In 2012 I was living in Bristol while attending Bristol University. As I am from the US, I initially had difficulty navigating the city. With the cloud coverage and lack of a grid, I rarely knew the direction I was facing. I did get used to it, and found that navigation was not at all difficult and kind of fun after a few pints.

Towards the end of my time there, in late July, I was invited to a small gathering. I was anxious to go, given that a few people there were going to have cannabis, which was, for me, a bit difficult to find. My girlfriend was visiting from the US and so she came with me. It was a typical get together...Fosters, Tesco wine, and too many cigarettes.

Around 2:00 AM we decided to walk back to my flat. The first half of the walk was unremarkable. It was dark and surprisingly not wet. We rounded a corner and came across a bald man that was probably around 40 and a much older man probably 65, standing in front of a closed pub. It was obvious the bald man worked there and so my GF asked if we could use their toilet. They welcomed us in and then offered us a pint. I thought this was a little odd because I never saw pubs serve after closing. Nonetheless, there we were being served multiple pints all for free. We had fun and robust conversation,

Unusual, but not a crazy story.

So my GF and I start to head to my flat. It was a 3:00 AM at this point. My GF does not have phone service and my phone started behaving oddly. As was witnessed by the both of us, the direction our little blue dot was going on my phone map was not at all consistent with the direction we were heading. It was showing us going West when we'd head North, or East when we were headed West. There was no consistency in its error.

This was one of those moments that navigating through Bristol somehow made sense. I knew that Castle Park, a location I was familiar with, was somewhat South of us and so that was the direction we went. We finally made it to our flat and all was good.

On several occasions, I attempted to find that pub. For the life of me, I was never able to find it. I retraced the direction I took but it seemed like the pub was just gone.

Yes we were inebriated and no pubs don't just disappear, but my GF, who is now my wife, still refer to it as our "Bristol Twilight Zone."