Just a Casual Day Trip to Wales

Yesterday, Colleen and I decided to take a day trip to Cardiff, Wales. Cardiff is the capital of Wales. Colleen and I definitely have big travel bugs. We booked bus tickets to Cardiff on Saturday. We got up bright and early on Sunday morning, so early we caught the very first tube. We ended up only being able to take the tube to Kings Cross because the Victoria Line was down for the day. We would not have made our bus if we went back and switched to the District Line so we had to take a taxi to the bus station. When we got to the bus station we realized that either of us brought our passports. I remembered Rachel saying that to move around countries in the UK was just like going from state to state in the US and we didn't need passports but we were still nervous. Luckily Rachel was right and we did not need our passports. We had a three and a half hour bus ride to Wales which gave us enough time to nap and be ready for the day.

We got into Cardiff around 12:00. The city was having a 5k race and festival that was just finishing as we arrived. We walked through the festival hoping to find a map but that was a fail. There was a map on the street though so we knew where we were in the city. We decided to walk further into town and see what we could find. Cardiff Castle was literally right behind us the whole time. We drove by it on the bus and neither of us realized it. We toured the Castle first. It was beautiful. The landscape around the castle was so pretty especially from the top. The inside of the Main House was gorgeous. The architecture and design once again kept me staring. Pictures can not do a justice to the detail in painting and carvings this building had.

Once we left the castle we went into a cute little Welsh store. It had all classic Welsh things. We decided to go back later after walking down to the Warf. We now set out in search of Mermaid Quay (which is pronounced "key") I said it wrong when I asked for directions and got quite a weird look. "Tourista Tourista" as my dad always says. It was a bit of a walk to the Warf and we definitely walked through the sketchy part of town but once we got there it was beautiful!! We were right on the water. Mermaid Quay had a lot of restaurants and only a few little shops. We got lunch here at a really good Italian place. We walked around a little more by the Warf and found an art gallery called "Crafts int the Bay". It was one of the places I had written down when doing research on what to do in Cardiff. We decided it was "so much better online." it was not as interesting as the description made it sound but that's alright.

We then walked back into town and through some of the shops on the main stretch. Unfortunately the Welsh store was closed which was slightly upsetting but we went back into the Cardiff Castle Gift Shoppe for souvenirs. Being a Sunday in Europe all the shops close down by 5:00. Our bus back wasn't until 7:40 so we went into a bar and got some drinks while we waited. Overall I really liked Wales. Cardiff was a quaint little town. It did not seem like a city. I definitely felt like I was in Wales. It was a good day trip for sure. I think if we went for a weekend or even one night we would have gotten board quickly. Wales is my third country so far. I have a lot of traveling a head of me in the next three weeks. I leave for Scotland on Friday which is my next big trip and then I have the API overnight in York and immediately leave for my week in Italy. Needless to say I won't be getting much sleep in the next three weeks. Stay tuned for more of my adventures!

Cheers,
Allie