Friday 2nd October 2020

Plans for the day:

• Train from London Paddington to Bristol

• Check into Airbnb

• Dinner at Woky Ko/Seven Lucky Dragons

We left Paddington station at 3pm ready for a weekend out of London in the hipster city of Bristol. We had been asked many times why we hadn’t made it here yet especially with it being so close on the train with a 1 hour 40 minute journey into central Bristol. We were supposed to be meeting Nick here but with Covid he wasn’t able to get in from France and despite this and the weather forecast to rain every second of our time there we still decided to go. Arriving into the station it was pouring down and we had a 25 minute walk to our Airbnb. We were grateful however for our Patagonia rain jackets and umbrellas! Our Airbnb was in the area of Bedminister and was a tiny single room with a bathroom in a basement. It was snuggle and gorgeously decorated so no complaints from either of us. I had spent the afternoon whipping up a chickpea stew but of course as soon as Lew started researching local food places there was no way we were staying in! Bristol is known for its food and also its vegan community.

Woky Ko/Seven Lucky Gods at Whapping Wharf

We had chosen to head to Whapping Wharf as there was a collection of cool food joints to choose from but we were pretty set on baos at Wonky Ko. The funniest thing though is that Seven Lucky Gods and Woky Ko are literally right next to each other so when we went into this restaurant and looked at the menu we realised that we wernt’t even in Woky Ko. But I have to admit the food at Seven Lucky Gods was AMAZING. Lew has a pint of Asahi and we had the most tasty kimchi fries and cauliflower + peanut dish. Oh how we love plant based food. It was beyond incredible. We decided to head off and try and find out actual location as Lew was still craving baos. This is when we realised it was literally next store! I wonder how many people made this mistake. In Auckland NZ there is this incredible place called ~Chinoiserie that was just up the road from us and OMG did it have the best baos ever. We clearly remember eating here the final night in Auckland and no doubt this will be what we eat the moment we get out of isolation in Auckland - or maybe the deliver?! Anyways to reduce Lews bao craving we popped in here and ordered there 4 for £16 and chose a selection including hashbrown, eggplant, shrimp and the big mac. They were faaaaar from traditional and we were actually super pleased we had ended up accidentally at Seven Lucky Gods. After stuffing ourselves we wandered home in the drizzle and realised it was only 8.30pm! Probably the earliest we have been to bed for awhile but we were exhausted after a busy week.

Saturday 3rd October 2020

A slow start on a dreary Saturday autumn morning we didn’t rush to leave the house as we knew we would be out all day walking. After chatting to Lews family about wedding suits and collecting our bits and bobs to stay dry during the day we headed out having had just a fizz stick and ready for brunch.

Plans for the day:

• Bristol Porridge Project for brunch

• Mild Mild West Banksy

• St Nicholas Market

• Shopping - Patagonia, F??, Bird & Blend tea,

• Brandon Hill

• North Street

• Lew haircut/run

The Bristol Porridge Project in Stokes Croft

We had to walk a good 40 minutes through central Bristol to get to the porridge place which a girl on instagram has recommended to me. It was the perfect morning for this type of food despite me having brought everything we need for smoothies. We saw quite a few places we wanted to come back to on our way up there but we were so starving we couldn’t stop at all. After a 5 minute wait we got as table which we were thankful for as it was raining and a lot of the other brunch places had a long line outside of them. Everyone is super onto it with Covid here and their sanitising/mask wearing and even avoiding each other in the street. Londoners are a bit Blaise in comparison! The 5 minute wait meant that Lew and I already knew what we were having which was the Crazy Clifton Combo & the Berry Nutty. Idea choices and we probably could haven eaten double but the prices were pretty good with mine being £5 and Lews £4.

Mild Mild West by Banksy

Literally just down the road from the porridge project is Banksys Mild Mild West artwork. Banksy drew this artwork over 3 days in 1999 in response to unliscensed raves and parties happening in abandoned warehouses in Bristol in the 90’s. It represents how the relaxed hippy community can still fight back against police.

St Nicholas Market

This is an interesting eclectic market filled with some inside areas with hand made goods and also a food court with a variety of options. We didn’t stay here overly log as it was busy and there wasn’t anything that caught our eye since we had just eaten. There is a free toilet though! I also heard there is another market close by called Nails Market but I couldn’t find it on Google maps.

Shopping

Probably one of the cooler areas we found for shopping was Park Street which has a couple of favourites on it including Patagonia, Finisterre, Bird Blend Tea Co & Plinkmans ? Bakery. Patagonia doesn’t even have a store in London so its a rare sight we havnt’t seen since we were in Canada! Lew & I adore there outdoor wear as we love the back story and B corp status they have. One that we haven’t actually seen before but is a more casual-wear version of Patagonia is called Finisterre that is also a B corp and a UK company. The worst thing about shopping during covid time is that they have a limit on the number of people in the shop at a time and everyone else has to queue outside in the rain which isn’t ideal as it was also surprisingly cold. We didn’t see anything we loved in those two shops and then headed across to Bird Blend Tea Co. I spotted the sign on the door for the spiced pumpkin latte and knew immediately thats what I was getting. We also grabbed some gorgeous tea to take back to NZ as xmas presents. I adore finding little things on our travels to gift our loved ones with instead of a mindless quick last minute present. I adore gifting and Im super excited for the new Arbonne xmas range to arrive next week as well as they will be the perfect accompaniment. After choosing our favs teas I grabbed my spiced pumpkin latte and OMG was this good. Honestly it was the nicest thing iv ever tried. I will 100% be heading to the London store for more! Tea is something that makes me really happy if you hadn’t already realised!

Brandon Hill

The man from the Porridge Project mentioned Brandon Hill and how thats a cool place to head into because if you didn’t realise it was hidden behind all these houses on the main road you would never know it was there. We were rather soaked at this point but made an effort to walk up it, soak up a bit more rain and enjoy the greenery. It would be so nice in summer coming here to lie on the green grass and look over the city. From here we decided to head in the direction of our Airbnb via North Street.

North Street

Now this is another funky area close to where we were staying with all sorts of cool wine bars, coffee shops and even some adorable little green grocers. I saved numerous places to Google Maps for us to come back to later or tomorrow. One of my fav places was the Tobacco Factory which was a warehouse type of building with a collection of creative communities that sold all sorts. There were fresh fruit & veggies, a cafe, jewellery, plant store, dried goods, fresh milk in glass jars and also home made vegan mayo and hummus which lew and I were right into for a snack! Further down the road there was The Burger Joint which looked like it had an amazing option for vegans and coeliacs, Kask which was an adorable forest green wine bar full of young hipsters on a Saturday night, Sweven Coffee which was a minimilist white cafe adored with many green plants. I also loved the look of the greengrocers Hugo’s with its rain soaked fresh fruit & veggies outside. On top of this a LOT of places sold fresh bread so make sure you bring your fav spread + toaster on your trip to Bristol as the options are endless.

Lew run/haircut

We made it home and swiftly cranked up the heating in our place, hung up our rain soaked jackets and sat out wet shoes on the radiator. Lew decided he would head out for a run and go back to Brandon Hill to a barber for a much needed haircut - although I do like a little bit of length especially in this weather! One thing we have noticed about Bristol is that along with a lot of bread there is also a lot of of barbers! He added a 14 km run onto the trip. I stayed home in the warmth & worked on my business, researched the wedding, drunk tea, wrote this blog and filed my nails. What a productive day! We even stayed in to eat the simple chickpea stew I had made friday and went over some wedding budget details. Goodness these things add up?

Sunday 4th October 2020

Plan for the day:

• Wapping Warf

• Train to Bath

• Brogue shoe shopping

• The Green Rocket for lunch

• Train to London

We were woken by the constant pitter patter of rain at the windows and it appeared the rain hadn’t let up a single bit. Check out was 11am and we left it to the final minute to remove ourselves from the dry & warm apartment. We walked towards Wapping Wharf as they had some cool clothing stores I wanted to check out but unfortunately they looked closed. A local homeless women asked us to buy her a hot drink as Lew went to the nearest coffee store with her. How can you not buy someone cold and homeless a hot drink, it was a nice change from them constantly asking us for money in London. We tried to get into the Bristol museum but the time slots were all booked up - makes sense since there isn’t anything else to do so we carried onto the train station to start our journey to Bath.

Bath

We had been here three years earlier when we first returned from our travels around Europe and fell in love with this small city with a lot of old English charm. The waterways and buildings were impressive at the time but a lot less in the pouring rain today. I think now after three years we have become accustom to the english charm which was so new to us then. London has its fair share of stunning buildings. But don’t let that put you off because Bath is an absolute must do if you are in the UK, I just hope you get better weather than we did. We quickly found the Brogue shop that is a small local store that sells Loakes. Lew is dead set on purchasing a pair of brogues that are UK made and of excellent quality as he knows they will last for years. Unfortunately this does come with a hefty price tag but a worthwhile investment for his wedding shoes and beyond. He tried a couple of pairs on but didn’t want to commit to hundreds of ££ then and there so we carried on for lunch to think about it. I wanted Wagamamas but there was a massive line outside the door so we opted for my original choice which was a small vegan cafe. On the way we passed by this gorgeous shop called Boho that I highly recommend you check out, had I not left Lew outside in the rain I would have absolutely tried on a few bits and pieces.

The Green Rocket

This is a vegan restaurant very close by Bath Spa train station and as soon as I saw there menu I was instantly excited! I love it when there is a full menu that I can choose from without having to worry about hidden cheese or butter. I opted for the Korma curry and Lew the burger and some string fries on the side. We were so cold after walking around in the rain we grabbed a hot oat chai for me and a hot oat chocolate for Lew. We have to admit we don’t usually buy drinks as we do find it saves us a bit of money when we are travelling so much, but today we needed something to warm us up. This place even served a vegan roast - oh my gosh yum! But they were sold out so clearly this is a firm fav! Whether your vegan or not I would recommend coming to check this little place out as I doubt you will be disappointed.

Train back to London

Time to head back to the big smoke on the 3pm train! Originally we were booked for 8pm but thankfully we had changed this earlier in the week so we could be home when the NZ quarantine booking system goes live at 8pm. Now we couldn’t be more grateful to have the option to escape the rain sooner rather than later and get back to our cosy flat in London. The train was super full and at a couple of stops the platform attendants actually yelled at people not to get onto the train as it would be breaking social distancing rules blah blah blah. I mean seriously it should be someone choice whether or not they should wait an hour for a train or distance themselves from people whilst on board, Your wearing masks anyways. But oh well! We made it back to London safe and sound and even had a early dinner to make things easier.