4 Days In Cardiff

This past Sunday we caught a very crowded train to Cardiff, Wales, where we’ve spent the last 4 nights.  Once again, I’m summarizing several days into one blog because our time here hasn’t been that exciting.  Cardiff is Europe’s youngest capital city and is growing quickly, but when there isn’t a major rugby match happening at Millennium Stadium, there isn’t a whole lot of excitement in the city… 

After our over-priced stay at The Firs B&B in Bath, it was a relief to come to the River House Backpackers hostel in Cardiff which is much more reasonably priced.  This is a hostel run by a brother and sister (Charlie & Abi) who share a love of travel and have incorporated all the best things they’ve found on their stays in hostels into a place of their own.  The result is fantastic – the hostel is fairly new and impeccably clean, the kitchen is well equipped, there’s free Wi-Fi and free breakfast which isn’t just bread, laundry facilities are available at a reasonable price, and Charlie and Abi are some of the nicest people we’ve encountered at any place we’ve stayed so far.  We had booked in a 4 bed mixed dorm because there were no private rooms available, but when we arrived we asked to double check if any private rooms had freed up, and Charlie found us a private room for three nights and put us in a dorm by ourselves for the fourth, without charging us extra!  Now that’s what I call amazing customer service

On our first night, we headed to the Red Dragon Center, a leisure and entertainment complex in Cardiff bay, to see the new “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” movie.  For some unknown reason, the movie came out on June 19 in the UK, five days before the North American release, so we got to see it before any of our friends!  Unlike the last time we saw a movie in Germany, this theatre isn’t all assigned seating, but you can pay ₤1 extra for an assigned seat in the “Premier” section (upper rows).  There’s also a section called the “Gallery” which costs ₤15/ticket, but includes unlimited popcorn and soft drinks (if you can eat more than one bag of popcorn it’s worth it, but otherwise it’s not).  The assigned seating turned out to be unnecessary since we were among the first people in the theatre so we could have sat one row below us without paying extra, but we’re used to crazy busy theatres during a film’s opening week so we wanted to make sure we had good seats.  It actually would have been better to sit elsewhere, though, because the people next to us were like the Welsh version of a hick and drank beer, talked, and burped throughout the entire movie, which was both gross and annoying!!!

We got a taste of “traditional Welsh” food on our second day, trying out a restaurant named Garlands which Charlie had recommended.  The “cawl” (traditional Welsh soup made with meat and vegetables) was delicious, but the rest of our food (a jacket potato filled with chicken and sour cream and a dish of sausages on top of mushy peas) was not exactly amazing.  As a result, when we discovered the Cardiff Market on our third day, we began to make use of the wonderful kitchen facility at the hostel and cooked the rest of our meals.  Charlie told me the E. Ashton Fishmongers at Cardiff market sell really good fresh seafood and for ₤8 I made a really good meal of salmon fillets with jumbo scallops.  Here in Cardiff, I have finally learned how to cook some fish!

The rest of our sightseeing included Cardiff castle, which we didn’t bother to go into because we don’t want to get bored of castles too quickly on our UK trip, some shopping at the Victorian style arcades, a water taxi ride which was a nice way to cruise to Cardiff bay from our hostel, some wandering around in the Cardiff bay area, and the free Cardiff National Museum which houses some interesting art, archaeology, geology, and natural history exhibits.  There was nothing really spectacular, but our time here was relaxing and inexpensive and I would say Cardiff is worth a visit if you’re going to the UK.  Four nights was a bit much, but we don’t regret scheduling too much time here because Charlie and Abi made our stay so enjoyable that it was nice to just chill out at the hostel and get some rest!

Oh and if you’re a Doctor Who fan, most of the new Doctor Who series is filmed in Cardiff and they have a Doctor Who museum at the Red Dragon Center which we forgot to go back to check out.  I had never heard of Doctor Who until I came here and didn’t believe Paul when he told me he’s a time travelling alien, but it’s true and I have to admit I’m now addicted to the show (yes, I know, I’m a geek)!  We might have to go back to Cardiff one day to see the museum…