My Day Trip to Wales

Thursday night, between a few rounds of karaoke at the International Students Housing bar, I made impromptu plans to go to Wales the following day with my room mate and a couple of her friends. I figure travel costs were decent, Wales always sounded cool, and this is likely one of the best weekends to do this sort of thing. So I woke up at 6, took the coach with them to Cardiff, Wales, and had what turned out to be a really great day! We didn't do anything in particular- looked at the Cardiff Castle, took a lot of pictures of the city streets, had some delicious Darjeeling tea, shopped around a little and got dinner.

The Cardiff Castle was really cool. It's right in the middle of town and surrounded by busy roads but it's extremely well-preserved and blends in with the rest of the city. I don't think the picture I posted here adequately conveys how interesting and consistent the juxtaposition between the new and old is, but it'll have to do. My favorite thing about the city was that old and new buildings existed everywhere, right next to each other and they formed a cohesive aesthetic.



This picture might actually be my favorite that I took because I really like the different angles, as made very easily accessible by interesting architecture. This is of the middle of town, basically the square, which is pretty modern, save for a few buildings and alleyways stemming from various parts. Most of the shops and newer restaurants were behind me when I took this shot, so it's a pretty congested area (though, somehow, you wouldn't know it looking at this photo).





Another thing I really liked about Cardiff was that alleyways of shops literally exist everywhere. They are all partially indoor with glass ceilings so it's bright throughout them. Some have balconies and shop fronts just as though they're outside but they're also cooler and semi- mall like. I'm not sure how old the buildings are but they definitely seemed pretty old, just with modern touches. We had our tea in one of the little shops down this alley, and while it was a tad cramped, it was really cute.

And....that's all I can really think of at the moment. Wales was really cool. I probably wouldn't need to stay there for a long time or anything, but it was a really cute, interesting day trip. I had a lot of fun getting to know new people from my trip and basically just roaming around aimlessly. I think the best way to close this off is another picture I took that wasn't especially relevant but, in my opinion, really cool. So, here goes nothing: