The "X for Xenial" project is all about choosing an Airbnb where I stay with a host, rather than hiring out the whole place. The idea is to get a genuine sense of the location and maybe even have a chat with the person who actually lives there.
This time, I’m staying on Gloucester Road in Bristol, and it was—I guess you could say—an almost quintessentially Bristolian experience. Gloucester Road is a fantastic place. It’s one of the main thoroughfares running out of the town center, most famous for being the high street with the most independent shops in Britain. I can absolutely vouch for that; it’s really the reason I chose to come here. It’s packed with individual restaurants, boutiques, and lots and lots of coffee shops. Thankfully, there are hardly any big chains—just a few Costas and a Greggs, unfortunately, but never mind. It has a really nice vibe.
I think it’s definitely close to what you might call the student area. The reason I know that? I went out last night to watch the Arsenal game and ended up in a pub just as the Bristol University Golf Society turned up. Boy, did they have a damn good time. I was watching them do their drinking games—boat races and the like. Then they had this one game where they would take a golf ball—appropriately enough—and slip it into someone’s pint. If the ball was found, you had to down that pint in one. It caused much merriment and amusement.
Anyway, back to the stay. I stayed with a host named Prue. Now, Bristol is known for being a sort of earthy, hippie-type place, and oh my god, she was perfectly that. The house was a little bit run-down—not crazy, but full of the most eclectic, weird, almost hippie-style art. I stayed on the top floor in a little area she called "The Nest," which had three interconnected rooms. Since I was the only one staying there, I had it to myself.
At the end of the day, Prue didn't talk very much, which was a shame. I would have liked to have a bit of a chat with her, especially since her bio mentioned a massive collection of cookbooks, and I thought we might discuss that. But it didn't happen; she was just a little bit odd.
I guess the Xenial category is going to end up being a bit like that. You never quite know who you’re going to meet, but that is exactly the point of doing it. It certainly provides for some interesting stories.
The Map: