Cruising Cardiff Bay

 Note: Post is from October 18th.

Originally Yaren and I were going to meet up with a Cardiff local from the flat next door, but when he was unable to meet us there, we decided to make the trip our own. Even if there was some confusion on our part with the bus schedules (we waited for the bus for a couple of hours, which meant we both could have slept in longer), eventually we made it on the coach safe and sound!

The driver was not a very pleasant fellow. We had heard that the Swansea student bus passes we had could get us to Cardiff without paying additional fares. When Yaren asked him if she could use hers, he let out a huge sigh and said, "Yeah, alright."

I wasn't prepared for that, and so it took me a little bit to put away my money and find my bus pass. The driver was very clearly annoyed, and very unhappy as I showed him the pass and took my seat. The trip took about an hour. The driver asked if anyone wanted to go to Cardiff Bay. I assumed he was giving us a little bit of a warning. I asked Yaren if she wanted to check out the bay, and she agreed. So I stood up and asked the driver if this was the stop. He replied, "No, I passed it. That's why I asked. Why, do you need me to stop?" "Yes please."

He might not have liked it, but at least he stopped. I still gave him a very polite "thank you!", but he didn't even care. Far too grumpy and miserable. Admittedly, I was a little bit shaken with his rude behavior, but was determined not to let it affect me.

Since it was after noon, our first stop was to be lunch. For this, we went inside Mermaid Quay (a very popular waterfront in Cardiff) and looked around. We also made sure to take lots of pictures of thei beautiful area.

No, we don't take too many selfies.

So, Brains beer is huge here. It's a Welsh beer made in Cardiff. And the Welsh LOVE all things Welsh.

There is a sign like this in Swansea as well. I never understood it was a beer and wondered
why there was a sign for a zombie Welsh dragon.

And since this is Wales...Rugby balls!!!

Started out as a very cloudy day.

We found a place that had discounted lunch prices and decided that would be the best place to go (we're college students, so the cheaper the better). Upon entering, Yaren's eyes widened in realization that the music they were playing was in fact Turkish. We had accidentally come to a Turkish restaurant for lunch.

She said that the whole experience was very strange for her. Looking at a menu in Wales with food from her home country. Speaking her native language with the owners and workers was also strange. This is Wales, not Turkey or Cyprus. But overall I think both of us really enjoyed it. The wraps we got were delicious and you can't beat the view.

There were ducks diving down and eating fish next to us in the water.

Very fancy table setting.

Steak wrap with lavish bread. And chips because this is still the UK.

I thought it was very neat to get a taste of another culture while still being in a culture outside of my own. Especially one that I have slowly gained some familiarity about by hearing Yaren talk about it.

View of the restaurant.

Some Turkish decor.

When we went to settle the bill, Yaren talked to them in Turkish. Apparently they appreciated having someone from the same culture visiting their establishment all the way in Wales, and so they removed the service charge from our bill.

After lunch, we went out to find a place to take us on a boat tour of the bay. I had read about it previously and it always really appealed to me. From where we were the bay looked small, but once on the boat we saw that it was quite expansive as people take boats to quickly cross it and get to the other side of Cardiff.

The boat to the side was our ride.

The inside of the boat (we sat in the front).

It was very cold out, but the sweater helped combat this slightly. With the wind in our hair and the fresh coastal air in our lungs, we had an excellent opportunity to explore the bay. There was a tour guide, but the speakers were of bad quality, making him hard to understand. I was able to hear some of it. For example, once I spotted the TARDIS, I heard him discuss the Doctor Who experience. At one point he also talked about the pirate that terrorized the old Welsh villages.

This man was very brutal and the people were afraid of him. Now it is viewed as a fun, swashbuckling tale of Captain Henry Morgan and his conquests in Cardiff.

View of the port from on the boat. We both loved the red building and thought it was very cool looking.

TARDIS spotted! Where's the doctor?!

Buildings here are just generally nicer.

The rows of boats just went on and on....lots of them in the harbor ready to sail out whenever needed.

There were about three swans swimming in the bay. First time I had seen one in the UK, despite living in SWAN-sea.
Though Yaren said they are there, you just have to go to the marina.

One of the places I wanted to see was the Roald Dahls Plass, but I did not know where it was and let it go for this trip. I didn't want to drag Yaren around Cardiff just to look at a path below a bridge. But for me, Dahl was a huge part of my childhood. I remember adoring the book BFG (Big Friendly Giant) when it was read in class. I was also very fond of The Twits and The Witches. Outside the books there were also some very good movie adaptations of his books (Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). He also wrote the gremlins book, but I have never seen the movie nor read the book (shame me if you like).

In other words, this man was a huge part of my childhood and I thought I owed it to him to see the plass dedicated to him and all of his magnificent works. Another trip perhaps. Except...

As we were leaving the bay, I spotted this sign and got really excited. What were the chances of happening upon the very place you want to go to as soon as you stop looking for it? I felt pretty lucky and happy in this moment.

Not me pictured, just someone walking by randomly.

Once we got past that, we found some more very cool structures. And the entrance to Torchwood apparently. I have yet to watch the show (should start that while I am here so I can explore Cardiff and see all the Torchwood/Doctor Who sights), but a Cardiff native informed me that the water tower statue is the entrance in the show.

Very beautiful.

Anyone fancy a trip to Torchwood?

What I enjoy about the UK is that there is a lot of art and sculptures of people around the cities. Near the water tower was a stature dedicated to a playwright.

And as we walked down the path towards the main city centre, we found this piece of art:

It is fun to walk through the middle.

What we found very cool was that the grand theatre had both cheap tickets and student discounts, and so for about $4 I can see musicals like Sweeny Todd andSleeping Beauty in Cardiff.

Remember how I said Brains beer was big in Cardiff? There are signs and ads for it scattered throughout.

A pub advertising that Brains Beer is available there.

"People who know Beer...HAVE BRAINS"

 It is amazing how seriously people take Welsh-made things. And how much they hate England. When Wales beat England in the Rugby World Cup match, it was a great day. It was a lot of fun to walk around the city and take in all of the sights. In a way, Cardiff is to Swansea as San Francisco is to us bay area folk. 

But this city was very different from my beloved SF. For one thing, they have funny names for streets where cars can drive in two different directions.

They also have some very....interesting street art.

"Love your Master"

We went into a place called St. David's that is essentially a very large mall. I honestly felt as if I entered America when I went in. Claire's, Clarks, Crocs, Apple...even the same mall pretzel store that you find in Northgate. I imagine the feeling Yaren felt in the Turkish restaurant was similar to what I was feeling here. 

Yaren had been here before with one of her friends and informed me that there was a Disney store. This became our goal to get to (while still casually exploring all the way there). At first the mall seemed to be the average size you would expect, but each turn let to more and more turns. It was extremely expansive! Far bigger than any mall I have ever seen. Plus it had 9 floors (2 with shops, 1 with restaurants, 6 for parking) and 203 stores within those confines. In total, it is 1,394,580 sq ft. Pretty impressive. 

We wound up at the Disney store, where I was able to get a clearance Stitch mug. Even without the purchase, the store was quite amazing. It was like stepping into one of the downtown Disney stores. Everything was done up, even with statues of the characters. Plus clips of Disney movies with the music were being projected onto television sets by the registers. 

We still had a little bit of time before our the bus we wanted to take left, and so we decided to explore the main city. It was after a rugby match with Ireland v. Argentina, and so lots of green and blue filled the streets. Everyone was jovial, making it difficult to ascertain which country was the winner. We figured it out after watching a piano-playing street performer.

A man dressed in Irish green commented that it was the best thing he had seen all day. That meant things did not go too well for his team. And explained all the men with blue mohawks jumping up and down in the streets cheering.

Yaren and I continued on our way, before realizing we had never taken a picture with the rugby ball in Cardiff Castle. That was a tourist necessity.

After that, we continued back into town and found some very strange performers. They were dressed in costumes made to look as if they were riding on top of leprechauns. Meanwhile, the old man in the background (standing in front of Edward's with a speaker in front of him) sang. This was the music the Ireland dancers moved to, though I feel he got forgotten in the festivities.

They kept bringing in girls to dance with them in the circle, and although Yaren and I enjoyed the performance, we were not keen on becoming a prt of it as did many other unlucky souls. So after awhile as the crowd died out slightly, we left. There wasn't too much left to do, and so we just wandered around the city of Cardiff before returning back to the bus station to catch our Greyhound back to Swansea.

All in all, a very lovely day out with one of my favorite people. :)