"Bristol Fashion" a Bristol Travel Page by greebo

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The City of Bristol was a thriving port that built up its wealth on the slave trade, Bristol Blue glass and the tabacco industry. The Bristol Blue glass industry has been revived as it fell in disused for nearly half a century. Many of the original pieces now fetch thousand of pounds in auction. The blue glass is distinctive for its depth of colour and is still very expensive, a modern wine glass will cost you about £40 to £50. Bristol and Bath are built upon an extinct volcano and therefore both cities are very hilly. Bristol is now expanding very rapidly due to economic growth. However, even it is a large city, you are only a few minutes from the countryside wherever you are in the city. There is easy access to Bristol by road, rail and air.

A bit aboutus Bristolians, one of our favourite pastimes in introducing unsuspecting tourists to cider (no not the fizzy stuff in bottles but the real stuff which is usually green, orange or yellow). It tastes weak and innocous however, it is extremely potent and for those not used to it, 1 or 2 pints will usually get you drunk. It has a strange effect of not affecting your head but the legs, so you feel ok sitting down and drink and you try standing up - usually not for very long! We find this extremely amusing to watch.

Regarding the Bristolian pronounciation: We are very fond of our R's and L's and believe in attaching one of these letters to words whether they are supposed to be there or not. For example instead of saying:

"I live in this area" it becomes "I live in this aerial"
"I have an idea" become either "I have an idear" or "I have an ideal"
We don't have Ford Cortina's its Ford Cortinal's
"Where is that" becomes "Where's that to"
"How bist" means "how are you?"
and the letter H is not normally used unless we really really have to!

We can also be a bit obtrustive and a favourite tale related by someone who had just moved into the area is as follows: The guy had managed to get himself lost and asked a local for directions, the local happily obliged him by telling him the directions from a landmark. The guy thanked the local who promptly replied with "ah but you don't want to start from ere though".

Also if you really want any female Bristolian to hold a grudge against you, all you have to do is say that she sounds just like Pam Ayres. This is practically guaranteed to make you an enemy for life. Also saying oohhh arrrr to any Bristolian will cause them to inflict bodily harm upon you.
In the travelogue to this page is more photos of Bristol.
Please see my United Kingdom page for areas such as Bath, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Cornwall etc.