So we took a bus to Cardiff from London, which wasn't soo bad. I was actually surprised how BUSY the bus station was. It was INSANE. There was barely any room for people to sit, and it was a pretty big complex. They had buses going everywhere across the UK. I thought it was really cool, especially how cheap it was to for us only 10 pounds...which is roughly 15 dollars. Anyways, we get on the bus expecting it to be super packed due to how many people are going, and it wasn't at all. So I took up a row and tried to go to sleep. Note for anyone riding in a moving vehicle---make sure the seat belt buckle fasteners are tucked away, otherwise you WILL wake up with a huge pain in the back that will not go away for like a week.
The view was great on the bus, all green rolling hills. Totally opposite of the hustle and bustle of London. When we got to Cardiff, the bus had two stops...which was silly as they were literally a block away from each other. Tara was right across the street to greet us which was awesome!! We then stopped at a market store (I refuse to call them grocery stores as they are the size of my house packed) and grabbed a sandwich in a box to eat. They were surprisingly better than I thought they would be, but I saw a lot of people eat them--very light but filling once you got to the second half.
Tara then took us to Cardiff Castle and we went in the tunnels in the walls that they used for World War II bunkers during the air raids. I thought it was wicked cool. The Castle of course was beautiful and I sat down on a chair that you were not supposed to sit in. Oops. Tourist?? :D We left our luggage in their storage area for lawn equipment basically, and it was totally fine :). We then met up with stinker Kevin who got to see DR. WHO FILMING---seriously annoyed that I missed it by like 30 minutes or so I bet. Oh well, but seriously jelly.
We then got the rental car...and they made me drive....on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car through like 7 round abouts that go the wrong direction. It was like my worst nightmare. We got to their house and dropped off our stuff and walked down to have some AMAZING Curry. The only food I didn't take a picture of. It was DELISH. We then hiked up to the "observatory"---it gets quotation marks, because when I hear this word I think telescope, It was the top of a hill with a cool art feature. However along the way we saw a toad, a hut made out of trees, and a hill turned into the shape of a horse. It was awesome.
Day TWO of Cardiff.
After Tara cooked us a lovely breakfast we headed off to look at ruins. After ten minutes of me being extremely tense driving, Kevin took over THANK GOODNESS. We saw easily 5 or 6 different ruins/castles and at each one Kevin gave us the history of what was going on. It was like having a live audio guide....that you wanted to punch at times :D JK. maybe. :D I loved the castle that was at the beach, it was soo nice to see ocean and sand. I love the beach, this beach was full of jellyfish!! We thought they were dead till I posted them online and our French friend said DONT TOUCH THEM, they are still alive, they will go back later...oops. We only touched the mantle not the tentacles though. There was a naked child swimming in the ocean though....surrounds by these huge jellies, and her mom, that was interesting. There was no way I'd swim in that.
We also figured out how to have fun with the pano feature on my iphone which made pictures even better :) We seemed to drive short distances to each ruin that by the time we decided to head back, it was such a long drive back I was very confused distance wise of how far we actually went.
OOO Lunch was at another amazing castle, Tyler had a great soup with a cheese block in it and I had beef with mashed potatoes on top. It was sooo yummy and hearty.
There were two finished castles that closed before/when we got to them so we could only go on the outside which was a bummer, because one seemed wicked close to their house. Oh well, don't know what you miss if you don't see it right? Still the outsides were beautiful. You can even have weddings at these places. AMAZING.
They did get us lost on only one trail....so I think total that day we hiked like 56 floors. Tara made us dinner that night and we just chilled the rest of the night.
Day Three Cardiff.
THE REASON WE CAME--(no offense Tara and Kevin) DR WHO EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!! So it is not a typical museum thing. You get your experience thing and they take you through various scenes of the Dr. Who life while on a big screen the Doctor sis giving you instructions, you have to run from Daleks not blink at Weeping Angels. It was great fun. Then it exits you out into the artifact museum of tons of costumes from the current season and some old classics. There are soo many things there I just LOVED IT. That then exits you out into the gift shop--which I spent quite a bit of money in, and wished they had more things to spend money on....lol. I got sonic screw drivers for some grand kids, notebooks for others. Ty and I got two tee shirts, I got a dalek for our puppies--which they don't care for, and a few other things for me. We then went to the water tower that was used in Torchwood all the time and Ianto's shrine.
By the time all of that was over we wanted food and saw another Gourment Kitchen Burger, this time we ordered different milkshakes....stick to their chocolate :)
On the train from dinner, we ran into a crazy bonkers Welsh man. He first stopped us at the station and told us we were idiots for talking about chocolate and had no sense in life but that he meant no offense and wanted to keep hearing us talk because he liked our accents I think?? Then he got in an argument with Kevin on the train about a castle...which of course Kevin took on...and another much nicer drunk next to us was telling us that Kevin was right and that guy was bonkers and he had too much to drink and didn't make it to the game but was hoping he could make it home. Oh yes, there was a huge game going on between Cardiff and Belgium for soccer and the whole main town square was full of fans getting drunk, singing, chanting. It was loud and crazy and I wanted a scarf to fit in :D .
Day FOUR--heading to Paris
So the only thing I'm going to mention here is that we were basically treated like we were terrorists at the Cardiff airport. Its a podunct airport, and I think they were bored to be honest. They had me unpack three of our bags to grab things out that they considered to be liquid and needed to be a in a clear bag. Like my chapstick, my 1 oz bottle of eyeliner, my mascara....etc. Then they proceeded to tell us only ONE CLEAR BAG PER PERSON...so we had to cram everything in our tiny two bags. They were wicked annoying---and then when we tried to order food from a restaurant there they only did part of the menu, but of course that was not mentioned on the menu.
Overall thoughts: Cardiff is pretty country, sooooo freaking green it almost makes you sick. A lot of people drink there, and I'm surprised there are not more car accidents with how people drive. Its freakin scary driving in the tiny roads where only one car should fit. Our hosts/friends were awesome, even though Kevin needed to be hit more than he was. Tara is the bomb. And YEAH for them having a washer/dryer---we didnt pack enough clothes for Ty to stay clean...oops. We bought him more at Dr. Who. I LOVED DR WHO and the ruins. It was a good mixture of fun and history in this short time.
8 years ago
