megabus; To Bristol.

As you will have seen early in May megabus popped JJ on a bus down to London, so in late May it was my turn to hop on a megabus to Bristol to return the favour! Here’s what we got up to…

I awoke at 6am, got dressed, shoved my last few bits into my backpack and the chap dropped me at the station. I arrived half hour early for my megabus so I made myself at home in Victoria Coach Station with my book and headphones awaiting our loading time.

Once on the bus I got myself comfy with a window seat, plug socket and watched the world go by for the three hours; it seems I’m rather useless at reading on buses!

Despite leaving London half an hour late we made it to Bristol pretty much on time and I was greeted by the lovely JJ and taken for a coffee! She told me the rough plans for the day and we headed over to drop my bag off at the Arnos Manor Hotel where I’d be sleeping for the night…

We then went to the stunning Avon Gorge Hotel for lunch so we could sit outside in the sunshine and look over at the suspension bridge. I opted for the chicken and bacon club sandwich which was so good!

JJ then took me through the Giant’s Caves, which was just a little bit scary, and shocked me with the amazing views from inside the gorge where you end up…

I really didn’t expect to come out so deep into the gorge and it was great to see the suspension bridge from this angle too.

Any excuse for a photo right?!

After melting slightly in the heat, we wandered on to our next stop; Bag O’ Nails Pub, better known as the cat pub!!

The owner has around 15 cats that he brings to work, and they just hang out on the bar awaiting tickles and strokes! I was amazed at how well behaved they all were and how the pub didn’t smell of animals! We tried the Elderflower cider and it went down a little too easy… oopsy!

As JJ knows I’m a fan of graffiti she took me over to Stokes Croft where I got to see a Banksy, and this amazing piece of artwork that’s had its fair share of airtime on the news recently…

I think my trip to Bristol mat have then turned into a slight pub crawl, it wasn’t intentional, Bristol just has loads of good pubs!

The Old Duke Pub had swing dancers, and a rather quirky band playing so we set up camp for a while as it was still so warm outside! I was shocked at how lucky we had been with both of our weekends being filled with sun shine… when does that ever happen in England?!

Our dinner stop was the Three Brothers Burger Bar and god they were so good! They even had the nicest staff that made us feel right at home.

By the time I got back to my hotel it was gone midnight, yet again, where had our day gone!?

I slept like a log, and woke feeling rather refreshed as I normally do after staying in a hotel! Sadly JJ was quite unwell so I just hopped on a bus to Starbucks, grabbed a bagel and a drink and booked myself onto a slightly earlier megabus home.

The journey home was rather comfy as I had bagged myself the table seat and before I knew it I was back on the train home to Essex!

What an awesome couple of weekends we had; thank you megabus for amazing trips and for pairing me up with the incredibly lovely JJ.

Check here for a video of our trips and here for JJ’s post on her time in Bristol!