Cardiff

On Saturday, I decided to travel across England to Wales. And, since this was an east-to-west trip, I had to go south first. So, I caught the train to London Kings Cross, took the Tube to London Paddington, and then took the train to Cardiff Central. Simple, right? Well, almost. Due to scheduled engineering works, we couldn’t go straight to Cardiff (with a few stops along the way). Instead, we had to go to Swindon, up through Stroud, Stonehouse, and Gloucester, and then back down through Newport and on to Cardiff Central. (I realize that to most of you this makes no difference whatsoever, but there may be some train people out there.) As a result, the trip lasted almost an hour longer than normal.

On the way, I was able to sit and watch my fellow passengers. And let me tell you, most of them were boring (although after three hours with them, I was able to identify many of them solely by their mobile phone rings). I was interested, however, by the mother, grandmother and two young kids, who, due to the nearly-full seating, had to take seats at two separate tables (rather than all four at one table). After a while, the grandmother took out a roll of Happy Birthday wrapping paper (yes, a full-sized roll of wrapping paper) and proceeded to cut off large sheets and hand them across the aisle to her daughter who then (and I’m only assuming here since I didn’t have a good view of her) wrapped the birthday presents. I can only wonder what their table-mates made of the whole affair.

Along the way, it was interesting to see how the land changed from east to west. I live in the east where it is mainly flat (yes, some hills, but relatively flat). Moving to the west, I began to see houses built on hillsides. If for no other reason than the scenery, the trip was worthwhile. I was also able to see some grazing sheep, or as the grandmother above described them to her grandson, clouds with legs.

Upon arriving in Cardiff, the first thing I noticed was a sign saying ‘Caerdydd Canolog.’ Luckily, I remembered that I was in Cymru and that the sign was telling me that I was at Cardiff Central in Wales. (And no, I don’t speak Welsh, I simply looked at the English translation on the line below.) Almost all signs on Cardiff (at least any publicly-funded signs – street signs, museum labels, train schedules, and the like – are in both Welsh and English (and usually in that order).

Not having much of an agenda or plan (this is me, remember), I started off by wandering about. I figured that the capital of Wales was bound to have a city full of things to see and do. And I was proven to be correct. If I wanted to go shopping, that is. Cardiff appears to be the shopping capital of Wales where it is possible to spend your hard-earned British pounds on everything from notebooks made from recycled circuit boards (no, I didn’t but I was tempted) and used books (ah, yes, but only one) to Welsh rugby shirts and Welsh national costumes.

Along the way, I stumbled across the Castell Caerdydd (you know, the Cardiff Castle). Luckily I was just in time for the 12:40 guided tour of the interior. It seems that various parts of the Cardiff Castle have been around since Roman times but the main buildings were built (or rebuilt) in the 19th century for an obscenely wealthy coal marquis who used the place for only six weeks out of the year (four weeks in the summer and two at Christmas). Our tour began with a welcome in Welsh and a guided explanation of several rooms. After the inside tour, we were free to explore the grounds, including the Norman tower.

Clearly, the Keep, as it is called, is the highlight for many people. Envision your stereotypical castle – build in a hill, surrounded by a moat, made of stone, that sort of thing – and you have an image of the Cardiff Castle Keep. Although not huge (it must have been a fairly small keep), it is made of stone, built on a hill and surrounded by a moat. Most that remains today is the well, the steps leading inside, the tower and the circular interior area. Visitors can climb wooden steps to explore the tower. It has several levels and the narrow spiral staircase finally ends on the roof with a great view of the city.

Here are a few other observations about the Castell Caerdydd that I couldn’t fit into decent, proper paragraph form. There are peacocks roaming the grounds (okay, to be honest, all I know for certain is that there is one peacock roaming the grounds). The hillside of the keep (from the moat to where the building begins) is absolutely covered with blooming daffodils. Photography is forbidden inside the main buildings (‘Dim Ffotograffiaeth ar deithiau tywys’) so it’s worth the 30p for postcards in the gift shop.

After the Castell, I wandered about some more looking at the shops. It was a beautiful day and the main shopping areas were packed with people enjoying the day. I was actually looking for a particular shop, Cardiff Music. All I knew was that it was located across from something famous, I thought, maybe. Yeah, that helps. (One day I’ll learn to get better directions.) Anyway, since Cardiff is the shopping capital of Wales, this proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought. After quite a bit of walking (including around the National Museum and the University – hey, they’re famous – and down each small arcade I could find – but since the signs nearby proclaimed Cardiff to be the City of Arcades, this wasn’t too helpful) I realized I was rather hungry.

Earlier in my walking, I had picked up a coupon from a rather zealous McDonald’s manager promoting their new line of deli sandwiches so I decided to try one. The place was packed. (That’s another thing…with all the McDonald’s around, how come every one I’ve seen in this place is filled to the gills with people?) I decided to try the quick line…it worked (or was SUPPOSED to work) like this: at the first register, you place your order. Then you move to the second register and pay. Then, by the time all of that is finished, your food is ready to be picked up at the counter. Unfortunately, the guy at the first register didn’t seem to understand what I wanted (evidently the zealous manager promoting the new sandwiches forgot to explain it all to his employees) so I got moved to the second register where the cashier had to sort it all out for me. Then I paid and moved to pick up my food…that wasn’t ready yet. I was told that ‘it will be a long time for your order’ – at least she was honest. During my wait, I was able to see how the express line was supposed to work. Evidently, they key is to order something simple like a cheeseburger. Anyway, I finally got my sandwiches (yes, not one but two, despite only asking for one, only paying for one, and only being hungry for one).

Thus fortified for the remainder of the afternoon, I decided to give up looking for Cardiff Music and just look at some of the shops down this particular arcade. (And, in case you were wondering, an arcade seems to be a winding, narrow shopping alley.) So, of course, since I had stopped looking for the music store, I promptly ran into it. They had the three CDs I was looking for (no, even though this store seems to be the only place internationally to get these three CDs, my trip to Wales wasn’t just to get these three CDs, I could have ordered them). My spirits buoyed from the successful music search, I popped into the used bookstore next door. I found a paperback copy of an Orson Scott Card book…a book I didn’t have in paperback…despite having it in hardback…twice…ok, it’s an obsession, okay?

(Note on obsession: I collect books by Orson Scott Card…it’s not enough to have one copy of a book…there are hard backs and paper backs to collect…American releases…overseas editions…signed copies…even a CD and a poster or two…obsessed enough that, before signing one of my books, Mr. Card once said, ‘Where did you manage to find THIS?!’ Luckily, I have most of it all already. But even still, I’m not as bad as this one guy, Noah, in Washington…now HE’s obsessed...)

I next decided to visit the National Museum and Gallery. This free museum (I’ve got to say, all these free museums are great) is billed as having the largest collection of Impressionist paintings outside of Paris. I don’t know that for a fact (but, I mean, why would they lie about something like that) but I did recognize a bunch of the names there: Monet, Whistler, Rodin (not all Impressionists or even painters, but I figure if I’ve heard of them, they’re probably pretty important art figures). The museum also has a large collection of other works, including Dutch, French, and Italian paintings from the 1600s, Flemish art, French Realism works…from the looks of the brochure, it has every major movement from Medieval and Renaissance art through modern and contemporary art.

The National Museum also has several rooms dedicated to science and archaeology, which trace the history of Wales from prehistoric cockroaches (really) through the early Christian stone burial markers to the world’s largest sea turtle (again, really). Luckily for us all, the layout of the museum is better than the layout of that sentence. Basically, you can think of the museum as combining the highlights of the Natural History Museum with highlights of the National Gallery of Art.

On the way out, I bought a postcard of a maths snake. Really. It is! Honest. On the back, it said, and I quote, ‘Adder.’

In the main shopping area, I saw several modern-day rickshaw drivers. I don’t know what the real term for them is, but basically, it’s a covered bike that has a seat for the peddler and a row of seats in the back for two people. The side said, ‘Take a Ride! No Catch!’ But, alas, I could no catch one, so I could no ride one.

Nearby, however, I heard a loud drumming. Upon further investigation (remember, I’m here to bring you the best in interesting experiences) I found members of the Samba Galêz, Cardiff’s community samba band wailing away on their drums and homemade percussion instruments. As we say in England, it was well nice. (In Wales, we probably way something like ‘cymerwch ofal ar stepiau ac o amgylch y ffos.’ Actually, that means ‘please take care on steps and around moat,’ but you get the idea.)

I also had the change to speak with a very nice person from Greenpeace. Several of them had a table set up on the main shopping road. He was quite nice and without being too pushy at all, he gave me information on Greenpeac membership, a card about stopping climate change, a very nice Welsh/English Dywedwch wrth archfarchnadoedd i stopio sleifio GM i mewn i'ch llaeth leaflet. (That means, ‘Tell supermarkets to stop sneaking GM (Genetically Modified ingredients) into your milk.’ Oh please, like you didn’t know that already!) I also got a super spiffy badge with a red triangle and a really mean bull’s head (he said it’s an anti-GM campaign pin, but I wouldn’t have guessed that if he hadn’t said so).

I decided to take the next train back rather than wait a couple more hours until the latest possible train left. Upon entering the train station, I was met with the standard Arrivals/Departures television screens. What was different was that they were in Welsh (perhaps they alternated between Welsh and English but I’m not sure). So, I was forced to figure out which platform was for ‘London Paddington.’ Luckily, the Welsh for ‘London Paddington’ wasn’t all that different from the English. (And before you start marvelling at my facility for Celtic languages, my other choices were things like Casnewydd, Abertawe, Caerfyrddin, and Y Drenewydd.)

The only interesting person I encountered on the train home was an older name with his dog, Bob. I was initially worried to be in such close proximity of a person who, frankly, seemed a few ants short of a colony…and his dog. However, the dog stayed still and silent the entire time, and the only time the man spoke was when he realized he was (due to the planned engineering works) on the wrong train. Luckily, he was planning on going to Reading eventually and that’s where we were stopping soon anyway.

Oh! I nearly forgot! I saw a whale in Wales! Ok, it was the 29-foot skeleton of a whale, but still…how often have you gotten to see a whale in Wales?

I also had the change to speak with a very nice person from Greenpeace. Several of them had a table set up on the main shopping road. He was quite nice and without being too pushy at all, he gave me information on Greenpeac membership, a card about stopping climate change, a very nice Welsh/English Dywedwch wrth archfarchnadoedd i stopio sleifio GM i mewn i'ch llaeth leaflet. (That means, ‘Tell supermarkets to stop sneaking GM (Genetically Modified ingredients) into your milk.’ Oh please, like you didn’t know that already!) I also got a super spiffy badge with a red triangle and a really mean bull’s head (he said it’s an anti-GM pin, but I wouldn’t have guessed that if he hadn’t said so).