Finding Sunshine (in a thunderstorm): The rest of my week in Cardiff

So sorry it took so long to connect with everyone!! I've been having an amazing time over here on this side of the pond. For the most part we'd had really good weather. I went for my run during the dry part of the only rainy day we've had. Then I took a day and relaxed. That day we ate lunch at a creperie in one of the indoor arcades. We thought the crepes were ok, but our French friends, Elie and Dominique thought they were crap. Oh well the place was still adorable.

Below is a panoramic shot of the basement lounge where we ate. I'm not sure how well the panoramic will translate online, so do let me know. The place had some really trippy art all over the walls.

We founds music store that had a great selection of instruments. One notable wall ornament was this buffalo which you can barely make out in the dim light.

When I got back to our room the weather was so decidedly British that I wanted to share it with you. It's another panoramic.

Then I realized that I had not shown you our posh room!!!! I took a really awful panoramic of it, don't mind our crap everywhere. There is like ZERO closet/drawer space.

I am obsessed with our bathroom, the panoramic doesn't do it justice. The tub is enormous. I LOVE taking a bath in it!!

That night we went to a pub before dinner and I got a recommendation for cider, it was huge!!! And delicious!!! It was soooo good. A new favorite.

Here is an adorable picture of J's little half pint, between my giant cider and our mates pint glass. So little.

The next day was delightfully uneventful. We finished the evening out with our French buddies and pub crawled, eating subway & take-away fish and chips for dinner in our hotel lobby. I was a BIT done for at this point.

The next day was awesome!!! I went to an auditioning of Britian's Got Talent in the Cardiff Bay. Some of the people that work here used to work in the US division and invited me along. We started the day with coffee and I couldn't help noticing the paper at the top had some interesting headlines.

We hopped on a quick commuter train for £3 round trip down to the bay. We stood in queue and just about when we were freezing our bums off they gave us our tickets and let us just come back for the event. So we got amazing seats because our friend had been there for forever, she was really far ahead in line. It was so awkward cutting infront of everyone but they were truly British. We kept our eyes closed and said sorry and no one questioned us! We left to go warm up with some cocktails and on the way I spotted a few photo opportunities. Here's an original old church, so pretty. You can't really see it but but there is a round plaque on the wall that honors Roald Dahl, apparently he lived here!!!

In the bay, we didn't go over there, but there's the Dr. Who Museum. You can barely see it but the Tardis is dead center in the shot, on the platform in front of the museum. Even through the series is set in London, it's filmed in Cardiff.

As we continued we saw some swans and I was reminded that they are protected by the throne. Can't kill them. Who would want to? I did tell them about our Canadian Geese problem.

Another show filmed in Cardiff is Torchwood. When the (*spoiler alert!*) killed off one of their main characters, fans built this shrine at the location of his death. It's pretty dodgy.

Here we are in queue to see the judges come in. The only one of note to us Yanks is Simon Cowell and he looks WEIRD in person. The other judges were talented, funny, and well spoken, they also dressed appropriately for the occasion. Simon, as expected, wore skinny jeans, these awful pointy black shoes and a tight v neck white tee. *shudder.*

Haha this picture is where I said "Brooke's got talent."

Don't know why they numbered our braclets, it didn't do us any good.

The event was at the Cardiff opera house. The whole side facing the left had welsh written on it. Dunno what it said.

Here we are at our seats. Not terribly close, but close enough to see how weird Simon looks.

Apparently we were not supposed to take photos of the stage, everyone else got yelled at... I got away with it!!!

Just after the event, with the Welsh words behind me.

The next day was delightfully sleepy. I read 2 full books and vegetated on Reddit. That night I suggested we get French food. Mostly because I was sick of crappy food. I figured even British French food was better than British food. We brought the Frenchmen with us, they were very funny!!! Judging everything against the actual restaurants in Paris.