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When your significant other (boyfriend/girlfriend, parents, siblings, friends, the family dog and so on) come to Bristol, it can feel important for you to impress. Unfortunately, one too many Bunker Mondays or that ridiculously yummy but stupidly expensive dinner you had with your flatmates can leave you feeling out of pocket. Luckily though, Bristol is full of romantic, quirky and fun places which don’t have to cost the world. Here are some of the best penny-pinching places to try: Starting up in Stoke Bishop, see that beautiful stretch of green all around you? No, it’s not just to separate some noisy Freshers from the rest of society or make the taxi ride back from the Centre or Triangle extra expensive, it’s also a great place to spend time at basically no cost. How about bringing along a blanket and lots of food to have a picnic when the weather is nice? Or you could battle the cold with big coats, woolly scarves and a flask of hot chocolate for when you are feeling
brave this winter! It’s also a great excuse to dig out that old football and get competitive, or persuade your parents to bring your dog along because honestly you miss them the most. Staying in this area, and rather hidden away, is the Orpheus Cinema. Just around the corner from the Waitrose closest to Stoke Bishop Halls, this intimate film experience makes for an unusual date location. With tickets costing as little as £3, laugh along to a romantic comedy or squeeze their hand extra tight to a thriller, safe in the knowledge that, even with snacks, you haven’t broken the bank. Walking down onto the Triangle, why not stop off at the Bristol Museum? It’s completely free but you can just pretend you know the security guard and everyone will marvel at your generosity as well as respecting your intelligence at expanding your studies beyond the
curriculum. Right next door is Wills Memorial Building, probably an image which pervades your parents’ thoughts when they think of Bristol. Remember to remind them about how you will be graduating from there soon and, whether or not you have actually set foot in it, comment on how amazing the rooms and library are for added points. Climbing the tower also only costs £5 for visitors and £3 for students, whilst offering a great view of Bristol, although your annoying 7 year old brother will have to be left with an adult at the bottom as there are a lot of steps! After all that exercise, why not head towards the Chemistry Building to find the ‘Red Tent’ Sandwich popup shop, promising a range of fresh, yummy sandwiches for as little as £2, as well as letting whoever you are with experience a Bristol
Feed The Flat
There’s no doubt about it: most Bristol students love an extravagant dinner party. However, it goes without saying that bottles of Moët, lobster, and the finest truffles come at a price. As wonderful as it would be to fritter that student loan away on lavish dinners, I will gently remind you that living on Sainsbury’s basics baked beans gets very monotonous. So, what are the secret ingredients to being the ‘hostess with the mostest’ and, in true Bristol fashion, throwing a fabulous Gatsby-esque dinner party without costing you too much time or money?
1.You are a Bristol student, not Bridget Jones. You want to maintain your reputation as a fabulous host so you do not want to be serving up any blue soup. Therefore, do not, under any circumstances, cook something that you haven’t cooked before. If it goes wrong, it will cost you time, money
and your reputation (and potentially your friends if you give them food poisoning). So, unless you actually are the Goddess herself, Nigella, stick with something you know.
2. Buy foods that are in season. Eton mess with lashings of fresh cream and Waitrose finest fresh berries is absolutely delicious, but those lovely little berries will set you back about £3 a punnet and they don’t even taste that nice at this time of year. Opt for seasonal fruit and veg: it’s far cheaper. At this time of year the stars of the show are root veg, dark leafy greens and good old traditional fruit like apples and satsumas.
“living off Sainsbury’s Basics baked beans gets very monotonous” 3. Cater for dietary requirements. We all have that friend who has an intolerance to something be it gluten, milk, eggs, nuts...I have one friend who is allergic to the whole lot. When she comes for supper I always pick a meal that caters to her needs, rather than making her something separate to everyone else which can get expensive. Meals like chilli con carne are good for people with intolerances to the above (unless they’re vegetarian
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student favourite? Whilst you are in the area also look out for any promoters looking to give you free VIP entry or other deals to the many clubs in the area. Not only will this make the rest of your friends back in your house or halls thankful, it’s also a great chance to show your friends from other universities how much better Bristol is compared to anywhere else. A little friendly rivalry is always healthy! To finish off a perfect cheap day, spend some time window shopping around Clifton Village, before going to see the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Having a picture on or near it is somewhat of a tradition for Bristol students, and the chance to see the whole of Bristol and the gorge itself is not to be missed. The views are stunning at all times of day, but especially when the sun is setting. So grab yourself a bench and watch the world go by before going home to celebrate your money-saving success with a glass of the cheapest wine you could find in the supermarket. Bliss.
Becki Murray
too, in which case, I highly suggest going out). There’s also always that one person who is on a crazy diet where they ‘can’t eat potato past 5 ‘o’clock’. Personally, I don’t cater for these sorts. In my opinion, food is there to be enjoyed and we can have everything in moderation. 4. Make the most of tins. Tins!? I hear you say. Yes, tins can be acceptable in some scenarios but I do maintain that Sainsbury’s tinned Irish meatballs are never acceptable, even if they do only cost 26p. Tinned fruit can be great for puddings - look no further than Nigella’s ‘Chocolate Pear pudding’ for a deliciously indulgent yet frugal dessert.
5. Meat & Fish. It’s safe to say that most people, especially boys, will be a little disappointed if there isn’t some meat on their plate. After three years of being vegetarian and serving up vegetarian food at dinner parties I can safely say it doesn’t go down that well. Of course, meat and fish are expensive. Personally, I avoid fish: it is expensive and a lot of people have mixed feelings about it. Chicken and mince are the best meats to opt for. Mince is really versatile and everyone loves chicken. If you’re on a really tight budget, go for chicken thighs. Although on the face of it they aren’t the nicest cut of meat, they are full of flavour and go really well in a big hearty casserole which is perfect for this time of year.
Alice Bennett
24.11.2014
Do you BlaBlaCar?
As I stood at Aix-en-Provence’s local landmark, la Rotonde, on a Friday morning last October waiting for Olivier (a manI’d never met) to pick me up in his campervan to drive to Toulouse, I had to admit that maybe my Mum was right and I was mad for agreeing to this. I have always been something of a disaster where spontaneous journeys are concerned. Having found myself unexpectedly at a loose end one weekend, however, I decided - after several glasses of wine - to sign up to BlaBlaCar and take a trip to Toulouse the very next day. For those unfamiliar with the concept, BlaBlaCar is a website where people can ‘sell’ empty seats in their cars for journeys they are making. Although it does exist in England, it hasn’t taken off to the extent that it has in France, Spain, and many other European countries, where it’s seen as one of the best ways to travel on a budget. It would seem that us Brits are generally less comfortable with the idea than our European counterparts. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact you are paying a complete stranger who you have met on the Internet to drive you across the country...). Every time I mentioned my plans to my British friends I was bombarded with tips on how to avoid being kidnapped, and demands for hourly text updates to reassure them I was alive and well. Undeterred, and reassured by my French flatmate that it was perfectly safe, I texted Olivier to confirm the time of my collection and set to packing. Finding each other was a bit of a palava (a running theme for every BlaBlaCar journey I have ever undertaken) but I eventually climbed into the campervan - to be told that our estimated travel time was EIGHT HOURS! Oh mon Dieu. Google maps had informed me that the journey from Aix to Toulouse takes four hours. Alas, in my newness to this whole BlaBlaCar thing, I had failed
to notice that the journey was particularly cheap because Olivier avoids toll roads (i.e all motorways) - apparently they are very expensive for campervans. So off we went, spending the first hour getting very lost as my French companion insisted on using maps produced before I was born. An hour after leaving we ended up back in Aix. At this point I was not very hopeful of actually getting to Toulouse. However, once we started to climb up into the mountains, I started seeing the benefits of not rushing along a dreary motorway and taking the scenic route for once. After a short lunch break, where in true French style he offered to share his baguette, cheese and red wine with me, I had proved myself a worthy enough road companion to be allowed control of the music. What followed was two hours of Olivier crooning away in atrocious English to Billie Holiday, Neil Smith and Bob Dylan (his CD collection was limited). I can honestly say I think it was the most surreal experience of my life.
We finally reached Toulouse and he very kindly dropped me off just outside the metro, making me promise to call him if ever I needed anything, or wanted to visit him and his daughter in Brittany. This bizarre but surprisingly enjoyable experience was the first of many BlaBlaCar trips I took during my year abroad. Not all of them were quite as amusing, or, for that matter, lengthy, as those 8 hours with Olivier. But I almost always gained something new, be it a word, an amusing anecdote or a friend. Besides, when deciding between an extortionately priced train ticket or a cheap car journey with an eclectic bunch of fellow travellers, I know what I will always choose.
Amber Bartlett
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Don’t InterRail - DIY!
packed our backpacks, turned up at the station, and simply got on a train to the next city. Once out there, a whole range of other transport was available to us. A private taxi (complete with very amicable driver/tour guide) offered us an even cheaper rate to take us from Serbia into Bosnia. Stopping frequently to take pictures of the beautiful Bosnian countryside was certainly a plus and obviously wouldn’t have been possible on a train. Naturally, at times, we paid for what we got. On arriving to catch a night bus from Bosnia to Croatia booked earlier that day, we learned that they had oversold tickets. However, we were told not to worry as our seats had been reserved…on the floor. Now, I’m not going to defend our choice of transport here as trying to sleep in the aisle of the coach for 9 hours is something I would really rather forget. However, for a three and a half week-long trip, this was surprisingly our only travel hiccup. Finally, our choice of countries enabled us to save money. Reason being, only one of the countries we visited (Montenegro) used the Euro, meaning we got a lot more for our money along the way. All in all, the choice to purchase tickets as we went saved us a considerable amount. Not purchasing the official ticket gave us much more freedom to change our plan en route, and, most importantly (to quote the InterRail website), still allowed us to ‘meet other travelers, experience everything Europe has to offer, and collect lifelong memories along the way.’ Lucy Bairstow
What to do with a four-month-long summer? A student luxury, and therefore, surely to be taken advantage of. The answer: by embarking on a ‘mini gap year’ in one way or another. Initial plans of travelling across Central America often become increasingly unrealistic as the price of end of term celebrations rack up. The slightly cheaper option, an InterRail trip around Europe, seems like an attractive alternative. However, this ‘cheaper alternative’ to travelling certainly adds up if you choose to purchase the student InterRail ticket, recommended by almost every online article. A 22 day pass starting at £224 is very costly, especially considering you are limited to only ten days during which you can actually travel. With prices going up to £369 for a month’s pass, the initial appeal of this trip begins to fade. The idea of InterRailing had never really appealed to me, for the very reason of its extortionate cost. That was until my friends and I decided to venture by train across Europe without purchasing the official ticket. Our first decision was where to go: again, the traditional route of Amsterdam-BerlinPrague didn’t interest us. Opting to take the less-trodden path (BulgariaSerbia-Montenegro-Bosnia-Croatia) we set off without an InterRail pass. The results were, on the whole, very positive, finding that each individual ticket we bought was just a fraction of the actual InterRail ticket. Despite having been warned beforehand, booking our trains was never a problem. Generally speaking, when we wanted to head somewhere else, we
Lucy Bairstow
What’sOn
The best pick of this fortnight’s theatre, film, music and more.
Mos Def
Cheatahs
Temples
Trinity, 29 November
O2 Academy, 7 December
Start The Bus, 25 November
In 1999 the Euro was established, Mr Tony Blair was just nestling into Number 10 and Jar Jar Binks was unleashed on the world. And Mos Def released hip-hop classic Black on Both Sides. Fifteen years later, the rapper-come-actor-come-activist is back doing what he should be. Def, née Yasiin Bey, has appeared in a number of increasingly questionable films- his turn in Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind being particularly wanky- and his music has snuck off to the backburner as a result. As such, aside from a couple of sporadic releases, the last we musically heard from him was 2009’s well received album The Ecstatic- until now, friends. To celebrate the fifteenth birthday of Black on Both Sides, Mos Def is playing a handful of shows where he will air the album in its entirety, culminating at Bristol’s O2 Academy.
Eclectic if nothing else, there is a charming unlikelihood in Cheatahs’ make-up. Hailing from various continents and cobbling together various elements of shoegaze, lo-fi and slack-rock, the four piece converged in the Big Smoke in 2009 under the leadership of Nathan Hewitt. The vocalist steered the band through a couple of changes in personnel before proffering an eponymous debut LP earlier this year. It’s a good record, full of big songs that clatter along at a hellofa pace. Catch it in the flesh at Start The Bus.
Theatre Johnny Got His Gun
Tobacco Factory, 3-6 December
The hundredth anniversary of the Great War’s beginning is unlikely to have escaped your notice, with tributes being paid across all platforms of media and art. The Tobacco Factory hosts a particularly morbid tribute to the horrors of the conflict, a one-man dramatic re-imagination of Dalton Trumbo’s 1938 novel, Johnny Got His Gun. Jack Holden takes on the role of Joe Bonham, a soldier of the Western Front who awakes from a coma to gradually discover he has lost his arms, his legs and his sensory organs. David Mercatali directs in this powerful production.
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What’s On
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Editor: Sam Mason-Jones whatson@ epigram.org.uk
Since strutting onto the scene early last year, Temples have been serving up sumptuous slices of sun-spangled psychedelica. Last year’s debut Sun Structures is a blissed out baker’s dozen, full of jangling riffs and a craftsmanship that at times even recalls the Beatles, a testament to the importance of occasionally just staring up at the sky. They are also fronted by James Bagshaw, a man who looks ethereally similar to Marc Bolan of T-Rex -seriously, look it up- its uncanny. Check out the cheekbones at the smashing venue that is Bristol Trinity.
For Free 150th Fireworks
Clifton Suspension Bridge, 7 December
A big year for anniversaries, 2014 also marks the 150th birthday of Bristol’s most iconic landmark, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge. The occasion has not gone unnoticed, and through the second half of this year various projects have been taking place across the 150 day advent of the big day, which falls on the 7 December. The culmination of the celebration will come with a display of fireworks which promises to be the biggest and best that Bristol has seen. Organisers anticipate that 100,000 spectators are to cram into the Avon Gorge and spill onto the Downs to catch the visual feast.