Goodbye Summer

This post is definitely long overdue. Last time I blogged was in the early summer and now it is autumn already! So in the next couple of posts I'll write a few things that went on in the past 3 months.

Well, other than going to work, I've had some friends visiting my house and I've also visited a few places. I'll start with the International Balloon Fiesta in Bristol, which is an annual festival where the main focus is the hot air balloons. Last time I went was a few years ago, and I've never been to the night glow, only the morning ascent. This time I went to the festival in time for the afternoon ascent and then stayed there until the Night Glow. It was pretty cool, the balloons lighted up in sync with the music that was playing, well, close enough in sync anyway. The night ended with fireworks display, which was pretty good too. The festival was definitely bigger than I remembered. There was so many people, even the queue for the shuttle bus was 2 hours long (or even longer!). Me and my friend wanted to take the shuttle bus from the city centre to the venue, but when we saw a queue we were slightly confused if that was the queue for the shuttle bus. We asked a couple of girls, and they said they have been queuing for 30 mins and only moved a couple of metres. So we decided to walk to the venue which would take around 40 mins. We definitely made the right decision, because a lot of people were walking as well and the venue was not too far away.

Bristol is quite an upbeat city in the summer. Other than the balloon festival, there was also Harbour Festival. My family usually go to this festival, as I remembered it, it was quite family friendly. But again I've not been there for a few years. When me and my family went this year, I was quite surprised as the festival has definitely gotten a lot bigger and busier. It wasn't so child friendly anymore either. I didn't enjoy it much, I think I prefer it when it was less busy and hectic. But then we went for a boat ride, and since it was a sunny day, the boat ride was perfect. There were also some food stalls, and I bought churros which ended up being eaten by the whole family (they loved it too, of course). If only there are food stalls all year long, but no, unless you live in London, food stalls only come every now and again in UK. And the prices aren't too pretty either (unlike in Indonesia, food stalls prices are usually rock bottom, although most of the time they might not be hygienic), but the food is always great. Except for the one time I bought churros in a food stall in Sheffield and they weren't even sweet :( I think I'd stick with Las Iguanas churros.