Retreating to Wales

How do I describe it? What an amazing (that word will be used a lot in this post) time Katie Beth and I had this past weekend in Wales! Oh my goodness. Srsly. (<--that's lolcats) Last semester, we decided to be travel buddies, so we've been planning on these trips for quite a while. Yay!

Week before last, Katie Beth and I made reservations for an apartment that's rented to vacationers (it's part of a vacation/residential complex) in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. We also booked train tickets and tickets to a joust at the Cardiff Castle. Katie Beth was very excited to take the train because she'd never ridden one before. The tickets were a hundred dollars, but she really enjoyed it. (Plus, Scotland train tickets are $200, so I'm thinkin' we might hit up the bus come this weekend)

We chatted for most of the ride and arrived in Cardiff at about 4:30 PM. Of course we didn't have a car so I had printed out directions to our apartment before we left. We managed to find our way amidst some slightly confusing roads and pretty identical apartment buildings to the concierge office where we picked up our keys. The whole process was a little different because the apartment complex is residential, and it seems like somebody owns a whole set of apartments and rents them out to vacationers.

We finally found our way through the myriad of apartment buildings, rode the lift up to the fourth floor, and stepped into Apartment #83. Our first thoughts:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness!! The place was AMAZING!! We were paying about 85 pounds a night, but it was so beyond TOTALLY worth it. While searching for places to stay, we kinda looked for a very safe place but knew that it might cost a bit more. The website we used gave us the apartment for about 70 pounds off, as I recall.

Anyways, back to the amazingness of our weekend residence. Wow. We opened the door to a sparkling, new apartment. Absolutely gorgeous. Off in the living room was the 40 inch Sony Bravia TV!!! AMAZING!! We wandered through the bedroom and made our way to the kitchen and found Electrolux appliances such as a dishwasher and washer in the ritzy kitchen. Oh yeah, and champagne flutes! Oh goodness, and the floors were heated! Absolutely amazing! I almost preferred to sit, watch TV, and enjoy the poshness of that awesome place than go out sight-seeing. Wow, oh wow. I even got to watch a little Star Trek the first night! Glorious! In fact, that night we ordered in pizza because we didn't want to leave.

The next morning I made a cup of Taylors of Harrogate English Breakfast (yes Mom, I'm hooked) with the Prestige tea kettle. It boiled water in less that sixty seconds without the stove! Funny thing, you know you're in the UK when there are ample tea bags, sugar, tea kettles, even cream in the fridge but not a coffee maker in sight. Sorry Dad, all they had was instant coffee. I think the water was better than what we have in our flat-- I didn't have any weird foam on top of my tea. I try not to think about the white crust that is building at the bottom of a particular glass I've been using (and washing everyday) for weeks.

So anyways, we got out the door and walked to central Cardiff (about twenty minutes walk) making our way to Cardiff Castle which was holding a JOUST! Sa-weet! We bought tickets for a guided tour and learned about the 19th Century Earl of Butte who renovated the crumbling palace into his own medieval fantasy castle. Afterward, we climbed up into the Castle's keep which was built as an inner defense. The top offered great views around Cardiff, which is a much less busy city that London (thankfully!).

Below us there were performances going on, so we climbed back down and watched two 'knights' sword fights. There was a bit of a crowd gathered, but Katie Beth (she's a wee bit short) managed to see over a lady who was speaking to a child. By then my tummy was rumbling a bit, so we went over to a pork roll stand to buy sandwiches. For £3.50, we got a roll with stuffing spread on it, covered with pieces of freshly cooked Welsh pork, dabbed with some applesauce, and topped with a piece of cracklins. Oh yeah, and the fresh cooked pork? The big, head and all, was in a tray right before our eyes. The sandwich was soo good! I tried the cracklins (my second time since Branson last year), and they were better but a little weird. It was kinda strange to be eating pig skin with hair still on it, but whatevs, may as well try it!

While eating our sandwiches, we wandered over to the main JOUST (on our tickets it was always in caps, so I will put it in caps) area and staked out a spot along the edge. In a matter of minutes, the edges filled up and an announcer guy came through to begin the show. Unfortunately, the speaker was right by us and because my hearing is a bit sensitive I had my left ear covered for all of the performance. Ah well. Anyways, knights came riding around on horseback, divided into blue and red teams. We rooted for red because the flags on our side were red. The actual jousting was neat-- one guy fell off his horse and another splintered his lance like you see in the movies.

Before the actual jousting, the announcer guy had all the kids come up for a weapons parade. There they were- sweet, little innocent beings marching around with their swords, rings, flails, maces, and decapitated heads. Wait, heads?? Yes, later on in the show, the knights would ride by and lance the styrofoam heads, but it was hilarious to see these children marching about with their ghastly burdens.

Anyways, after the JOUST (red won) we left the Castle for the gift shop and then out into Cardiff. We were going to go to St. Fagan's, the National History Museum, but after wandering around for an hour we found out the buses wouldn't get us there (actually, they probably would have, but we didn't know that at the time) and it was getting later in the afternoon so we wouldn't have as much time there as going on Sunday would provide.

And then the walking began. Two hours, straight. We decided to find a grocery store but not having a location kinda put a damper on our efficiency. We literally wandered the streets (no worries, there were lots of people walking around too) for hours. Plural. Wow. We found our way back to near the Cardiff rail station and went in an antiques store for a look around. Probably the neatest stuff was a military stall that had old uniforms and shells from WWI and WWII. Katie Beth decided to get a milkshake at the cafe but ended up with flavored milk-- they don't quite understand how to do milkshakes here. I asked the cafe lady where to find a grocery store but had to clarify as looking for a Sainsbury's. She pointed on the map I had to a street far, far away from the antiques store. In fact, Katie Beth and I had almost walked all the way over there but turned down a side street slightly before. Oh goodness.

During our wanderings, we found Floyd's Clothing, a boutique shop we had just watched a "Mary, Queen of Shops" episode about earlier. So cool! In the show, they revamp a shop to help its sales. We saw what we had watched, even one of the shop's owners!

More walking! We finally made it and purchased about £25 of food, basically for one night. But so completely worth it! We walked a little ways more but gave up and found a taxi. Just £4.50 saved us twenty minutes of walking- and with heavy grocery bags! Again, completely worth it. We got in but decided to rest for about an hour before beginning to cook.

And cook we sure did! Well, Katie Beth did most of it (for which I was extremely grateful-- it was so nice not to have to prepare an entire meal for myself), but I figured out the can opener. Oh goodness, we had to get online and look up the silly thing, and it was from Ikea no less! Turns out it had a hidden lever but even then it didn't work so well. I cut up my hand a little, but hey, we had green beans. Katie Beth cooked up two steaks and some little cut up potatoes, and she even set the table while I was fiddling with the can opener. We sat down to a wonderful supper together at our sweet table in the apartment. Amazing.

Later on, we cooked an apple tart/pie thing and had it with some ice cream. Yay for dessert! Except that we couldn't get it off the rack, so we just cut it from there. And finally, we had an evening drink in our champagne flutes. Yay for lemonade (i.e. lemon flavored Sprite)!

In the evening, we watched House (almost three hours worth) and got on Katie Beth's computer. It was so wonderful just to relax and enjoy the luxurious surroundings. I had no desire to do anything besides sit before the flickering TV and enjoy the company of my now dear friend. Oh! And we did laundry!! The few clothes I had with me I washed, and those will probably be the only ones machine washed this summer. But alas, the evening ended and we headed off to bed.

We got up the next morning and prepared to go out to breakfast at a place we saw it for £2.49 and then off to church. But Katie Beth had her skirt and capris in the dryer all morning (plus my shirt and socks because I spilled green bean juice on them while cleaning up...), so we didn't leave the apartment until 10:50. We obviously didn't make the church service at 11. :(

Instead, we decided to head over to St. Fagan's early and caught a taxi to take us over. The driver was nice and even cut our fare by 40p down to £10. St. Fagan's is on the outskirts of town, so the fare was a little more. Apparently one of Katie Beth's more recent relatives was from Wales, so she was interested in learning more about the culture. From what I've read before, Wales hasn't quite kept up with England's economy nor has it enjoyed a recent spurt of growth as Ireland has. One interesting part of the culture is the 'love spoon' which is a spoon with intricate carving representing various aspects of love. The spoon is carved and give by a suitor seeking a young lady's hand in marriage.

We walked through a museum inside and then headed out to tour the forty buildings comprising the museum. (Did I mention that it was all free??) The day was gorgeous with the bright sun, green trees, and blue sky. Katie Beth lives on a farm at home, so she enjoyed walking around the 'countryside.' Me, I just don't like the city, so I'm all for lots of outdoorsy bits.

A lot of our trips have been to 'escape' from London's bustling milieu. The Cotswolds, Wales, Scotland. It's so nice to be outside without thousands of people just steps away. The fresh air, the green trees, the expanses of land. I can't wait to get back to the States.

In any case, after touring the buildings a bit (and hitting up the ice cream stand!), we got another taxi back to the station. We tried to find a kebab house in the city, but alas, the train was leaving soon. (We're going to get kebabs, whatever they are, at some point, though) I picked up a pint of milk (only 41p!) and a BLT sandwich for the 2.5 hour ride back.

I chatted with Katie Beth a little and listened to music for most of the ride. She read her class book because she's taking a Victorian literature class this session and has reading assignments most nights. Looking just at the short term--i.e. this summer, I really wish I would have just taken three sessions of classes (and gotten home earlier in August). Every evening Katie Beth will tell me stories about the adventures she's had during the day- all the fun that's gone on, all the things she's done. I miss the freedom we had before the internships started. We spent two hours in class and the rest of the day running around playing in London. Ah, work.

The ride back was relatively uneventful, and we made it back just fine. What an amazing weekend. Wow. Touring-wise, we didn't do a whole lot, but that didn't matter much to me. The apartment ended up being something of a retreat, a great place to relax. The decor was modern but very well put together, and it had all the luxuries our flats in London lack. I didn't have to worry about keeping my clothes clean, squinting at a little box of a TV with four scratchy channels, watching out for mice, or sitting in dirty arm chairs. I could lie back on the reclining leather couch, pop my clothing in the washing machine, enjoy a clear TV picture of over 200 channels, and load dishes in the dishwasher. Wow. It was glorious.

I'd kinda like to have a place like that someday. Not necessarily with all the perks (heated flooring, towel heating rack, balcony, etc.), but something that feels like a retreat. The aesthetics of a place really influence what I think about it. Remember the whole needing food to look good? Kinda like that but with a residence. I need a well-decorated and arranged room for it to feel luxurious, and if possible I'll work to make it that way. Perhaps I can add a few nice touches to our duplex this coming fall.

Oh and a random side-note, Nelson Mandela is in the city this week to celebrate his 90th birthday.