Around the World in 365 days: Cardiff, Wales 24.09

We arrived at the bus station in Wales, at about 10.30pm. We were both pretty tired and still feeling the effects of our colds. We took a taxi to the hostel, and were a little disconcerted at how dead the place was. The guy at the reception desk showed us our room, and then went back to his desk. We found out on our own, that there was a dining room, a TV room and a sitting room, but we felt like we were supposed to tiptoe around. We went to bed pretty soon, inhibited only by the loud snoring on the bunk beneath us.

We had breakfast at the hostel the next morning, and then headed out into town. It was walking distance, and we now had a good map, so we headed out on foot. We made a stop for supplies at the pharmacy, and then went to another great store, Top Shop!

The autumn weather in the UK is not exactly warm, and we were heading much further north in the coming days, so Artur decided it was time to buy Loren a better jacket. We bought a military style Napoleanic jacket with a cool pocket on the chest. It was a gift to help Loren recover from her cold, as well as an early anniversary present. Loren was thrilled!

Our first sightseeing stop in Cardiff, was the Cardiff Castle. This castle was the most impressive looking structure in town, and it is located just next the main centre of town. Great location! The huge walls and turrets are visible from the main street, so we were getting excited as we started walking towards it. Colourful flags were flying from the the walls, and the beautiful sunshine made it look even prettier.

The Castle originally a Roman fortress, but it was deserted and taken over by the Normans (possibly even William the Conqueror). William's son was imprisoned here in his last years, in the castle's keep.

The Marquess of Bute took over the house in the Castle, and discovered the Roman foundations of the walls of the Castle . He was fascinated by history, so he excavated the walls, and rebuilt a remarkably accurate replica of what the fortress walls would have looked like. He did a lot of research, and it paid off.

His son, was not so interested in preserving history, and in archaological remains. He decided to 'clean up', the castle, by removing the wall that divided the Castle grounds in two, and removing the remains of ancient buildings that were dotted around the property.

He hired a landscaper by the name of Capability Brown. The grounds became a huge expanse of manicured lawns, surrounded by the ancient walls, the mansion, and with the keep left intact inside the walls. Little walking paths were put in for strolling, it became a Victorian style property. The keep was still surrounded by the moat, but the sides of it were covered in lawn, like a big hill.

The house was also redecorated. A much more exciting and fascinating job was done on the interior of this mansion. The designer was William Burgess, who must have had a brilliant imagination to have come up with these designs.

The first room we saw was the children's nursery. Everything in this room was decorated ecclectically, but it all tied in to the children's theme. The walls were painted with pictures from nursery rhymes and fairy tales. So each time a story was read, there was an illustration to accompany it.

The library was also an incredible room. Every surface was covered in pictures, or patterns. There were pictures on the walls, depicting names or people who are famous in the world of writers, or academics.

The dining room, or ball room, was another eclectic but amazing design. The ceiling was covered in the shields of Scottish tribes, as the Marquess had family from there. The colours in the room were amazing. In any other room they would clash and look out of place. This designer had a strange mind, but he must have been a genius.

The son of this Marquess took after his grandfather, and decided that ancient things were more cool than landscaping. He excavated the foundations of the wall that ran down the centre, and exposed them. He also partially rebuilt the wall. Eventually the Castle was donated to the city of Cardiff in 1947.

After exploring the buildings of the castle, we went to see some birds that we could see in a little hut. It turned out that the castle has a falconeer, who is in charge of using his falcons to scare away pigeons, and other annoying pests.

We arrived just as the birds were being fed. So we got to watch them tear apart defrosted baby chickens, ewwww. They try to kill the chicken first, and then they eat the whole thing, nothing is left uneaten. Apparently they don't drink water, because they get their water from the chickens.

They were really beautiful birds, and there were all different varieties. There was one barn owl called Billy. All of the birds here were injured at some point, and were brought to the falconeer, to be nursed back to health. He let Billy sit on his shoulder while he was recovering, and now Billy likes to sit there all the time, while he's doing his chores.

We learnt a bit about the science of falconeering while we were there. Apparently you have to weigh the birds every day, and if they weigh too little, you don't fly them, because they're hungry and will fly off and hunt for themselves, not do their job. If they weigh too much, you don't fly them, because they have no urge to hunt at all, and will probably go and sleep in a tree. You have to know exactly how much to feed them, especially when they are growing up.

After seeing the falcons, we went to feed the ducks. The ducks waddled over to us as we were sitting on a park bench. We gave them some biscuite that we had, and they were not shy about taking them!

We checked out the keep on the hill next, which was pretty cool. You had to climb up a big staircase, and cross the moat to get to it. It was used as the last measure of protection, when the castle was under fire.

The centre of the keep had holes in the wall, where wooden poles used to be stuck, and little stalls were set up there. There were also some rooms in the walls of the keep, where the owners of the castle would have stayed when it was dangerous. There was a great view over the city from the top of the keep. You could see in all directions, all the way to the water. It was amazing!

After seeing the Castle, we went to Bute Park. It was gorgeous park, surrounded by walls with sculptures of animals all along them. We went for a wander in the park, admiring the beautiful trees and stretches of perfect grass. Eventually we went to sit by the water, where we planned to take the Aqua Bus, or Water Taxi.

The Aqua Bus would take us along the Taff River, and out to the bay. It arrived soon to pick us up, and they gave up a safety demonstration, just like in a plane! The ride along the river was lovely, we saw a stadium on the way, and lots of pretty houses.

We were also taken all the way out to the sea, where they had built a big barrier, to filter the water coming from the river into the sea. We sailed from the barrier, into the Mermaid Quay at Cardiff Bay. The view as we came into the bay was incredible. There is some serious great architecture in that Bay.

The Millenium Dome stands out as a curved metallic structure, and in front of it there is a bright red Seneddi, which is the Welsh Assembly Building. Amazing buildings just seemed to fill the skyline, making it one of the prettiest bays we had seen.

We wandered around the quay, discovering amazing new things as we walked. There was a speckled egg sitting in the water, just next to the quay, which Loren found pretty cool.

There was also an amazing sculpture of a ship or a face. When you approach from one side, it looks like an industrial style ship, but when you go around to the other side, it is a face! Amazing!

We were starving, so we decided to go and find a cool restaurant near the water. We couldn't find anything in a good price range, so we ended up going to Nando's. The food there is not too bad anyway. Not far from restaurant, there were even more cool buildings and sculptures to be seen.
We went further along the water, and found a little white Norwegian church, which is somehow connected to Roald Dahl. I think Roald Dahl might have grown up in Cardiff. There was an art display in the upstairs section of the church, which was pretty cool.
We visited the Visitor Centre, or as it is known here, The Tube. It looks like a round tube that someone sat on. There was some cool information there, and a lot of things that Loren's sister Hali would have loved to see. They had a listing of every location in Cardiff where Dr Who and Torchwood had been filmed, and which episode it was in. She loves these shows, and wished she could have been there with us. They also had lots of souvenirs and memorabilia from the shows.
After the visitor centre, we wandered around the bay some more, admiring the incredible buildings. We walked over to the Millenium Dome, which looked even more amazing up close. It is a copper colour, and has words on the from in Welsh and in English.
Our last stop in town, was at the Red Dragon Shopping Centre, where there was a Dr Who exhibition and shop. Loren spent ages in the shop looking for a gift for her sister. There was some cool stuff in there! She was going to go into the exhibition and take photos, so that Hali could feel like she was there, but Artur was pretty tired and still feeling unwell, so we headed home after buying a gift.
We took the bus back to town, and walked back to the hostel. We had a quiet night at the hostel, and Loren cooked a nice meal in the hostel's kitchen.

That evening, we had another night of troubled sleep. The snoring girl beneath our beds was making more noise than a freight train. Here is a quote from Artur's journal. I think it is priceless, and it conveys the night much better than I could.

''Had a bad sleep, interrupted by the snoring pork train. I was poking that beast to kill the snore noise, but to no avail. My ear plugs were regularly blown from my ears by her snores.''