Last day in Cardiff

Well today is our last day in Wales. Tomorrow morning (bright and early!!!) we ship back off for London to fly back to the good ole U S of A. These past few days have been fairly relaxing. 

The night before last we stopped by a brewery called Zero Degrees... I wasn't impressed.

Bored enough to take a selfie!

I out drank the boys on many levels!!

The next day, we ate lunch at a place called mission burrito, think of it as overpriced and dried our chipotle. But the comment card was cute!

Then we wanted to find a pub to watch the Cardiff city football game... The queens vault was right next door but it was PACKED!

We ended up at a place called the yard, and I had my first fish and chips. Pretty good I must say. 

Their bathroom was nice to me.

Butt the ceiling wallpaper was a bit backwards. Heh heh

So today I'm going for my 3rd run this week, and I'm meeting up with my new friends for a farewell dinner. Last night :(

Love and cheers,

Brooke

2-4-1

Which apparently means Two for One. Have a good laugh now because I won't be allowing anyone to get that one off on me again. It seems so glaringly obvious now, but in those first few days here in the UK (which today means UcK-y weather.) I couldn't understand a fraction of what I saw and read. I thought it might be what they called their Happy Hour. Turns out it's just an insanely good deal you can take advantage of during happy hour. 

I digress, today is a 241. Yesterday's lazy reading coupled with today's lazy weather. A few extras from the past week sprinkled in that I somehow missed. 

A prime example here. On our 2nd or 3rd say our friend BH took us on a quick walking tour of Cardiff City Center (where we're staying and the gents are working.) and I had to laugh about the perfection of this bird sitting stop the statues head. Could it be anymore hilarious?

Indeed if could because literally the NEXT DAY as we walked around looking for lunch, the same bird (I imagine this too be the Mufasa of seagulls, the arcade is his pride [double pun!].) or maybe Even a different bird that stole his idea or fought for the right to take his place, was in the same spot!!  Too funny not to capture.

In days since, I have no seen anymore. I can promise I would have photographed them! 

Below is a framed print we saw in the Rummer tavern when we returned one evening for a few pints. I especially am reminded of my Brother-In-Law. This is something he and my sister would like.

Yesterday J and I got out for a bite to eat (he couldn't stand staying in bed all day like me :-), though I've made quite the art of relaxation.) and he used a phone booth to call a local beer shop. As the phone booth was not of the vintage variety I thought I'd grab a quick few good shots of the castle we walk around day in and day out.

Here is a close up of the gorgeous clocktower.

We decided to watch the FA Cup games at the Queens Vault which is across from Cardiff City's millennium stadium home to their football club. It's actually a good team!

On the way home we stopped in a mountain gear store and I snagged this jumper for £8, wearing it today!!!

Later for dinner we found literally no one on the street and just a few options for eating out. This place, Revolution, was open and we were the ONLY customers. 

J ordered the "original" Budweiser from the Czech brewery that recently won a lawsuit allowing them to CONTINUE using their centuries old brewery name in the EU only. Stupid Anheuser-Busch trying to take advantage with their crappy beer. 

Turns out this one is only morse rarely better. J's rating below:

In the way home we stopped at McD's (again one of the few places open.) and grabbed a mcflurry of the local variety! 

Here's a decent description of what lion candy is:

Today I was determined to get back into running. Promptly got stuck in a few downpours from which I sought shelter in bus stops. Here's a look at how soaked I was (or at least the part not sheltered by me.) don't worry I wore a light running jacket but took it off the second I got in doors. Way too warm!

Figured you should also see how red and breathless I was. Heh.

I cracked open our window to cool down and decided you might want to see a picture of the clock tower that rings EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES. I had thought this would keep me up at night, surprisingly not.

After I met up with the gents for lunch we went to grab Starbucks (yes they have them over here, and they use my gift cards!) and I thought you may care to know about the local big brewery, (think like Legend's or Hardywood.) makes me think of zombies. The dragon is the symbol of Wales. 

Anyway, I'm back now. Ready to read another good book. See you all tomorrow!!

Love & Cheers, 

Brooke

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.

Jason got mussels and it must have been 2 lbs of mussels. He didn't even finish it!!!

I got an AMAZING boeuf bourguignon. So delicious.

 

Don't we look happy and sated!!

The toilettes had a lovely pull chain. I thought it quite charming.

Before we left we asked the waitress to take a photo of us.

Great week!! Tomorrow we're touring castles outside of the city. I expect some amazing photographs!! Hopefully the rain will hold off!

Love and cheers,

Brooke