Bristol Student Special: A Beginners Guide To Bristol

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Even if you don't have the same insatiable curiosity to know about the history of the city as I did, I cannot recommend enough getting out there and walking round it. You just don't get the same feel for the place by viewing it in any other way. I walked anywhere and everywhere, trying to get an image of how everything fitted together and I was amazed at the different character of different suburbs. Perhaps I was a little naïve in my solo wanderings through the city, but I got to know it better than I ever could have done just by working out the quickest routes to the pub, supermarket and train station.

Walking had the extra advantage of making Bristol feel like home an awful lot quicker than it might have done. I still remember the sense of victory I felt when I was able to give directions to a stranger for the first time. It was a minor triumph but it made me feel like I belonged. Not that it's hard to feel like you belong in Bristol. I had assumed that city folk would have far better things to do than be nice to people, but to my delight I found I was wrong. People actually smiled at me in the street and struck up conversations while waiting for a bus. Back home this would have been seen as weird, in Bristol it happened everywhere.


The first night I spent in the city I wandered through the centre, trying to distract myself and the first person that smiled at me was an off-duty Big Issue seller on Bristol Bridge. I felt welcomed. Some weeks later I popped into a nearby café to buy the same man a drink and was touched by the free addition of pastries donated to him by the shop owners. Some of the characteristics of the local population might have taken some getting used to - their irrational pride in the Wurzels and in living somewhere vaguely near a tiny place called Nempnett Thrubwell, for example - but you couldn't accuse them of being unfriendly. This was a city I felt I could get used to.

It wasn't that it was all plain sailing; I had plenty of wobbles in those first few weeks. Everything was so big and there was so much of it. I loved the crazy mix of Gothic towers, Georgian mansions and Victorian terraces, interspersed with concrete blocks plugging the gaps where bombs had fallen in the war. I loved the sense of history, the elegance mixed up with stunning street art. But sometimes I wished for a bit of quiet, a bit of open space.

That's when I discovered the parks. Ashton Court, Leigh Woods, Brandon Hill, Queen Square, Oldbury Court, I fell in love with them all. I'm still in love with them all four years on. It seemed like there was a bit of greenery round every corner and a view on top of every hill, of which there are more in Bristol than pretty much any other city.

I could rave for hours about all those places in Bristol and all the Bristolian characteristics that make this city what it is, but there would be no point. The magic of it is getting to know it yourself. Learning to fall in love with a place is part of the experience. Wander along the docks staring at the boats, sit by Cabot Tower watching the world go by, be cultured at all the free museums, play in the leaves at Ashton Court, discover the quirky shops of Montpelier and splash in the fountains on a hot day. And when you've done all that, go and discover your own favourite places as well.

So many people I've met moved here as students and just never left. I used to laugh at them. Now, a year after finishing my degree, I find that I'm not only still here, but I've married a local. I don't know, I guess there's just something about a place that's home to Rolls Royce, Banksy and Wallace and Grommit, international balloon and kite festivals as well as one of Britain's biggest street carnivals. A quick word of warning for the faint-of-festival though- no one likes to party like Bristolians like to party!

So if you're sitting in your student halls, wondering whether there's going to be more to the next few years than clubbing and racing to finish essays in time, perhaps wondering whether coming here was a mistake, let me reassure you. There's an awful lot more to Bristol than you realise. I'm sure there's a lot more than I realise too. You'll find it strange and beautiful and quirky and all sorts of other things. Hang around for long enough though and eventually you'll find it purely and simply gert lush!


Chloe Banks is a freelance writer living in Bristol.


The views expressed are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Guide2Bristol.

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