fun times in Cardiff!
Feb. 11th, 2009 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solipsistnationToday we got up extra-early (8:30!) and caught the bus to the train to Cardiff.
Most of the area near the train station smells like delicious crackers, thanks to the Brains brewery nearby, from which wafts the rich scent of malt. Yum.
In Cardiff, we ate vegetarian Indian food at a place called "The Vegetarian Food Studio" which was pretty tasty and then walked down to the Millennium Centre and pretended we were in Torchwood. Pictures follow. It's funny how many distinctive buildings there are... "Oh, that's the one where Cap'n Jack stood on and looked sad" and so on.
We poked around there a bit, visited Roald Dahl Plass (dedicated to the writer, of course), and then wandered over to the very exciting Doctor Who exhibit and looked at costumes and stuff from the show. Then we acquired small die-cast Daleks. From there, figuring we'd seen the best of Cardiff (ha, not really. it looks like a cool town, and I'd like to go back and poke around more sometime) we headed back to the train and Neath. We arrived just in time to miss the bus back to Rhos, so we wandered around Neath looking for luggage-- we did the Rick Steves "Pack super light!" thing on the way over, but then we got a bunch of books and, well, some die-cast Daleks and things and frankly I don't want to have to carry all of that all the way home. So, I now have a suitcase I found at a sporting good's store on sale for 9.99. I keep having to remind myself that that's not freakishly cheap, just relatively cheap and that the original price of 19.99 was still kind of low but not into the "is it made of tissue paper and tin cans?" territory. We'll load it up with books and things and check it.
The next bus didn't leave until about an hour later, so we wandered around a little and eventually settled in to have a pint at the pub across from the bus station. It was populated by drunken old folks (and a 40s-ish couple making out vigorously in one corner, complete with absurd slurping noises. they took off later, I hope to bonk one another silly and get it out of their systems. sheesh.) who appeared to have been there a while. Eventually the bus arrived. We got back to Rhos after dark and had a nice 20-minute walk through the pitch-black Welsh night.
We're out of firewood, alas, and the farmhouse is totally dark so I didn't want to go and pester them for more wood. Ah well. Tomorrow I'll get some more for one last night of toasty toes. Tonight I shall drink the finest wines of Tesco and eat some chips and delightful brown sauce. (Brown sauce, for the record, tastes more or less like what is sold as "steak sauce" in the US.)
Tired now. Tomorrow I still want to head up to the real summit of the local giant hill but mostly I think we'll be restful and getting ready for bus to train to ferry to bus to Dublin.
Most of the area near the train station smells like delicious crackers, thanks to the Brains brewery nearby, from which wafts the rich scent of malt. Yum.
In Cardiff, we ate vegetarian Indian food at a place called "The Vegetarian Food Studio" which was pretty tasty and then walked down to the Millennium Centre and pretended we were in Torchwood. Pictures follow. It's funny how many distinctive buildings there are... "Oh, that's the one where Cap'n Jack stood on and looked sad" and so on.
We poked around there a bit, visited Roald Dahl Plass (dedicated to the writer, of course), and then wandered over to the very exciting Doctor Who exhibit and looked at costumes and stuff from the show. Then we acquired small die-cast Daleks. From there, figuring we'd seen the best of Cardiff (ha, not really. it looks like a cool town, and I'd like to go back and poke around more sometime) we headed back to the train and Neath. We arrived just in time to miss the bus back to Rhos, so we wandered around Neath looking for luggage-- we did the Rick Steves "Pack super light!" thing on the way over, but then we got a bunch of books and, well, some die-cast Daleks and things and frankly I don't want to have to carry all of that all the way home. So, I now have a suitcase I found at a sporting good's store on sale for 9.99. I keep having to remind myself that that's not freakishly cheap, just relatively cheap and that the original price of 19.99 was still kind of low but not into the "is it made of tissue paper and tin cans?" territory. We'll load it up with books and things and check it.
The next bus didn't leave until about an hour later, so we wandered around a little and eventually settled in to have a pint at the pub across from the bus station. It was populated by drunken old folks (and a 40s-ish couple making out vigorously in one corner, complete with absurd slurping noises. they took off later, I hope to bonk one another silly and get it out of their systems. sheesh.) who appeared to have been there a while. Eventually the bus arrived. We got back to Rhos after dark and had a nice 20-minute walk through the pitch-black Welsh night.
We're out of firewood, alas, and the farmhouse is totally dark so I didn't want to go and pester them for more wood. Ah well. Tomorrow I'll get some more for one last night of toasty toes. Tonight I shall drink the finest wines of Tesco and eat some chips and delightful brown sauce. (Brown sauce, for the record, tastes more or less like what is sold as "steak sauce" in the US.)
Tired now. Tomorrow I still want to head up to the real summit of the local giant hill but mostly I think we'll be restful and getting ready for bus to train to ferry to bus to Dublin.
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Date: 2009-02-12 08:33 pm (UTC)