I'm pretty much a home-body. I've barely been anywhere since I've gotten to Cambridge (I actually haven't even been to London!), so when the opportunity arose to go on a Gates trip to Wales, I jumped on it!
Here's a great video to remind yourself of what the deal is with Wales:
Wales is pretty far away from Cambridge, so the trip entailed getting up at 5 am, leaving by 6, and getting there around 11. The bus ride didn't bother me so much (maybe that 20 hour trip to France has conditioned me not to mind long bus rides) but the waking up that early definitely was not the best!
It was still fun to go though. One of the neat things about Wales is that all of the signs are both in English and Welsh. We visited Cardiff Castle (Castell Caerdydd in Welsh), a medieval castle with a Victorian gothic revival house. The buildings are adapted from what was originally a Normal keep overlooking a Roman fort. It was neat to see all of the different layers of the history of the site. Plus, the Victorian mansion was pretty amazing. I was also quite excited to see that the landscaping in the 18th Century was done by Capability Brown!
After visiting the Castle, we were all starving! So we just went into the first place we found for lunch. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a restaurant called "Old Orleans," which was the most ridiculously tacky take on American Cajun/Louisiana food (the menu used words like "hankerin'", but then spelled flavours with an "ours"). It did provide some amusement, but mostly the food was not so great.
We then walked down to the bay to see some of the rest of Cardiff. The Welsh national assembly is there, as is the Millenium center and a couple of neat churches. Apparently, Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff, since there is a "Roald Dahl Pass" there as well!
All in all, it was a nice excursion from Cambridge. I'm looking forward to more of them in the future!
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