Cardiff and CNY

Hi all!

Haven't updated this in a very long time, so will give you a brief run down of what's been happening.

So I went to Cardiff and that was great. Arrived on the Saturday morning and had a walk around the town, through the Victorian shopping arcades and what not. Then caught a bus to Caerphilly. Met a group of Chinese girls on the bus - Sarah, Sarah and Tracie who were studying a combination of non-specific subjects (management, logistics etc) in Cardiff, London and Bath respectively. We went to Caerphilly Castle together and walked along the crumbling, stone walls covered in patches of moss, and climbed the narrows stairs up the towers. It was pretty awesome. There was also a moat surrounding the castle where fishermen pitched tents and did their fishing, and ducks and geese paddled about.

We then went into town and warmed up with a coffee before heading to the village of Tongwynlais. From there we walked to Castle Coch which was just north of the village, just as the sun was starting to set. Castle Coch is a lovely fairytale castle with it's round towers topped with cone shaped roofs. We walked around the castle and surrounding grounds then headed back into Cardiff.

With the help of some friendly locals, I managed to reach my hostel quite easily. There I met a Brazillian guy called Andre who was studying English in Eastbourne and just travelling to Cardiff for the weekend. I also met Andrew and Kate, a couple of Aussies from London. I went for dinner with Andre then went out clubbing with Andrew and Kate at a daggy disco place which was fun. It seems that alot of people like dressing up in costumes and things in Cardiff. lol.

Anyway, I somehow managed to get up the next morning and ate a hearty breakfast at the hostel with Andre. We then walked into town, Andre teaching me some Portuguese words and phrases along the way. We visited the National Museum and Art Gallery which was fully awesome cos they had some French impressionist paintings, then wandered past Cardiff Castle and Millenium Station. It was such a beautiful day - the sun was out and the air clean and crisp. We then headed down to Cardiff Bay and took in the sights - the awesome Wales Millenium Centre, National Assembly, Red Dragon Centre (they had a Doctor Who exhibition on - and no...I didn't bother going in! :P) and Mermaid Quay (full of top-notch restuarants). The highlight for me was sitting down on the steps looking over Roald Dahl Plass - I can't believe they named a plaza after one of my favourite authors! (yeh..he was born in Cardiff). Anyway, we had a look at the docks and the white Norwegian church etc then headed back into town. Andre had to leave so I said goodbye to him at the train station, then I headed over to Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff Castle was really awesome. They had a great museum there (REALLY daggy film at the start - so exceedingly poorly acted that I actually burst out laughing), and I had a tour of the rooms which was really, really great! Then I wandered around the grounds and climbed up the tower and took in some awesome views.

Afterwards, I headed to a little cafe near the bus station, had a drink and a read then caught the bus back to Bristol - just as it started to rain!!

I was really blessed with good weather that weekend!

Last weekend I went into Bristol city centre with Aman on the Saturday (his friend works at Maccas so we got cheap food) to do some shopping and then on Sunday I went to the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery (they have a stuffed gorilla!) which was really nice (awesome collection of paintings and silverware and Chinese glass). They also had a small exhibition on for Chinese New Year. I also went to the University of Bristol for some Chinese New Year celebrations - kung fu demonstrations, lion dancing and some (sorry to say this) terrible singing and music playing on traditional chinese instruments. It seriously reminded me of those concerts you do at school - where everyone's talking in the background and the ten people performing are sharing one microphone, and people from the audience are leaving half way etc. Or at least that's how I remember my school perfomances being like. Especially the ones at Chinese school *shudders*.

Anyway, after the afternoon of celebrating Chinese New Year, I decided to continue the theme by having a Singapore laksa for dinner at a chinese restuarant. lol.

This weekend I will further continue the CNY theme by going up to London for some awesome festivities in Trafalgar Square!! (and I'm staying at a £7 a night hostel :S)

Work has been going fine. Though the days have started to "slow down" a bit (compared to the first few weeks where the weeks just flew by). I will write more in my rant :P

Hope you guys are all fine! And enjoying the Aussie summer!