Note to Self: Bath is pretty. Allocate more than 4 hours next time.

So the next day I had to go back to London to catch a coach to Bath. It was hard to leave Carol and John because they had been so lovely to me, and I was very sad to go. If this was MySpace, under my picture would have been Mood: Pensive, followed by a smiley looking not so smiley. But I was excited to be going to Bath. I was on a tight schedule – I would arrive at 6pm, dump my stuff at the hostel and go to the Roman Baths which I knew were open until 8pm. The next day I would get to the Jane Austen museum at opening, do that for a bit, then wander the town until it was time to get my bus at 12.

Got to London early which was good because it gave me some time to drink a venti skim latte from (where else?) Starbucks and eat the sandwiches John had packed for me before heading to Victoria Coach Station. However, when I got to the station I found out that my bus was delayed. Not happy, Jan. Eventually got to Bath by 7, then spent half an hour trying to figure out where my hostel was. I had completely forgotten what it was called, and hadn’t even remembered to look up where it was. I just assumed I would know. Wandered the town with my painful backpack until I found a hostel, was tempted to just stay there the night but decided against it and just used their internet instead. Found out I was staying at St. Christopher’s Inn and set off for that, only to not be able to find it for ages because there was a huge sign for the pub underneath the hostel, and only a tiny little "St. Christopher’s Inn" sign above it. Good work. Did I also mention that it was pouring with rain? Reception was at the bar in the pub and the guys there were really nice and gave me a bed in a smaller room than what I’d booked. But then to get to the hostel bit, you had to go back outside, swipe your card at this door, climb a million stairs, figure out which random door your room was behind, then open the door to find a few more random staircases before finally getting to your room. So annoying. Oh, and unisex bathrooms. Also annoying. I’m fine with staying in mixed dorms, but mixed bathrooms? Guys smell more. It’s science. Look it up. But anyway, I was only there for a night. I will give it this though: the hostel had a hairdryer and straightener in each room, which would have been great had my roomies all not been asleep at the time that I wanted to dry my hair. Air drying it was then.

So basically there was no time that night to actually see any of the things I wanted to do, but luckily I had downloaded a self-guided walking tour onto my iPod!! Good thinking, Ninety-Nine. Except, I hadn’t printed out the accompanying map. That shouldn’t matter though, should it? I had the hostel map, so it should be fine, right? Unfortunately, the hostel map was le shit, and not in a good way. And I could barely understand the directions the audio guide gave me (this is ME we’re talking about here), so half way through I just gave up and wandered aimlessly.
And got even more lost.

The thing is though, Bath is tiny. I had a look at the streets, and sure they’re kind of here, there and everywhere, but it’s still not that possible to get lost.

But this is me.

Eventually found my way back to the hostel, ate some food, hung out with other hostellies and went to bed.

Next morning I was on a mission – the Roman Baths opened at 9 and I was going to be there. I stowed my luggage in the hostel’s basement and off I went. The Baths were just beautiful, and it’s great that they give you an audio guide with it. However, I spent a little too long in there and had to quickly find the Jane Austen Museum.

Is it wrong that the JA Museum was my sole reason for going to Bath? Don’t judge.

Anyway, halfway through the museum I realised that it was 11 and I had to get to the hostel by 11:40 at the latest, 11:30 would be ideal with all the backpack carrying I would have to do. I raced through the last few exhibits (I really wasn’t missing much), managed to get to my hostel, grab my stuff and made it to the coach station with 5 mins to spare. Woot!