An Awfully Big Adventure: UK Travel Adventure 2011, Part 2
Told you I'd get around to it at some point! Actually, I am up at almost 1:00 in the morning writing this, which is sort of annoying. But it was on my to-do list for today and I really wanted to check it off and be done with it, so here we are. Mercifully, it will be a short entry, because today's post is on Cardiff- a city in which Gen and I stayed for a grand total of one day.
Note: This entry contains only ten of the sixty or so photos I took in this city alone. If you want to see the rest, visit the public link to my facebook album and take a look.
Part 1: London, England
Gen and I had lots of places in Wales that we wanted to visit on our grand UK tour. However, we only had one week until Gen's graduation, and we obviously had to be in Scotland before that day arrived. So we could only stay for 1-2 days in most places. Thus Cardiff got the short end of the stick, and we only spent one day there. (We didn't even get to visit the site where the exterior of Torchwood is filmed, which is disappointing.)
We got to Cardiff on the Megabus; I didn't know they had Megabus service in the UK (I thought it was only a US thing), but it meant super cheap tickets, which was a relief. Our bus driver was hilarious as well; I can only guess that they'd had problems in the past with people misinterpreting the bathroom setup, because he was quick to tell us that "in the toilets, to flush you press the black button, not the red button marked 'Emergency Stop'."
I got pretty excited when we crossed over the border into Wales and all the road signs were suddenly written in both English and Welsh. :P
Our accommodations were technically a hostel, but looked more like a bed and breakfast that happened to have dorm-style rooms. It was very comfortable, more so than we were used to after roughing it at the Camden hostel. Our roommate on this occasion was David, a middle-aged man from Florida by way of South Africa, who had adopted a lifestyle of world travel after losing his job due to cutbacks. He was a nice guy, talkative, but with the downside of having the single most obnoxious snore I have ever heard. I mean, my parents snore, and that can be pretty loud, but this guy was ridiculous. Gen didn't seem to notice and said nothing about it the next morning, although I sometimes forget that she sleeps like the dead and a nuclear attack wouldn't wake her, much less a roommate who snores like a bulldozer. I had to curl up with my ipod to block it out and get some decent sleep.
Here's a shot of what the streets of Cardiff look like. Nice, huh?
Because we only had one afternoon to spend there, we naturally decided on Cardiff Castle as the best destination. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I get kind of excited about castles. When I went to England in 2008, my favorite part of the whole trip (or one of my favorite parts) was Warwick Castle. I'm fascinated by them because, well, we don't have them in America. We've never had a monarchy, at least not one that resided in our country, so there are no authentic castles for us to see. Cardiff Castle was the most exciting of all the castles (we visited at least three) I saw during this trip. Here's what it looks like:
The structure itself was beautiful, and we enjoyed climbing up to the top and seeing the city from high up. Here's a picture of us on the top level of the castle; see the end of the entry for photos of the view from there.
What really made this castle so interesting, though, was the more modern historical significance. Obviously, in ancient times when castles were fully operational, they were used as fortresses from invading armies and other threats. Well, Cardiff Castle has the additional distinction of having been used for the same purpose in the last century. During the Blitz in World War II, part of the castle was converted into a bomb shelter; in the event of an attack, the residents of the city could take shelter in the same building where their ancestors sought protection hundreds of years earlier. I thought this was the coolest thing ever.
(There are tons more interior pictures of this at the facebook album I linked to earlier.)
After this, Gen and I went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and then walked back to an open green area we had passed on our way to the castle earlier that afternoon. We found a stone circle, and with Gen being an archaeology and history geek, I asked her to tell me what it meant. Of course, stone circles are so ancient and obscure that we have no clear idea what they were for, but it was fun to hear all of her theories. From there we went back to the hostel, where I was subject to a somewhat sleep-deprived night due to the persistent snoring, and Gen enjoyed hours of peaceful rest. We were catching another train in the morning, to progress further North into Wales.
(Below: some views of Cardiff from above.)
Note: This entry contains only ten of the sixty or so photos I took in this city alone. If you want to see the rest, visit the public link to my facebook album and take a look.
Part 1: London, England
Gen and I had lots of places in Wales that we wanted to visit on our grand UK tour. However, we only had one week until Gen's graduation, and we obviously had to be in Scotland before that day arrived. So we could only stay for 1-2 days in most places. Thus Cardiff got the short end of the stick, and we only spent one day there. (We didn't even get to visit the site where the exterior of Torchwood is filmed, which is disappointing.)
We got to Cardiff on the Megabus; I didn't know they had Megabus service in the UK (I thought it was only a US thing), but it meant super cheap tickets, which was a relief. Our bus driver was hilarious as well; I can only guess that they'd had problems in the past with people misinterpreting the bathroom setup, because he was quick to tell us that "in the toilets, to flush you press the black button, not the red button marked 'Emergency Stop'."
I got pretty excited when we crossed over the border into Wales and all the road signs were suddenly written in both English and Welsh. :P
Our accommodations were technically a hostel, but looked more like a bed and breakfast that happened to have dorm-style rooms. It was very comfortable, more so than we were used to after roughing it at the Camden hostel. Our roommate on this occasion was David, a middle-aged man from Florida by way of South Africa, who had adopted a lifestyle of world travel after losing his job due to cutbacks. He was a nice guy, talkative, but with the downside of having the single most obnoxious snore I have ever heard. I mean, my parents snore, and that can be pretty loud, but this guy was ridiculous. Gen didn't seem to notice and said nothing about it the next morning, although I sometimes forget that she sleeps like the dead and a nuclear attack wouldn't wake her, much less a roommate who snores like a bulldozer. I had to curl up with my ipod to block it out and get some decent sleep.
Here's a shot of what the streets of Cardiff look like. Nice, huh?
Because we only had one afternoon to spend there, we naturally decided on Cardiff Castle as the best destination. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I get kind of excited about castles. When I went to England in 2008, my favorite part of the whole trip (or one of my favorite parts) was Warwick Castle. I'm fascinated by them because, well, we don't have them in America. We've never had a monarchy, at least not one that resided in our country, so there are no authentic castles for us to see. Cardiff Castle was the most exciting of all the castles (we visited at least three) I saw during this trip. Here's what it looks like:
The structure itself was beautiful, and we enjoyed climbing up to the top and seeing the city from high up. Here's a picture of us on the top level of the castle; see the end of the entry for photos of the view from there.
What really made this castle so interesting, though, was the more modern historical significance. Obviously, in ancient times when castles were fully operational, they were used as fortresses from invading armies and other threats. Well, Cardiff Castle has the additional distinction of having been used for the same purpose in the last century. During the Blitz in World War II, part of the castle was converted into a bomb shelter; in the event of an attack, the residents of the city could take shelter in the same building where their ancestors sought protection hundreds of years earlier. I thought this was the coolest thing ever.
(There are tons more interior pictures of this at the facebook album I linked to earlier.)
After this, Gen and I went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and then walked back to an open green area we had passed on our way to the castle earlier that afternoon. We found a stone circle, and with Gen being an archaeology and history geek, I asked her to tell me what it meant. Of course, stone circles are so ancient and obscure that we have no clear idea what they were for, but it was fun to hear all of her theories. From there we went back to the hostel, where I was subject to a somewhat sleep-deprived night due to the persistent snoring, and Gen enjoyed hours of peaceful rest. We were catching another train in the morning, to progress further North into Wales.
(Below: some views of Cardiff from above.)