Looking for unusual days out for free, or bored of the same old outings? Don’t get out enough at all? Where do you go to explore the arts and history, and possibly pick up some free food and drink?? I bet you haven’t thought of this venue, wherever you are in the UK.
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Transcript: Free Ideas For Summer & Beyond… UK Holidays
Bear: [00:00:00] It was about 10:00 AM when I heard a TV historian say, come along and join us. Lots of great stuff going on, including lots of ancient stuff, where you can come and do some Roman cooking. You can come and explore our archeological collection. You can get some hands on some real coins. I always love me some real coins.
You can also be part of the Delphic tree dedication ceremony. Did someone say Delphic tree dedication ceremony? I sprinted out the door. No, that’s not what happened. I’m autistic. I like to plan everything down to the last detail. I looked up the schedule for this festival, planned exactly what sessions I wanted to go to and at what time and how to get there.
And then I sprinted out the door because this event was starting at 12 and clearly some time had passed and I only do something spontaneous once a month. It was now or never. And I arrived to find that the opening ceremony was thankfully running over and was still going, which meant that there was still free
prosecco following as well. Was this a TV studio? Was it a museum? No, I’ll let you know later where I was exactly. First of all, you do want to orient yourself. So I did take a tour of this brand new building that had just [00:01:00] been opened. I’m a bit of an architecture nerd anyway, but crucially, if an event is going to be offering free food and drink, you’ve got to find out, first of all, where all your refreshments for the day are going to be. There were live performances going on inside and out all day long too.
So there was a band stage outside and acapella singing indoors and dance performances. But as professor Michael Scott pointed out while I was rushing through my present, this is a great place to explore the past. So first of all, I headed to the antiquities showcase. They had a whole collection there of pottery going back to the fifth century, BC couldn’t you just go to a museum for that?
Well, not all museums are free, but also you could actually handle a Greek and Roman coin collection here, which I thought was very unusual. Don’t think I’ve ever been to a museum where you can actually touch a lot of the artifacts I didn’t opt for the melon and fish sauce, which was one of the things that they were munching on at the Roman cookery demonstration.
I instead went for the afternoon tea outside, but there was also a terrace. And the rain had stopped. So if ever you are looking for something to do for free I’d aim for somewhere with a [00:02:00] view. If you can get up on a rooftop somewhere, there’s a reason why lots of religions think that the afterlife is somewhere in the skies.
The people behind me were feeling the wind in their hair, but that’s because they were doing a stage combat workshop. I opted for the more sedate activities like the book swap, where you could bring along books that you wanted to exchange for other books for free, that people had left behind. There was also a virtual reality display there where you could put on a virtual reality headset possibly for the first time and paint sculptures on a massive screen.
I missed the Latin lesson, which is a shame because I’ve always wanted to make casual conversation in English, let alone Latin. I’m not going to lie. I spent most of my time hanging around the Greek and Roman coins. I am a personal finance channel at the end of the day. You’re always going to find me somewhere near the money, even on a free day out, not to mention that the artwork collection there was worth thousands of pounds also.
So I was just automatically drawn to it. I’m only human. Unfortunately, they weren’t actually having a drinking symposium like the Russians and… The Russians? [00:03:00] The Russians are coming. Like the Romans and the ancient Greeks did. I did catch the Delphic tree ceremony where they poured a libation to the Greek gods.
Don’t see that every day. And I finished the joint… The joint? There were no joints. Not even gin joints. I finished the jaunt with a walk through the trees, which was just as chill as some joints I imagine. And I took a look at the art center. Now, the caveat to not spending any money on this event was that I didn’t actually have to travel to get there.
So I was, if you haven’t guessed already at a university and you could attend, whether you were a student, alumni, or member of the public. So my travel wasn’t free because I did have to buy a train ticket and I did take a bus as well. Although the cost of the bus was canceled out by what I saved by not being at home. At the moment with the cost of electricity and gas it’s costing easily, two pounds a day just to exist at home.
Although I did do an installment recently about how I’ve managed to save money there even so, at a point where I [00:04:00] didn’t think it was possible to save any more money on energy. And obviously I didn’t spend anything on food and drink. I even threw my morning coffee in a flask when I ran out the door; not at the same time. That could have got quite messy.
But if you do live near a university or college, I would definitely take a look at the events. Perhaps they won’t be having a grand opening of a building on a very regular basis, but they definitely have an events program through the year. And even so, if the only thing that you have to pay for is the travel,
if you don’t have a university or college in the same town as you, then I still think it’s a really good value day out if you don’t have a lot of other free attractions near you. And I did get to chat to someone whose documentaries I’ve been watching on TV. And that felt really good because you know what? Quite often, when we’re looking to spend money or save money, what we think we’re doing is trying to obtain a product or service.
But actually what we’re trying to do is feel a certain way, and I felt alive. Maybe it was the trees from Delphi or the wind in my hair on the terrace. Or perhaps I just shouldn’t have had a glass of Prosecco at 12 o’clock before [00:05:00] eating anything, but there was a great atmosphere. People were happy. We were in a place of learning.
It felt like a place of possibility, which is really how a university should feel. I think it’s a bonus gift that even if you’re not studying at the university or paying to study there, that you too could go there and feel like life is full of potential. Also, I definitely didn’t realize that because they use the
artifacts for teaching that they basically have a collection on the same level as a museum. So if you don’t have a museum near you or a free museum, see if you’ve got a university near you instead, because they might have a museum collection. Let me know what you discover, or if you have any tips of your own for how to have an unusual day out without breaking the bank.
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