Never did get around to writing that “Following the Red Dragon in Cardiff” post. The city was nice, certainly: The arcades are very beautiful, making the city center one large shopping and nightlife complex with little room for much else. Downtown Cardiff is surrounded by an impressive amount of greens or park space, the other half of which is a peaceful bay. Nevertheless, I never found out where most people seem to live. The city was clearly not a good fit for me. I would have to move to Bristol whether I liked it or not.
Thankfully, Bristol was the return to CouchSurfing. After leaving the slightly ugly area of the train station, the city opened up marvelously into the Harbourside. Now that I was largely pleased on settling in Bristol, finding an appropriate neighborhood to fit my tastes was next. Up to that point, I did not have very many criteria: My previous apartment search in Minneapolis was largely focused on being as close to campus as possible, leaving only two or three relevant options. Now, having had that experience, I did have a better idea of what would suit me:
- Be close to the bowling alley: This is perfectly reasonable, since I would likely be there at least twice a week for league bowling. I set about finding the lanes, only to discover that the bowling culture was not terribly strong. Downtown has an ancient and small bowling center, which certainly would not do. The next option was at the chain of Hollywood Bowls, just east of the city center. I went in to find out if they had leagues at all. The service woman said that they did, but she did not have information about them, as leagues were completely controlled by their members. Luckily, there were a few league bowlers there practicing when I arrived in the morning. They filled me in on the situation. Basically, there were not so many leagues in the city and most of them were in fact at this bowling alley. My second host in Bristol said that the area around that bowling alley in St. Phillips was largely industrial and that is what I found when I wandered around looking for apartments. Since the bowling alley does not have lockers (to store the balls) and there was nowhere within walking distance to the alley (carrying 2-3 balls), I would simply to have to live on a bus line with direct routes to Hollywood Bowl.
- Avoid university areas and student neighborhoods: As I get older, students are further and further from my age, making them less accessible and altogether undateable. Thus, this criteria was fairly important to me and it caused the most trouble. Bristol has two main universities, University of West England and University of Bristol, each of which have a large number of campuses throughout the city. In addition, there are bunch of colleges. In the end, Bristol has a lot of students, who cannot be avoided. My second host also made it clear that I would have to abandon this criteria to live in this city.
- Live next to restaurants I would eat at most often.
- Settle in or near the city center.
As I explored the city more and more, I became gradually less excited about it. I still do want to live here, but not being able to easily find an area I would like to live in is seriously discouraging. However, about the time I finished dismissing the last neighborhood on this trip, I was approached by a stranger. He mistakenly thought I was looking at a map for Bath (12 miles down the road) and asked if I needed assistance. I did not and just described why I was so engrossed in my map for his amusement. This started a longer discussion about the neighborhoods and ended without any new information. I told him that I “might just be very picky.” His face changed quite abruptly and literally said that he was the same way and was the precise reason that he has absolutely nothing now. “You should be careful! If you are too picky, like me, you will end up with nothing!” It is not very often that people give you very clear advice and it was a bit of a shock. He said not to feel bad for him and he did not ask for any assistance, making the message even more clear.
The short meeting with the other traveler has not really changed anything. I certainly do think about it a lot, but cannot figure out how the two are related. How did his picky behavior leave him with nothing? I should have been quicker and asked him about it. However, that was very literally at the end of an eight hour walk and I needed to rest my knees before dinner with my host. I am more open now to living in the other cities I have planned: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Nottingham. Although my original city criteria was to be close to the continent, someone reminded me that I would always fly anyway and it was not so important. Although the search continues, I do like Bristol and would be very happy there. Still, it is the only English city I would choose so far.
