Wales so far - Mum, don't read the first paragraph!!

---

Oh Lord, I now know I could never survive a Contiki trip. Forcing yourself to go sightseeing when you're so hungover that you just want to die is tantamount to torture in my book. And such has been my last two days. It's not my fault, though. It is entirely the fault of a certain Welsh bartender who will remain nameless (as he is now keeping track of this blog!) and £1.50 drinks.

Now that you have the context, I'll give you the details:

I arrived in Cardiff on Friday and, as has always been the case upon my arrival in a new city, it was raining. Bucketing down, cats and dogs, all that stuff. So I lugged my enormous backpack to the backpackers (thankfully, they had given good directions). After I checked in I put my backpack back on and promptly fell over backwards onto my arse in the middle of the reception area. Thankfully, the girl at the reception desk has a good sense of humour and laughed with me - and hey, at least she remembers me now!

Friday afternoon I wandered around Cardiff for a bit - there's a dirty great castle in the middle of the city, by the way - and headed back to the hostel for a nanna nap. I've blogged previously about my first night here, so I won't go into it again. Needless to say, it was a great laugh.

Saturday I bought a package which gave me cheap entry into Cardiff Castle and Millenium Stadium. Cardiff Castle was pretty cool but Millenium Stadium was fabulous. I took lots of pictures for Dad but no picture can convey the love of rugby that permeates this city. It's almost like a religion.

Last night was another night of drinking, but there were more of us this time - four Aussies, a Dutch girl and the aforementioned Welsh bartender. Another fabulous night of cheap (and free!) drinks and singalongs to Khe San. It was The Welshman's last night working here and we certainly benefitted from that!

Today I rose a little later than usual and after a nice greasy fry up I headed to Caerphilly Castle, which is in Caerphilly (duh!) - pronouced Carphilly. The town and the castle were beautiful and I took heaps of photos, which I'll post when I get to a computer with a USB port. On my way out some other nice tourists offered me a lift back to Cardiff but I already had my return train ticket. And I'm not an idiot. Then, a nice local lady gave me a run down of the wildlife of the area and insisted I come back in July for their cheese festival. How exciting!

Now I'm off to find a nice easy dinner before an early night. My kingdom for sleep ...

---