Castles and coasts

The gales in Wales have continued. Pete laughed at me yesterday because I was complaining how sick I was of the gloomy, rainy weather I’ve experienced thus far in my trip. “You chose to study abroad in the UK and it’s winter, Sam. What’d you expect?” Needless, to say, it was a reality check. What would I do without him?

Despite the weather, we made the most of our Saturday in Cardiff. We started out with a nice continental breakfast at our amazing hostel, and then traveled up the road to Cardiff Castle. It was an incredible castle on the inside and out. It’s about 2000 years old, established by the Romans when they held the land before the Normans came in around 800 A.D. We took a tour of the main interior, which was redecorated in the 19th century by a wealthy lord who owned it. Each room was absolutely gorgeous—every square inch was covered in intricate paintings, designs, woodwork and tiles. One of the rooms was estimated to cost £10 to 15 million to redesign today. Jewels, gold, you name it—they were somehow incorporated in the decoration. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside. I’ll attach a few from online so you can see what I’m talking about.

This is a gorgeous picture from the clock tower room. Every image in the room is related to the zodiac, the days of the week, the time of day or the seasons. It was my favorite room.


The fireplace in the grand dining hall.


Lord Bute's bedroom. He commissioned the redecoration of the castle to what it is today.



After the tour we were allowed to explore the grounds and the keep, a stone fortress right in the middle that was surrounded by a moat. A real moat! I got kind of excited by this. You always read stories and watch movies with all these medieval castles surrounded by moats, and I think this is the first legitimate moat I have seen thus far.







From inside the keep.


The moat!


From atop of the keep. Beyond you can see the castle towers and Millenium Stadium where Cardiff's national rugby team plays.


I came to Wales with the hope of taking a coastal hike or walk. The rain set my roommates to different destinations, but I was still set on my coastal walk. Charlie, one of the hostel owners, told me that Penarth, a small town across the bay from Cardiff, had a good pebble beach and pier. So I set off on a nice public bus ride to Penarth. I missed my stop, but I befriended the bus driver and he dropped me off right at the entrance to a gorgeous green park which lead me right to the boardwalk and pier on the bay. Weird as it is, I got a little choked up when I heard the sound of the waves. I’ve always loved going to the ocean, so I knew I had to take this opportunity away from London to enjoy it. I spent a good leisurely hour walking up and down the boardwalk. Yeah it was a little gray and the water was a little brown, but the little ghost town of a pier was gorgeous in its own light. There were a few other people, most of them fishermen, and me along the pier, but I enjoyed the seaside solitude. I’ve constantly been around three to six girls the past week and a half, so it was nice to finally get some alone time to think and enjoy the scenery.

The boardwalk.


Kind of gloomy, but still beautiful in its own way.


The pier.


The gorgeous green park en route to the bay.


Afterwards, I took the short walk up to town and bought some Welsh original beer, Double Dragon Ale. I sampled one last night. Not my favorite beer, but I like sampling the wine and beers of the area. Fact: Though a lot of stories and pictures associate dragons to all Britain, it’s actually indigenous to the Welsh. I didn’t know that until today.

Pam spent her afternoon at the National Museum and Gallery of Wales and Steff went to the Dr. Who exhibition. It’s a sci-fi show shot in Cardiff that she is absolutely obsessed with. It was nice when we all returned to share pictures and stories of our adventures. Pam and I ended our night with a nice Italian dinner at a restaurant on the bay. It was quite a walk to get there, so we burned off the pasta on the walk back.

Today we just relaxed a bit before we caught the bus back to London. It's been homework and preparation for our internships since then. I hate how quickly weekends go. I now am officially heading into my school and workweek, so these weekends are going to have more value placed on them in weeks to come. I am excited to get into the groove of things and get more accustomed to everything by spending my days at emap and nights at class. I have a feeling time is going to start speeding up, which I guess is good and bad. Stay tuned for internship updates!