ice cream. It was decent.

I must give credit where it is due. I discovered Anna Cake Couture. One very short walk away I encountered this oasis of cookie delights. These things were simply amazing and I quickly became addicted. Every other day I would walk down to the store pick up two cookies and eat one a day. I forgot to get them one day and when I went to the cupboard to get my evening treat I discovered an empty shelf. Sheri could not console me and I went to bed that night with tears in my eyes and they were not from the ulcers.

Socializing...Ugh

Sheri made me do the worst possible thing as an introvert. I had to talk to people I didn't know! Sheri is on various nomad message boards and Facebook groups. In these groups people would just post what city they were in and if anyone wanted to meet up. Nikki and Mario were also in Bristol for a week while we were there so we met up. It went well enough that we met a second time. We had lunch together and on our next visit we had Cream Tea.

It turned out to be quite enlightening. They are clearly younger than us but it was remarkable how similar our experiences were. They had been nomading for one year and had been to many of the places we had or were booked to go to. It was interesting to see what they did the same and more so as to what they did differently. The most notable for me was they were traveling the world with a full size blender as they like to have smoothies for breakfast. Rentals almost never have a blender. I was amazed that they would carry this extra bulk and weight but then I am traveling with a PS5 all over the world. Smoothies or video games. Take your pick.

Miscellaneous

Mike, Laurie, Sheri and I went to the movies. We saw a sequel to arguably the greatest movie ever Spinal Tap. Spinal Tap the End Continues was a nostalgic movie that just brought back many happy memories. There were enough laughs to keep me entertained but it was mostly a nod to times past.

A couple weeks later Sheri and I would see I Swear which told the story of a man suffering from Tourette's syndrome. Based on a true story which depicts the many challenges associated with the condition. I give it a solid thumbs up.

Bristol is the home of Wallace and Gromit. If you don't know who they are, shame on you! Stop right now and go watch A Grand Day Out or The Wrong Trousers. There were various statues of Wallace and Gromit throughout the city and here is a picture of me with Gromit while walking to the eye hospital.

We also came upon this unfortunate house that had blown over. It was some sort of tourist trap that I didn't bother to learn more about but I found the image to be amusing.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

And just like that it was time to move on. It is off to Budapest where a much anticipated and long awaited meeting would take place. Perhaps the best five days of this amazing adventure.

Brad and Sheri