Sunday at Mumbles

It turns out there is a paved road that goes all along the Swansea Bay. I have previously used this path as "the scenic route" to get to Tesco (the grocery store in this area). It takes about 40 minutes, but is very beautiful. However, as it is mainly rainy weather here, I bought a bus pass for the year. Still, I know I will take advantage of the path when the sun comes out.

Since getting here, the majority of my days have been sunny. Second and third year students have warned me that it is typically like that for the first two weeks and then you are blasted with constant rain. This is a big change from drought-ridden California. Last year at Sonoma State, rain was rare during the first semester. The first time water began falling from the sky, people ran out of their dorms and started to cheer and dance in the rain. When I tell that story here, people laugh and say that here it is opposite and people cheer when the sun comes out.

With that in mind, it seems necessary to enjoy the sun before it hibernates. Some international girls (some from the Cardiff adventure as well as a fellow Californian) and I walked along the Swansea Bay in order to get to a city called Mumbles. When I told my dad that it was over an hour long walk (3.4 miles) to get there, he seemed to think it was a bad idea. My argument was that he would love to go on an hour long hike (and has many times before done longer ones), so why is an hour walk along the beach any different? In his opinion it was just a lot of beach and it was a very long walk. He did feel more comfortable to know that I was with a big group of girls when doing it, which means it was probably less about the distance and more about being over 5,000 miles away and going on a walk in a foreign country. After all, at home we walk along the San Francisco Bay in Crissy Fields. At the end of that path there is warming hut with coffees and sandwiches. What I was doing wasn't anything new in that regard.

This walk was beautiful and it was fun to see the vast expanses of the beach at low tide.

A nice sunny day in Swansea!

For once, the lack of water is not due to a drought.

At one point a lone green balloon passed by our feet. Up ahead there was a girl crying on her bicycle apparently because she didn't want to ride it and her dad wanted her to. I ignored the balloon, but one of the girls thought that it may be the little girl's and that was why she was crying. Once we got closer, she tried asking the girl if the balloon belonged to her, and she stopped crying. Without a word, she quickly shook her head. Once we continued on our way, she continued crying and complaining about the bike. We laughed because to that little girl we probably seemed like a stranger danger situation, trying to coax her with a partly deflated, sand-covered balloon. At least her dad never thought we were a threat.

On the right by the trees is a smattering of houses. Getting closer to Mumbles

 When we got into Mumbles, the houses got nicer and there were many boats. I imagined it was a little bit higher classed than Swansea. What was really interesting to me was all of the boats along the path. They were parked there as casually as cars along a road.

Our destination was soon after this. I had only heard it described before as a cafe that's walls are made up entirely of glass. A local girl recommended it to me at a social for one of the clubs on campus. She said that I had to get the hot chocolate and that it was all dressed up in a glass cup with whipped cream. The other girl from California had also had this place recommended to her, but for its ice cream.

Welcome to Verdi's Cafe!

We all ordered an assortment of treats and drinks. Hot chocolate was a popular beverage choice (and was very tasty). There was conversation that cheesecake is made differently in America than in Germany, and I added that even in Wales it was fluffier than the standard American variety.

Hot cocoa and white chocolate cheesecake.

To be honest, the fancy cafe on the water reminded me of something that you would see in Tiburon, not Wales. I told my mom this and she just said that we live in a pretty great place. One of things that I was not expecting to gain from my study abroad experience was a newfound appreciation for where I live. That doesn't mean I am ready to go back there any time soon (I am just getting started traveling here), but maybe when I am back in the states and miss Wales I can remember that California is nice too and not be so dismal.

It was with smiles on our faces that we headed back to Swansea University. Amazingly, the tide had come in while we were eating, creating a new walking experience for the way back.

 

The entirety of the Swansea Bay.

This is still zoomed in.

But this is why I wanted the camera with the 200x zoom.

 While the three of us made it more of a casual Sunday stroll with sightseeing, the two ahead of us were just on a walk and were always five minutes ahead (though they waited for us at the cafe and one of them waited for us by the university). Perhaps our group of three were being a little touristy; none of us cared. It was a walk to be enjoyed, even if that meant stopping for pictures.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Though it may have been a long walk, it felt like it took no time at all as all of us were enjoying the view, the sun, and each other. Being outside is a medicine all in it's own; even when you're sad, the sun and atmosphere can always help lift your spirits. One of the girls from Germany commented that she would sleep well tonight with all of this fresh air in her lungs.

Ydych chi'n siarad Cymraeg?

 S'mae! (Hello!)

The more I am here, the more I am seeing that there is a strong Welsh history and culture. Only 19% of the citizens in Wales actually know the language, but those who do are very proud. In California, oftentimes there is an English and a Spanish version of various pamphlets and booklets. Here, there are both English and Welsh. On my third day here there was a banquet for international students. In order to welcome us all to Wales, they had dancers perform traditional Welsh folk-dances with live music in the background.

It was a lot of fun to watch. The pride they had in their country was practically beaming off of them. They were more than happy to then invite all of the international students to come up and joint them. So I wasn't alone in embarrassing myself, the two girls I went to the event with also did some folk dancing.

No one was able to perform the dance very well. Even the professionals were having a hard time since all the other dancers struggled. It is meant to be done in a circle with partners, so even if one or two people are good, the rest can bring them down. But it was all in good fun with everyone laughing at themselves.

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Another cultural event happened tonight with the Swansea University Christian Union. They are the equivalent of America's Intervarsity. They decorated the whole room in Welsh flags and symbols (inflatable dragon, inflatable daffodil, guy wearing a daffodil hat, etc.).

Welsh flags everywhere.

I really liked this inflatable dragon.

 They served leek and potato soup (leek is the national vegetable) along with a cheese called Caerphilly. It is creamy and slightly crumbly; they put it in their soup.There was also some bread and butter, which is pretty universal. The traditional desserts offered were fruit cake and Welsh cake. The fruit cake was like a very sweet raisin bread. It was even served sliced with butter. We were told that in the old Welsh culture, a girl reached womanhood once she was finally able to produce a good fruit cake on her own. Admittedly, I didn't care too much for it. What I really liked was the Welsh cake. It is the size of a thick round cracker and was described as a mix between a scone and a pound cake. I found this to be pretty accurate. It also had raisins in it, which meshed really well. Apparently they are sold all over Wales, but not other parts of the UK.

I didn't take a picture, but I did the google images search for you all.

  The ones they gave us were homemade. I decided that after spending a year in Wales, I would come back to America fully able to produce an authentic Welsh cake from scratch. Now I just need a scale, since apparently that's how they measure everything. When I asked about that, the question, "How do they do it in America?" came up. I said that we use cups. They then asked if everyone used the same sized cups in America or if they didn't how that worked. Measuring cups can be a foreign concept. Just as the idea of weighing out flour for cakes are to us.

This event was a lot more informative about the culture than the first one. We were given quizzes to answer that were "easy". The only people who found them to be easy were the Welsh and there were not too many natives there. Myself and a girl from Essex had a very difficult time. I do not know what the popular word "llan" means, nor who the patron saint of Wales is. Of course now I know that the answers are church and David, but I wouldn't have guessed it previously. The only answer I did know was that Cardiff is the capital of Wales.

We were also given the task of matching up the literal Welsh names with the proper animal. Myself and the girl from Essex were only able to reason that the ladybird went to "short red cow" and the "smelly dog" was the skunk. The two gents at our table were from Wales and refused to help up with either the quiz or the match-up. In the end, we got most right on both (though one of the guys did help us with the quiz at first before stopping).

The night ended with another Welsh folk-dancing lesson. This group was even worse than the international. During the learning-the-dance portion, we even had an odd number of people, making a paired dance impossible. But, as before, we could all laugh at ourselves and have a great time.

It's events like these that make me feel accomplished at learning a new culture. Yes, things are different here. But the traditional Welsh stuff is even described by the locals as, "weird". I love it!

Exploring the Cardiff Castle

When I woke up yesterday, I was still in a a bit of a bad mood. No more jet lag, which was a huge plus, but still felt hugely displaced and unaware. Yesterday I was only kept sane by the idea of going to Cardiff (a free trip to welcome the international students into Wales), but was also having regrets about not going to the Gower. A friend of mine who studied in Swansea last year said that she hoped I would have picked the Gower as my free trip (we could choose between the two) as it is harder to get to and Cardiff is just a bus ride away.

As I got ready, though, I felt determined to enjoy myself. Nothing was going to ruin this day. I got there early (too early), which allowed me time to ask around about my Biometric Residency Permit (card that allows me to stay in the country for the full stay and travel outside the UK). This was more of a happy accident as the international advisers where I needed to meet for the trip and could direct me to someone from the UK home office. Essentially what I found out is that I have done nothing wrong and if things don't get sorted out by a certain time who to contact. It was reassuring also to find out that no matter what, I wouldn't get kicked out of the country as the error is on the UK home office. This was something that had been nagging me and was now free from my mind. I could enjoy Cardiff worry-free!

It was a little bit confusing figuring out where exactly I was supposed to meet. They gave us a general, "outside Fulton house" which is quite broad. I eventually found a group of fellow internationals (from Spain, Germany, France, and Canada) traveling to the same location. Confused, we eventually found our bus and boarded once the time came.

During the bus ride I talked with a girl from Canada. We discussed things that were different here, what things were like for us in our home countries, etc. She really misses maple syrup, while I long for some decent peanut butter (she informed me that the stuff here is not quite the same and to be wary of "peanut butter flavored spread"). She is the second Canadian I have met as my neighbor here is also from Canada. From talking to them, I have discovered that our countries are very similar to each other. Even the accent is the same apart from a few words here and there.

Once we arrived, we were advised that we needed to meet back on the bus by 3:30. The Rugby World Cup ended at 4 and we wanted to beat that traffic. I had heard people discussing this and always thought it to be funny. Never had I ever imagined myself to be in the position of trying to avoid a rugby match's traffic, let alone the world cup.

However, the fact that it was the world cup made me thankful I had chose Cardiff over the Gower. I could go to that beach any day, but what other chance would I have to be in Cardiff for the Rugby World Cup? Little stations selling Wales gear popped up all over Cardiff, each within close proximity to the next. People dressed in their team colors and some even wore hats to make their heads look like the top of a daffodil (the national flower of Wales). Upon describing this to my dad later, he said it reminded him of the fourth Harry Potter movie during the Quiddich cup. Very accurate.

One of the stands.

Even the little girl (second from right) is in the spirit with her flag! :)

 I knew that during my stay in Wales, I eventually wanted to buy their flag. Besides, I needed something to hang on my white walls. What better way to get a flag than to buy one from a street peddler during the Rugby World Cup? This would become not only a cool thing to take back home, but a story all in it's own.

See how close the two are? It's like that all around.

Can you tell what their team color is yet?

Unrolling a Welsh flag.

We decided to spend our time at Cardiff Castle. Using the directions from the bus driver, we navigated over only to find that this monument too was in spirit for the games.

A more modern addition to the castle.

People in red swarmed the front of the castle to get a picture by the ball that seemingly crashed into the castle. All along the wall people dressed in red posed for a picture by the castle. We watched all of this and took in our beautiful surroundings as well as the excited spirit from the people. But eventually we went in to start exploring.

We got our tickets and headed right in. Although while waiting for all to get tickets, I glanced around the gift shop. More team Wales souvenirs. This city had been temporarily taken over for one of the biggest events of the year.

We decided to start our tour by going up the stairs to pick up an audio guide where we could listen to facts about the castle by punching in numbers at each info spot.

 It was interesting to walk inside and imagine yourself in a different time period.

Well, if you ignore the yellow caution sign. 

But as soon as you look out the window the excitement of the crowd is visible.

I was prepared for histories of royalties and their servants to play on the audio guide. Perhaps about how the wall stood tall against ancient enemies. Instead we went into a long corridor that played audio of bomb sirens, World War II announcements, and other sounds of that theme. Old World War II posters hung along the walls.

It was a little intense to look at these while bomb sirens sounded loudly in the background. They did a good job of recreating how it must have felt like to be hiding out in there during an air raid. There were still set-ups along the corridor of how things would be. Old metal bunks stacked on top of each other, a couple of old fashioned kitchens, things of that nature.

A soldier's uniform in some living quarters.

Metal bunk beds

Join the lady's army.

 There were many posters. The most common one was posters that said, "Careless talk costs lives." Anyone could be listening in on the conversation and you may give away vital information to the enemy.

The kitchen.

It was very informative and interesting to start out with this bit of the castle's history as it is not something you would expect. It continues on with my theme of "Europe is not what you think." So easily do the Western minds idealize it. Though the UK is beautiful and old, it also has a modern history that can sometimes be forgotten. Air raids were a very big problem for them during WWII. Not all enemies were on horseback. Some dropped bombs from the sky.

Of course it is also beautiful and old. This was our view after escaping the WWII caverns. 

The old lookout tower.

Complete with moat.

Front of the castle.

We were lucky there was a little bit of sun to show off the castle. Yet at the same time, I do always pictures castles surrounded by a cloudy day. Probably since that is more accurate since the weather where they were build is pretty much always rainy and cloudy.

The little hole is where we came out of.

Our next destination was the lookout tower. The audio guide warned that there were over 100 stairs to the main view of the lookout tower and not all so easy to climb. Initially I thought it was referring to the stairs on the front.

A lot of stairs, but they were all easy enough to climb. Once we were up there, I remembered seeing someone at the very top of the tower by the flag and realized we still had a long way to go. And ancient cobblestone castles would be likely to have decrepit stairways. The problem actually wasn't that they were falling apart, but that they were small, narrow, and steep. They were triangular so as to fit in a cylindrical space. I would provide a picture to better explain, but my feet were too big for the stairs (as were all of my group's) and so I had to be more sure-footed and do less camera pointing.

Made it to the top!

And the view was spectacular!!!

The mid point where the initial flight of stairs took us.

When we went back down, we spent some time in the middle point (the grassy area surrounded by wall). It was from this mid-point that guards would climb up to the towers in order to guard the castle.

Those stairs were steep, but not nearly as difficult as the inner ones above them.

The area was not always empty. The holes around the wall as well as the triangle show were supports for walls once fit in. 

This is the remains of a spiral staircase, crumbled during an attack.

After this, we ate the lunch that the university provided us with at some picnic benches in the middle area of the grounds. It was filled with what may be normal food for them, but strange foods for us. The chip flavors in the UK are interesting. The girl sitting next to me had cheddar and onion flavor. I sampled one, and it wasn't bad, but not something I would purchase on my own. The strangest flavor was spicy tomato. Me and two other girls had this. The girl from Spain said she only ate them all because she was hungry. At first I commented that they were not too bad, but she advised me that the more you eat the worse they taste. This prediction came true. Everyone at the table sampled one, but none of us were very keen on it.

After lunch, we decided to get a view of inside the castle. They kept these rooms looking mostly as they originally would have during the time they were lived in. Stained glass windows and beautiful architecture.

Old knight armor that would have been worn.

The dining room reminded me of the set-up you see in TV and movies and I could just picture the king sitting at the head quietly while the rest of his family sat at the opposite end. Probably not what really happens, but fun to think all the same.

And a fireplace to keep warm.

Just look at the detail on that roof! And a chandelier to boot!

I admit I thought about how lovely it would be to live here as opposed to my small room in the university housing. Or even compared to my home in America. Who doesn't want to live like royalty in a castle?

The library was also very enviable. I would love to have one as large as theirs in my house filled with ancient texts as well as modern ones.

A side door from the library leading to a very pretty staircase.

After bookcase on the left, there was an area that looked like this, albeit with statues of different people.

The artistry was just amazing. And below you get a taste of the gold leaf that adorned the walls.

More gold leaf.

 Once we left there we assessed what else there was to do. Essentially some stuff near the front and near the wall.

These were at the front.

From there were got up so that we could walk along the wall. Once outside of the fortress the screams of the ongoing rugby match became audible. From the amount of cheers, I assumed Wales was doing well (they did win by quite a lot). The main interest point for the wall was that it contained the best spot to view Cardiff castle. Painters would come up there to just for the view.

Taking a left we could see many Welsh flags (as well as some from other countries, such as America).

 When we walked along the other way we saw the view the audio tour described.

As you can see from the cement, this was quite a large area so that many people could enjoy the view.

Taken further to the left.

Behind us there was also a strange soldier statue that never got explained. As well as a good view of the city, granted you were tall enough to see above the wall.

"The Abandoned Soldier"

 The audio guide told us the story of how in 1947 the Bute family, who owned and did a lot of refurbishment to the castle, gave the castle to the city of Cardiff. For the first time, the public was allowed to walk in the grounds.

After this, we turned in our audio players and left the castle. We wanted to get a cup of coffee before leaving (we went to Costa, a popular place in the UK) and had seen all there was of Cardiff Castle. Although we never did find out what this was:

If anyone reading this knows, please comment below and tell me. We missed the audio's explanation for this piece.

 The walk back was hardly crowded as people either went to watch the game in person or scrambled into the pubs to have a pint and cheer for their team. I saw one especially crowded pub with everyone crammed in, eyes glued to the screen.

Mocha in hand, I happily strolled through the streets of Cardiff, delighted with my first excursion in the UK. It was fun to see the locals out cheering for their team, a new coffee chain (though Starbucks is still scarily prevalent here), and....whatever this is:

Hard to see...but that is a giant pile of sausages by the blond on the left.

I really had a fantastic time. This is what I came here to do, after all. Explore and learn new things, not sit in my dorm room sad. Yes, I am at university not a one year long vacation. Studying will have to happen. Many nights in reviewing literature and typing essays will be a big part of my stay here. I will even get homesick from time to time. But I do that in America anyways. At least this way I get to travel and see the world.