Day 27

On Sunday I went to Cardiff by myself and the city was definitely and interesting place. I took a train 2 hours and 15 minutes from Paddington Station to Cardiff Central with a list of places to go and how to get to each one of them. It was a pretty small station considering that Cardiff is the capital of Wales. The sky was gray and the town just looked very run down and dirty. Some man asked me for money about 20 yards outside the station. In order to get to Caerphilly Castle, my primary reason for going to Cardiff, I had to take a bus about 40 minutes north. The land was very hilly and green and the buildings and houses were all a red brick and seemed very old. When I got to the castle, it was set upon a hill with a moat going around it. I paid for my ticket and, surprisingly, the man who administered my ticket knew that University of Richmond was in Virginia. The castle was interesting because it was built in 1280 and was used as a fortress against the Romans. I could go into all the small rooms that had been restored and climb to the top of the tower and see out over the land. I made it through the castle in about 30 minutes because it all pretty much looked the same. However, I am glad that I went because it was interesting to see the ruins of the castle. I then made my way back to Cardiff on the bus. I first wanted to go to the Riverside Market that I had read about online. I walk down and found that street that the market was supposedly on, but it turned out to be an alleyway in what seemed like a bad part of the city. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the next site I had on my list of places to go. It was a cheese shop that had received great reviews. I walked down the main street with all the shops and could not seem to find it, so I continued walking down the street until I arrived at Cardiff Castle. The shops were mostly chains from London and the Welsh flag lined the street lamps. Another interesting thing about Wales is that all the signs are written in both Welsh and English. I had not realized how prevalent the Welsh language still is, especially considering Prince Charles has been the only Prince of Wales to learn the language. I found Cardiff Castle and went on a tour of it. It was similar to Caerphilly in that it was mainly the ruins of a fortress, but this one was to protect against the Normans. The Lord of Brutes had owned both castles. At Cardiff Castle, there was also a section of the building to go inside the Lord of Brutes’ home that visitors were allowed to enter. There was an Arabic room that was intended to be a bedroom and had been described as a visitor as “sleeping in heaven”. There was a fireplace and the angels that came from the ceiling and everything was decorated in gold. Following this, I went to a Welsh giftshop. A popular momentum in Wales is a love spoon. They are spoons usually made out of wood that have intricate designs on the handles and a heart at the end. Since the shop closed at 4pm, I had to leave and I ended up finding the shop that I couldn’t find earlier. However, the café was closed, so I went to Bella Italia for dinner, which is a chain in London. After that, I walked around for a little bit along the main avenue and the shopping area a street over. The stores all closed at 5pm, so I was not able to go inside any of the stores other than food stores. I went back to the train station and waited until my train back to London arrived. Although the city wasn’t that nice and there weren’t too many things to see, I am happy that I went and traveled by myself to a different country and mapped out everything that I was going to do. Overall the trip in itself was a great experience.

Pictures

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