Thinking outside the Triangle

Picture: Constance Malleret

Bristol is a wonderful city. Whiteladies road offers a plethora of bars, coffee shops and lunch options, Stoke Bishop is a fantastic rowdy mixture of freshers awkwardly finding their feet and returners promoting their ‘organised fun’, while Cabot Circus is a hot spot for clothes shops and chain restaurants. However, putting irony aside, do Bristol University students know anything other than the straight line from Halls to town? Do we really know our city like the locals do?

As a 4^th year languages student, I have spent the last 12 months exploring the French city of Bordeaux and the Spanish city of Malaga. With only 6 months in each place to lap up the rich culture around me, spare Sunday afternoons were spent in art galleries, days off work involved whistle-stop tours of local landmarks and hangovers provided little barrier to my desire for exploration. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the 2 years I had spent in Bristol previously. I imagine the most exotic voyage I ever made was to watch a French film at Watershed or perhaps the one time I climbed Cabot Tower.

Aware of my generalisation, I feel strongly that a large majority of Bristol students have their blinkers fixed firmly to their faces when it comes to exploring the city. The well-heard complaints that, ‘the Student’s Union is just too far away’ or the stereotypes that 2^nd years live in Redland, while 3^rd years opt for Clifton seem restrictive and unnecessary. With a host of sights to see and things to do, why do we all seem so apathetic about our surroundings? There is more to Bristol than the University and a really nice bridge.

Inspired by my year abroad, I have made a plan. With only one year to go in the pearl of the South West, my 4^th year is to be a second attempt at my 1^st year (with maybe a little bit more studying thrown in). Back to being an inquisitive fresher, back to square one. Day trips to Weston-Super-Mare, Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury are all on the list. Lecture-free afternoons will be spent at M Shed, St Nicholas Market, Ashton Court and SS Great Britain. Fewer Friday nights spent in Lounge, and instead exploring the variety of cocktail bars and the occasional speak-easy for which Bristol is actually quite famous.

In the future, if I am ever asked by a Bristolian where I went to university, I would feel a sense of shame if I was unable to engage in a conversation about our city other than the well-trodden roads around the university. If, as seems likely, I am to move away after graduation, I want to feel that I have made the most out of my time in this beautiful, arty, yet very rainy city that seems hooked on much more than just hot air balloons and valuable graffiti.    

This article was originally written for Bristol University's newspaper, Epigram. The article can be found here.