Blogs from Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe - page 7

After a bit of a restless night, not because of the accommodations, but because of my sore throat, which tends to bother me most at night. I slept in and didn’t get up until almost 10! It being the weekend things don’t really start to open until 10 anyway so it wasn’t too bad. My first stop was the information centre, but because I already had a list of things to do, and a map from the hostel, I didn’t stay there long. I went next door to The Cardiff Story Museum. It was not a very large museum but it had a lot of interesting and interactive displays about the ancient, and more modern history of Cardiff. There was a collection of items, donated by people who used to live in Cardiff and there was ... read more

The next morning I headed for Cardiff. There was not going to be anything of interest to me in Bristol, but that should change in Cardiff. I would be going to another country; although I still refer to England and Wales as part of one country; the United Kingdom. I arrived in Wales at around 1pm, and so had a few hours of daylight left to explore around. Firstly, I checked in at my hostel. Another neat one. UK hostels seem to be better than the US ones, and in more abundance. This one had Wi-Fi, so that definitely puts the rating up for me. There was something to do around here, contrary to what I've been told, and I decided to head for one of them. The Cardiff Castle; and I didn't regret the visit. ... read more

Another Celtic adventure awaited me as I boarded my London Victoria bus headed for the Welsh capital of Cardiff. My first fail of the trip came swiftly, this time in the form of a tuna salad dinner from Marks & Spencers. I've bought prepackaged meals from them before, and while I can never actually see any sign of plastic cutlery before opening them, I've always found one hiding under the lid somewhere. Not this time. I quickly realised my mistake after tearing off the non-resealable plastic top, and stared blankly at it for a while, the messy layer of mayo on the top mocking my lack of utensils. The Czech girl sitting next to me sure got a kick out of watching me eat the entire thing using only the lid of my fruit smoothie bottle, ... read more

So this is my first blog, and hopefully not the last! The main reason I've decided on creating this blog is so when I grow old, I can look back on this amazing experience and hopefully live it over in my future frail brain, because I know this amazingly ridiculous opportunity won't come round again (thanks so much mum!). It also gives me something to keep me occupied. In addition to that I can share my day to day experiences for when I am abroad with family and friends. I once tried writing a travel diary once, but after a few days I just didn't keep at it. I think the generation now being the 'computer' or 'internet' generation, I am much more adapt to this (as sad as that sounds). I know that I will ... read more

Waterford to Cardiff and South Wales A 6am start had us travelling to Rosslare where we caught the ferry back from Ireland to Fishguard in Wales. Almost an hour from Cardiff we made a detour into a small country village where we visited a local carpenter who specialised in creating Welsh Love Spoons! The carving of wooden spoons as love tokens dates back to the 17th century, and a spoon can be carved to contain symbols to convey meaning such as love, marriage and good fortune. This gave an altogether new light on ‘spooning’. We had dinner at The Blue Anchor – a cute thatched inn built in 1380, that has seen some hard times including the smugglers of the famine period and in more recent times a devastating fire that burnt much of the ... read more