So Cardiff. A very nice place, the weather we had not so nice. Of course Monica and I always said that no matter the weather we would go and have a good time. Well we sure got tested.
We started our day early, um like 6am early. We got 5 hours of sleep, no joke. With the fire alarm we went to bed around 1am, and 6am came too soon. I felt like I never fell asleep. So we got up, dressed, and left around 6:20ish. 6am in England does not smell like 6am in Mass. There is a certain smell, actually it's all of New England, because Maine has the same smell. I'm not weird or anything, but I spent four years being up at 6am, and there is a certain, lovely smell about it. Kinda like a 6am practice. England though, no special smell. Sad really.
We got to Victoria by 7:30am, got some breakfast and got on the bus. It's a 3 hour bus ride to Cardiff, which is not bad at all. As soon as the bus got going, I turned on my MP3 Player and fell asleep. I'm no longer a fan of 6am, so I was a little tired. I woke up a few times on the way though, and every time the weather was different. One time it was sunny, then raining, then just cloudy and back to rain. It was insane. I missed the English countryside, but according to Monica it wasn't great. I did wake up once though to see a little town, like 5 buildings, and all the buildings were surrounding an old church maybe. Like a ruin of a church. It was pretty.
So we get to Cardiff, and look at the bus station for a few minutes just to make sure we can recognize it later. And then we go off. We went to the Cardiff Castle, the main attraction in Cardiff. We walked past the Stadium that is HUGE and they built it for some big thing a few years ago... um must brush up on England sports. Anyway, we are walking down this street and it starts POURING! Omg, I was drenched in two seconds, and you can't take out your umbrella because you would pull a Mary Poppins. The wind was just as bad as the rain. So we walked very quickly, found the castle and went in. We kinda just stood there in the gift shop trying to catch our breaths and figure out where that rain came from. Anyway, we got tickets for the castle, you have to do a tour, which was fine. Our tour began at noon, so when it stopped raining, we went into the grounds of the castle, and were shown into the Regiment Museum, because it started raining again. While waiting for our tour we looked around there, it was really interesting. It had artifacts from all the wars that the Welsh Regiment Guys were apart of, and also some artifacts from other countries, like for WWII, there was some Nazi stuff, but the main focus was the Welsh. It wasn't just about the battles either, but their families, a lot of photographs, and personal stories. It was so interesting because I don't know much about Wales and their involvement in any war. Um what I loved most was the goat, which is their mascot. Every group has their goat mascot, and a few of them were there and stuffed. In Wales there are sheep and goats, and that's it. Goats have horns, they are more fierce, so the goats win.
So at about 11:45am we went in search of our tour, and back outside, but under a roof, it was raining again. We stopped and took a few pictures of The Keep, and knew at once that we would be visiting that Keep rain or not. It's so cool looking, on top of the little hill. Anyway the castle. We saw the dining room, kid's room, bedroom (not the master but a dressing room with a bed in it), library, and a sitting room. The castle was redecorated in the 19th century and it's very symbolic and Christian. One of the rooms has the four seasons, night and day, another the days of week, the bedroom is an old confessional. I wish I was kidding. It's next to the fireplace and door of the bathroom. It's all extremely well done, so beautiful and my mouth was wide opened, jaw on ground for a lot of it. The kid's room I liked the most, on the walls were fairy tales. Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Jack and Beanstalk, Aladdin, Robin Hood, Gullivan, and a few others. Maybe I liked it so much since in that list the majority of them are Disney. (DISNEY CULT) There was a photograph of the four children, and we learned their names, and what their day was like. There was a Christmas tree in the room too (well done Cardiff castle). The fireplace had a few statues to always remind the children to never gloat about their wealth, it involved the goddess of wisdom and blah um something else. And one of the goddess had donkey ears coming out of her head, being like, yeah she gloated, she looks silly. It was so interesting.
I loved the castle. The library was cool, there was cupids and the cupids were holding name tags of all the most famous writers, and this went all the way around the room. The banquet hall was cool too, you can rent it for weddings. Monica had a far away look on her face when this was said, (you did, don't deny it, or our conversation afterwards. Hahah) It's actually kinda cheap, minimum of 3 hours, and each hour is 250 pounds. The banquet hall, the wallpaper told a story, which was cool. Everything in this castle was just so well thought out, and designed to impress. Which it did!
So when our tour was over, we were told you can either leave or go to the tea room. Well Monica heard tea room and so we went down. Not that anyone was dragging me down there... haha. Um so we had tea, and actually we just got lunch too. I got a BLT (with the B) and Monica got a cheese plate, and it was really good. We had Welsh tea too, which didn't taste any different to me, but it was fun to say, 'yes I went to Wales and had Welsh tea'. When we were eating, a peacock kept staring at us from outside the window. I think it wanted in because it was raining so hard. I didn't blame it.
And then we went to the Keep. It stopped raining for two seconds, so we took some pictures, and then ventured up into the Keep. We quoted Lord of the Rings all the way there, and even afterwards. Monica said I took it too far... um so what if I did. It was fun. The Keep is just stone in ruins, but we climbed the stairs and there are all these little rooms, and of course we stopped at every one. Some gave us great views of the castle. But we got to the top, and we had to hold on because that stupid wind. I swore the flag was going to rip. We got some great pictures though of the wall, the castle, the view... it was unbelievable. It's weird, there's this old castle, and then the new Stadium is just beyond it. Another mix of the old and new.
After the Keep, we hit the gift shop, got some postcards and Christmas gifts, and then went off. I believe it was not raining at this point. So we were thinking where shall we go, and I thought why not hit the Bay. We were both raised near the Atlantic Ocean, so why not see the other side of it... so we just starting walking in that direction. We went past the bus station, and saw a sign for the Bay, when it started... what did it start you ask? Not raining... it was hailing! I looked up at the sky and thought, "You gotta me kidding me." I decided once you see an ocean, they are all the same. We decided shelter was best, and we found an alleyway that was covered, and there was stores so that was fine. We walked down one, and now I can't remember when we found this store, but I might as well put it here. We were walking past this one store, and of course I have a radar for anything hockey. I saw a Rangers jersey.... WHAT! It was a rollerblading/hockey store. We went in. They had hockey equipment... REAL hockey equipment. Not this field hockey junk, but hockey. Skates that were pretty good Bauers, 70 pounds! I was almost tempted to buy a stick since I've broken all three of mine. I was so amazed, when we left I took a picture, just to prove that it exists and I didn't get hit with hail and have a hallucination.
So we found a pub, got some tea, and just talked for awhile. We had passed this coffee shop, and after being in the pub for awhile, we decided to try and find it, but we couldn't. We instead found a coffee shop right near the bus station so we went there, and got hot chocolate. There was this cake there that called to me. OMG! It was chocolate fudge cake, and it was calling my name. I ignored it for awhile, but I finally got it. Monica had a bite, but I ate it all! It was soooo rich! We sat here for awhile, it kept pouring out, and hailing, and I cursed the people who came in or out because they let the wind/rain and hail in, and our backs were to the door. We were sitting in these really comfortable seats though... oh it was awesome.
So we really only saw the castle, but the weather was against us. We did have a good time though. The Castle was amazing, and so was the Keep. I would like to go back to Wales and see the countryside, it looks so amazing.
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