Hail, Britannia!

We finally made it to Bath, and oh, what an adventure it was!  Don't let the exclamation mark fool you into thinking it was more fun than it was.  It was miserable.

We collected our bags from the hostel and walked to the bus stop.  We were expecting a bus to come round every twenty minutes or so.

Forty minutes later, we decided to suck it up and pay the €7 it cost to take the AirCoach.  It's bigger, the driver puts your bags under the bus for you, and really, it was worth the peace of mind.  We were getting snappish with one another, which is never a good thing, particularly when you're on a six week journey with each other!

We finally get to the airport and make our way to check our bags, which we're all terrified will be overweight.  Sidney and I were safe, but unfortunately Barbara had to pay an overage.  :(  But she wasn't the only one with suitcase issues.  The extendable handle on my case would not, um, de-extend, so I had to take it to oversized luggage.  Luckily there wasn't a fee charged, but I was worried the handle would get broken during the flight.  Given that there wasn't anything to be done, we went through security with no issues and walked to our gate with ample time to spare.

We all grabbed some sandwiches in Cafe Cú in the terminal (so good - ham and cheese!) before going to sit at our gate.  It was at this point that we discovered our flight was delayed.  Not good, since we were already going to be cutting it close to make the train from Bristol to Bath, where our hostel was located.  However, as there was nothing to be done about it, we stood around until we finally boarded.

I had heard how miserable RyanAir was, but oh my gosh.  They never stopped talking, offering us drinks and candy and magazines and lottery tickets (seriously?!)...all at a very "reasonable" price - HA!  All I wanted to do was finish Room.

We made it to Bristol, disembarked QVC-Air, and walked through to go through customs and collect our bags.  Unfortunately, we walked right past both baggage claim and security, having followed the folks who had no checked luggage.  Of course we realized this two seconds too late and had to wait for security to bring our bags to us.  No catching that train now, especially when I saw what had happened to my bag!

Just as I had feared, the handle had been snapped off.  This meant I had to pull it by the little handle on top of the suitcase, causing it to hit the back of my legs with every step.  I also had to take baby steps to avoid hitting my heels on the bag, which made me go much more slowly that my travel pals.

After realizing our train was gone and the buses were finished for the night, we debated on the cost of taking a taxi versus booking a hostel in Bristol.  After learning the cab ride would only close us £48, however, we decided to press on.

Our cabbie had been to Las Vegas and about 30 of the 50 United States.  He had also been made to disappear by David Copperfield in Las Vegas in this trick:

Well, not this group, but this same trick.  He wouldn't tell us how it happened, though.  Oh well.

We got to Bath Uni and tried to follow the directions on the e-mail they sent Barbara when she booked the rooms.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the place we were directed to go was closed.  Luckily, Barbara and Sidney spotted some guys who were able to take us to the library to collect our room keys instead.  Twenty minutes later we were all securely in our rooms.  Well, almost all of us.

The Accommodation Services folks had given a key to poor Sidney's room to someone else!  So at 3:45 am, while she is enjoying a deep slumber, in busts a random guy, drunk, who wants to know what she's doing in his room.  She tells him it's her room and shows him her key.  He is goodnatured enough to go to a friend's room (and invite her to breakfast - she declined!).  Too bad he wasn't thoughtful enough to keep it down so Sid could go back to sleep quickly, though she did say she eventually fell back asleep.

Our days in England were not off to a promising start, but surely things would get better.