Cymru Am Byth!

So on Friday I went to Cardiff with two other study abroad students, Charlie and Tina. I will leave you to figure out who is who from the picture.

The train from Bristol to Cardiff took a little under an hour. When we got to Cardiff we found our hostel in about 10 minutes, dropped our stuff off, and consulted Charlie, one of the guys who runs the hostel, about what to do. We really lucked out getting a room, because no one had realized that there was a gigantic rugby match (Wales v. Scotland) going on that weekend. Charlie told us we might be able to get tickets to the game, so that was the first thing we did. Although they were ridiculously expensive, we bought them. Best. Idea. Ever.

The rest of Friday we wandered around Cardiff. We hung out by Cardiff Bay, accidentally walked through the sketchy part of town, saw the prison, went to a museum, and encountered a lot of Scotsmen in kilts. Later on we went to a pub where we got pleasantly drunk and I had a really excellent steak pie with chips.

On Saturday we woke up early to meet some other study abroad students who had come over in the morning. We walked over to Cardiff Castle and went on a guided tour of the inside, which was cool, but didn't blow me away. Probably because it was basically a summer home for some rich people, so the stories were about the marble rather than, I don't know, sieges or something. Whatever images or activities you would normally associate with a castle. The sort of outside bit of the castle and the Norman Keep were really impressive. Apparently William the Conqueror's eldest son was imprisoned there (I think in the Norman Keep) for about 8 years after he tried to overthrow his youngest brother. The entire time I was in the castle I couldn't help thinking, "We're up to here with fucking castles. We just long for a bungalow or something."

After we left the castle in search of a place to buy food, alcohol, and t-shirts. Charlie and Tina got rum and Coke, I got an enormous bottle of Leffe and a sandwich. Also a sweet "100% Unofficial" Wales rugby shirt. Once we had our supplies, we went back to the river and sat across from Millennium Stadium and drank for awhile.

We made it to the stadium just in time for the kick off at 2. We sat next to two excellent Welsh guys who were kind enough to explain the game to us. I was able to follow it pretty easily, but like in most sports though, the penalties confused me. Rugby is an exciting sport to watch. Much better than American football. After the game we got another drink in an incredibly crowded bar near the stadium with Lee and Mike, the two guys we sat next to. After awhile we left, went back to the hostel to pick up our bags, and walked to the train station.

When we got back to Bristol we met up with some people at a pub. Then sometime after about 12 straight hours of drinking and foolishness in Cardiff and Bristol I made it back to my room with all my stuff and went to bed. I have a lot of pictures (and two accidental videos) from the weekend, some of which I have posted on Facebook.

So, yeah. Cardiff was excellent. Very nice people, sport, and consumables.