Bude-iful Mate!!! (Bude)

Member Name: SpankMarvin

Product:	Bude
Date:	07/09/01 (584 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Seaside town!, Affordable, Lots to do and eat

Disadvantages: Can be a little tricky to get to depending on the time of year

Sorry about the title. Up until recently, my summer holidays from university were into something of a rut. The pattern was simple and pretty boring: Work in pub, work at cinema, spend the money in the same places, around the same people who don’t even say thank you when you open a door for them. On your days off, become bored and lazy, sometimes not even getting dressed. Yes folks, that time had come once more when I needed an emergency HOLIDAY.

But where to go?

And who with?

It was then that I was visited in a dream by a midget fire-breather who looked strangely like my dad but smaller and a little scarier. “John,” he said, “John, you must get away from all this, take refuge, if only for a week, in a land which is alien, and fantastic!” And with that he disappeared in a whoosh of his own firey breath. Strange, I thought when I woke up, but the next morning my dad asked me whether I wanted to attend the Bude Jazz Festival this year. It’s a sign, I thought, and asked a few of my friends whether they were up for a relaxing weekend that was a bit different from the usual stuff. A friend from university jumped at the chance, and I bought tickets straight away for most of the week. I then booked transport, booked time off work, and looked forward to my escape from the south-east. The time eventually came, and so I booked the maid monkeys into the monkey kennel for the week (they hate jazz, and last time I left them on their own to maintain the house, they just drank all the sherry and trashed the joint).

THE JOURNEY THERE

Well, this could be easier but it’s not too bad depending obviously on where you are travelling from. From Reading, I had to get the train to Exeter, and then the bus to Bude. Going by car is quite easy, but it only cost me £30 for a week return doing the train bus thing, and it’s less hassle than driving.

THE JAZZ FESTIVAL

This ta
kes place every year in Bude, and has so far been going for fourteen years, at about the last week of August. You can buy “stroller tickets”, which enable you to go in and out of the various stroller-only pub and club venues as and when you please. I had one which was valid from the Tuesday through to the Saturday, and this cost me £36. There are also free venues, and a couple which you can pay extra to see. But with a stroller ticket you will be able to sample more jazz than you can shake a washboard at. The people at this festival do average an age of about 72, but my friend and I were welcomed and embraced into the circle of remarkably cool cats we met. Nice vibe! Smokin’…

THE PLACE & THE PEOPLE

First test: Open a door, and hold it open for someone going through it behind you. I did this, and much to my surprise, everyone who went through said thank you, a total novelty to me. But seriously, the people in general in this area seem very friendly, open and relaxed. The place itself is beautiful, right on the coast in the south-west, with sandy beaches, cliffs, a castle, and a nicely kept high street area. Particularly in summer, it is a lovely place to walk around and visit, whether you are there for jazz or not.

THE ENTERTAINMENT

Jazz aside, there are plenty of pubs and sights around Bude. The pubs are again friendly and unthreatening. Being an exercise conscious kind of guy, I am partial to a game or five of pool, which I am delighted to tell you costs a mere 50p - a whopping half the price of a Windsor game, where the pool tables and strength of gravity are no different. Beer too is a little cheaper, rarely being more than £2, usually being under that price. The local ales are pretty nice too.

THE SHOPS

Being a sea town, there are lots of surfing shops and lots of little trinket shops too. If this isn’t your thing, there are some book shops, including a great litt
le second-hand bookshop (the books, not the shop being second-hand) which sells all sorts of books such as novels, old annuals and back issues of American comic books, all at very good prices. If this still isn’t your thing, try the various clothes and shoe shops. If this still isn’t your thing then buy stamps at the post office and send yourself a postcard.

THE TREATS

Aah, the treats, I have saved the best till last!!! Being in Cornwall, Bude has an abundance of cream-tea cafes simply begging for your custom, and boy oh boy did they get it! Fresh scones, smothered in jam and clotted cream, washed down with a cup of tea, a delight which made my arteries stiffen almost instantly and I could hear my heart actually sobbing because of the cholesterol. Cornish ice cream is also very nice, and probably just as bad for you, but hell, you’re on holiday, go mad! Just phone an ambulance and tell them you’ll need it in about 20 minutes!

Bude is the ideal destination for a short break on a fairly restricted budget. It is a charming place, fresh and inexpensive, with plenty to do and see, and it is a seaside town without those horrid seaside houses or organs. Tintagel and Okehampton are nearby, and only a bus journey away, so there is no need to stay in the town all the time, go and see some castles! That’s an order!

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