Day 2 - Cardiff!!

Woohoo, free day!!

So last night I stayed up later than I meant to, but I was catching up with a friend I hadn't talked to in a long time so I regret nothing. Besides, the rest of our group went out to a pub the night before and a lot of people were out super late so I was already ahead of the curve.

I got up a bit later than I'd meant to as a consequence, but it was all right - I still had plenty of time for everything. I had breakfast with the professors and one of my classmates and we chatted about all kinds of stuff and it was nice. Most of the group headed off to go bike riding around 10:00, other people stayed in to sleep, and a few other people just went exploring around Bath. Cara, Ally, and I tried to go to Bath Abbey to look around some more and go to the gift shop, but it was closed since it was Sunday. The fact of most places being closed on a Sunday was something we kept forgetting and thus had to keep working around as the day went on. We did go into a souvenir shop and I got an awesome little Union Jack pillow like they have on Sherlock(!), and a pack of sparkly Union Jack stickers to decorate my temporary phone because a lot of people got the exact same phone. After that, we walked to the Waitrose grocery and picked up stuff for our bag lunches for tomorrow when we go into Wales to tour Chepstow Castle, a coal mine, and Tintern Abbey.

After picking up our groceries, the three of us walked to the train station to get tickets to Cardiff. We had some time to kill before the train arrived, so we grabbed lunch at a NON CHAIN SANDWICH SHOP! Yes, I have officially eaten at something non-American. I got a baguette with cheddar cheese and some cheese and onion crisps and an orange juice. I've been eating a lot of cheddar and orange juice since we got here. I could live here quite comfortably.

The train ride to Cardiff was super smooth (and we met an older woman who was surprised to find out that us American girls were into Doctor Who and talked about how the monsters used to scare her as a kid and how the Weeping Angels still scare her), and it was cool to suddenly realize we were in Wales because the station signs all of a sudden had both Welsh and English. We got off at Cardiff Central and then spent about an hour and a half trying to walk to Cardiff Bay. We weren't lost per se, but it was a lovely walk all around Cardiff. We found an awesome comic shop we really wanted to go into, but it was closed. So much heartbreak! Also: Millenium Centre and Millenium Stadium? Not the same thing. Just FYI. When we finally found it, Ally and I totally nerded out (Cara has only seen a few episodes of Doctor Who so she doesn't know about the rift and Torchwood) and we spent probably about half an hour taking pictures and video. The light rain and high winds did not deter us!! We actually ended up going into Millenium Centre because I reeeeeeally had to go to the bathroom and then afterwards we discovered a gift shop and did a little shopping: got my first Doctor Who stuff of the trip! I now own socks with Daleks on them!! Also they were selling Cluedo and I thought of Sherlock and I laughed and took a picture. Also I got some souvenirs for my friends! Fun times!!

Once we had finished there, we walked to a Starbucks (I know, I know!) and got a snack, and then walked to Cardiff Castle. We were too late to go inside, but it was lovely to look at and photograph. After that we decided to get a train back to Bath, but since we had missed the one we were aiming for and had to wait an hour for the next one, we popped into a shop there (WH Smith maybe?) and I got an issue of Doctor Who magazine and it made me inordinately happy. We managed to figure out the correct train and correct platform to be on (thank you Ally!) so we felt like super cool world traveler adults and it was awesome. (Jamie later told us that the world is our oyster now. I tend to agree. I more or less feel like I know what I'm doing when it comes to transportation now - yay trains!!)

We got back later in the evening, so then Cara and I had another adventure trying to get dinner. I had wanted to try fish and chips from this little shop tucked into the original medieval wall, but they were closed because of Sunday - see earlier note. So we ended up going to this other takeaway place that was open til 3 am (don't worry, it was only a little after nine when we got there) and got chicken nuggets and they actually had tomato ketchup and it was great.

So, to recap: Cardiff = brilliant. Today was a blast. Now I need to go finish my homework, brush up on my presentation for tomorrow, and maybe read a bit more of Frankenstein for fun. Tomorrow we head back to Wales for Chepstow Castle, a coal mine, and Tintern Abbey!