Wales Day One -- Put Your Hands Up For Cardiff

Dan and I woke up literally 15 minutes before our scheduled 8:30 departure and Ceri made a special point in his e-mail to emphasize punctuality, so we didn't dare take showers or anything. We just stuffed clothes into our bags and ran out the door so as not to be late. And we made it. Then the professors were late so we had to wait for them. That did not make me happy at all.

We rode to Cardiff, which is about 3 1/2 hours or so from London by bus. It's the capital of Wales (not that Wales has much autonomy at all) and it's 2nd biggest city after Swansea. It's home to 500,000 people and is cultural center of Wales. Feel free to fact check that, by the way. I'm just taking our program director Ceri's word for it. He should know. He's Welsh.

We stayed at a hostel right next to Millennium Stadium, which is the main landmark in Cardiff. A football (and by football I mean "soccer") and more especially rugby stadium, Millennium Stadium is home to the Cardiff Blues rugby team as well as the Wales National Rugby team which is the champion of this year's Six Nations Rugby competition which pits the Rugby Union teams of England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland, and Italy against each other.

We dropped our belongings at the hostel and then took the short walk to Cardiff Castle where Ceri bought our admission tickets. Then, we were released to enjoy Cardiff. A group of us decided that lunch was in order and we found and Indian buffet, which was disarmingly empty. However, the food was very good. Unfortunately, spicy food does not agree with me and the food was too hot for me to enjoy. Other than that, it was quite tasty, especially the chicken wings. This buffet was slightly odd in that instead of getting a clean plate each time we were told to reuse the same plate.

Then we headed for the National Museum Cardiff, which I enjoyed greatly. A couple days before, a group of us went to the National Gallery in London, which is an absolute treasure trove of art complete with paintings from all the great European masters. The only problem with it is how HUGE it is. It's hard to take it all in. This museum is of an accessible size but still boasts works by Manet, Monet, Picasso, and Renoir (who incidentally is my personal favorite).

It is also next door to what I think was City Hall and together those buildings and the surrounding grounds are absolutely beautiful. Here's the evidence, the last one is from a garden around the corner:

After the Museum we headed back for Cardiff Castle to take our tour. At the castle, we learned about the Goat Major, which is the soldier who trains the goat mascot of the Welsh Regiment. Yes, the Welsh Army has a goat for a mascot. The natural choices for a mascot for Wales would seem to me to be a red dragon or sheep. However, seeing as how the former is mythical and the latter is, um, a sheep, they go with a goat. Then, we saw a short video ostensibly introducing us to Cardiff Castle. I say ostensibly because it made no sense whatsoever and was extremely trippy. Basically, it featured a girl reading a book which causes random people on the streets of Cardiff to turn into figures from history. What this has to do with the Castle, no one could figure out. Then we toured the Castle. Unfortunately, I have no interior castle pictures because they aren't allowed. Basically, an obscenely rich family owned it as a summer home, which they used for 6 weeks a year. All the rooms are incredibly ornately decorated and each adheres to a theme. One room features great poets, another fables and fairy tales, another signs of the zodiac. It's about as beautiful as could possibly be. Then we went and explored the more military aspects of the castle on our own. Castle shots upcoming:After Cardiff Castle, we had the notion to go through the covered market, which is like a mall except not completely enclosed but just roofed in. Unfortunately, all the shops had already closed. We did, however, stop by Spillers Records, which bills itself as the world's oldest record store, established 1894. Apparently, this is actually true and it began as a phonograph shop. Then, they kicked us out because it was closing time and headed back to the hostel before dinner.

Dinner was at Giovanni's, an Italian restaurant. It was 17.95 for a three course meal and it was already paid for, which makes it all the more delicious. I had prosciutto with melon to start, followed by breaded veal and then tiramisu for dessert. The best thing about the meal was that wine was bought for both tables (of 12) and so there was plentiful wine, both red and white. It probably goes with saying that you don't have to twist college students' arms to drink free alcohol and by the end of the meal, we had all had at least two glasses of wine and some had 4 or more. That led to some, um, interesting, conversations to say the least. Of which, many were definitely R rated and not what would generally be considered appropriate dinner table topics by sober people.

After dinner, it was time to explore the nightlife of Cardiff on a Thursday. First, we hit a bar playing house music, but apparently some people within the group felt that the other patrons were a bit sketchy, so that was scuttled and we headed to Flares, an 70s and 80s themed club for drinking and dancing. We thought it might be a gay club based on the large amount of middle aged women paired off, but some folks from Cardiff later dispelled that notion. After Flares, we headed next door to cap off the night and then went back to the hostel. All said, it was legitimately one of the best days in my life and I plan on making it a point to get back to Cardiff, if not during this term than at some point in the next 5 or so years.