So I started writing Sunday night, but I got distracted and when I came back to it I just wanted to go to bed. So I'm going to pretend it's still Sunday night so I can finish it.
Definitely a good weekend...
I've been in Wales for the weekend with a group of nine other students. At first I was a little hesitant about it because a group of nine is pretty big, but actually turned to be loads of fun. We left for the train station at about six forty-five on Saturday morning. Our train didn't actually come until seven forty-five, but we wanted to make sure we were there on time. The train ride was in total about an hour and a half, but we had to switch trains in the middle which made the ride go faster. We got to Cardiff probably around nine thirty. The first thing we had to do was get bus tickets for Saturday and Sunday so we wouldn't have to walk everywhere. Then it was time to start seeing Wales. We couldn't check into our hostel until after two in the afternoon, so we just had to carry out backpacks around for a while. The first thing we decided to go see was the Llandaff Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous!! For one thing, the landscape is very hilly so the Cathedral was in this little valley and there were these hills all around it. Then of course the Cathedral itself was really pretty with stained glass and high arches. We walked around the front of the Cathedral taking pictures, and then we wandered around the other side. There were lots of gravestones all around the Cathedral which gave it this extra feeling of sacredness about it. Then finally we went inside, and it was gorgeous inside as well. I wandered around taking so many pictures...the stained glass was really pretty...and there was this one room that had a giant stained glass window and the sun was shining into the room and it was breathtaking. I absolutely loved it. When I finally wandered back to the entrance of the Cathedral I found out that I was the last one and everyone else was already done and waiting for me outside. Oh well...who knows if I'll ever make it back there, so I wanted to take my time, and didn't mind making them wait. After getting done with the Cathedral it was nearly noon and we were all pretty hungry. So we went across the street to a cafe for lunch. I had a BLT which was pretty yummy. After we ate, we got on a bus and headed back to Central Station. Then we decided to go to the Cardiff Bay. So we switched buses and were at the Bay within minutes. We were very fortunate because it was a really nice day...sunny and blue skies...so the bay was beautiful. There were even some sailboats out on the water. We walked around the Bay for a while taking lots of pictures. The water was glistening...it was really beautiful. We stopped and sat on some sculptures of animals and things...there was a wolf, a flower type thing, a naked lady, and a serpent...the serpent had an inscription on his tail that said "the lured fish under the foam witnessed with a kiss" I was really curious as to what that meant...so I eventually looked it up and found that it is from The Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait by Dylan Thomas. But anyways...after we finished wandering around and taking pictures we were all in agreement that it was time to find the hostel and check in and drop off our backpacks, which were getting heavier by the hour. So we took a bus part of the way back, and then walked to our hostel, which was called Nomad. We checked in and headed to our rooms. We all couldn't fit into the same room so we had to split into two groups. There was one group of six and another group of four. I was in the group of four, so it was Me, Danielle, Michaela, and Jess. By this time it was about four in the afternoon and we were all pretty tired. We ended up just chilling in our rooms for a little while before deciding to head out again. This time we were just going to the main street where all the different shops were, which turned out to only be a ten minutes walk away from the hostel. So we all broke into little groups and browsed the streets, looking at different stores. Everything closed at about six so that was when we decided to look for a place to get some dinner. After discussing it, a few people went to Burger King, but the rest of us went to this restaurant that was more like a buffet style. I ended up having lasagna, which was really good but interesting...I'm pretty sure there was only one layer of noodle on it, but there was a whole bunch of other stuff on it and I couldn't figure out what...oh well, it filled me up which was all I really cared about at that point. After we finished, we all headed back to the hostel. We ended up playing some card games since it was still early in the evening, but after a while card games can get somewhat boring. So the majority of us ended up going out to a pub at around nine thirty. However as we walked down the street where all the pubs were, we discovered that going to a pub in jeans and a plain shirt was not acceptable, because everyone...and I mean everyone...was dressed up really fancy. Needless to say, we all felt very out of place. So we picked the pub that seemed the least dressy and hung out there until about eleven. Then on the way back to the hostel, we stopped at McDonald's. I got a McFlurry with Smarties...which was delicious...I had been craving dessert for a while. When we got back, it was definitely time for bed. The beds in the hostel were very springy...as in you could feel every spring in the mattress, so I didn't sleep all that great...and they were also very loud, and you couldn't move with out the whole bed shaking and squeaking which was rather annoying. But we all managed and got a relatively decent night's sleep. I got up early the next morning because I wanted to shower. So I got ready and then headed to breakfast at eight-thirty...the hostel provided breakfast which was toast and cereal, oh and tea. I made the discovery that blackcurrant jam is actually pretty good. After breakfast we finished getting ready and packing our things together, and checked out at ten. Then we headed to Central Station to try to catch the bus to the Welsh Life Museum. Unfortunately the bus only leaves once every hour and we ended up missing it by five minutes. Then we tried to go to Caerphilly Castle, but found out that we had nearly forty minutes before that bus left. So to kill some time, I went to a cafe with a Michaela and Stephanie to get some hot chocolate, and then we stopped at Mark's and Spencer's on the way back to the bus station to get a chocolate filled croissant...which was delicious. When we all got back to the bus station, we found out that we had gotten the buses mixed up, and that now our best bet to get to the Caerphilly Castle was to just take the train. So we rushed over to the train station and found a train that was going to leave in the next ten minutes and bought tickets. The we practically ran to our platform and got on the train. The ride out to Caerphilly wasn't long...maybe fifteen minutes. Then we walked to the Castle. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me...I absolutely love castles and this one was really cool. It was an old stone castle, complete with a moat. I went a little nuts, and wandered the castle in a dreamy daze and constantly taking pictures. There were vines growing all over the walls and there were spiral staircases...yeah I was basically in heaven. The only thing that could have made it better would to have been able to see it when it was actually in use...but that's impossible. I loved it. We probably stayed there until about twoish. Most people were done looking at the castle before me, but that was ok...I was definitely taking my time. By the time we were done we were all hungry so we stopped for lunch at a pub...The King's Arms. They told us that it would probably be about a half hour wait until we got our food and we said that was ok...however it ended up being about a fifty minute wait...and we were starving! By the time I got my chicken and bacon sandwich I was so hungry that I inhaled it. Unfortunately by the time we finished eating it was too late to go to the Welsh Life Museum because it closed at five and by the time we got there it would probably be about five. So we just decided to head back to Cheltenham. So we took the four o'clock train back to Cardiff and from there we caught our train back to Chentenham. An hour and a half later we were walking back to Regency...however we did get slightly detoured on the way because we walked by Weatherspoons...the pub that had the amazing chocolate cake...so Jess, Suzie, Deanne, Stephanie, Michaela, and I all stopped there for cake, and it was totally worth it. Then we went home. I was super tired and it was an early night for me. But it was definitely a great weekend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment