A few words about Cardiff

I’m in Oxford now, and am thinking back on my time in Cardiff.  Thought I would put down a few words about the only Welsh stop on my trip.

I arrived in Cardiff sick and very tired. After dropping my bags in a luggage storage room I wandered into the main city, not too far away from my hostel. The Cardiff River Side Backpackers is a very well placed hostel, directly across the river from the Millennium Stadium. For around £18/night, I was in a 4 bed room (albeit on the top floor, which was a lot of stairs in the morning), had free breakfast, free WiFi, excellent cooking facilities, all the usual amenities, plus friendly staff and an antisocial cat. Walking the 5 minutes into town, I accidentally discovered the Cardiff Market, a busy indoor arcade with multiple produce vendors, meat and fish vendors, odds and ends shops, and a lonely bread stall. Instantly hungry, I bought the necessities for a sandwich, and headed straight back to the hostel. The walk took me past Cardiff Castle, a sight I decided to take in the next day. After a filling sandwich, I took my sore and sick self to bed, and slept for 6 or so hours. Bottom bunk again, this time I had tons of head room and avoided the sore head when waking up. Realizing the day was dead, I lazed around on the computer for a bit, finished up my last blog entry, and went back to bed.

The next day I woke up feeling a little more human, like and much more rested. The included breakfast is darn good at the hostel with multiple cereals, lots of juices, yoghurts, toast, bagels, croissants, and more, all unlimited! My first stop was the castle, which I was quite excited to see. An admission of £7.50 (concession) didn’t surprise me as I’m used to expensive admissions by now. I excitedly read through the history of the castle on the wall, working my way to the new film showing in the almost brand new interpretation center. As an older lady and I filed into the gorgeous, modern viewing room, the guide sat down and presented us with the following warning. “Now, I’ll just mention a couple things about this film before it starts,” she said cautiously. “It is a modern interpretation of history. You will see 2000 years of history condensed into 7 minutes. If you have any questions when it’s over, I’ll be around to ask.” She scurried out of the room, and the presentation started. Now, I will try my best to summarize what transpired over the next 7 minutes. In short, the film is about a teenage girl who somehow goes through the history of the castle from the Romans to the present day, but the whole thing is set in the present day, like getting chased around by Cromwell’s forces on a modern day construction site. I was…confused, and the older woman, well she just looked pissed. Exiting the viewing room, the guide offered what I can only describe as a consoling smile. “It’s a bit vague, isn’t it? Yea, some of the guides here don’t even understand some of what’s happening. I really do think it needs some work.” I feel bad for her! Standing there day in and day out, consoling the baffled crowds of tourists too confused to know what to say. I wasn’t angry over wasted time or anything silly like that, if anything, I feel bad that Cardiff has missed this excellent opportunity. A venue like that (and the new interpretation center is beautiful) should go hand in hand with a high quality, entertaining yet educational Discovery Channel style production. As it is, you actually have to know the history of the castle already to know what is going on, and even then it’s confusing. At the time, it was a swing and a miss, but the rest of the castle still had promise. Unfortunately however…the film set the pace for the rest of the castle. It isn’t that the castle isn’t impressive, or that it is boring, it’s that the people in charge of displaying it have done a poor job monopolizing on the significant history of the castle and the resources available to them. I felt bad for the castle, that it wasn’t wowing people with its significant role in history. The easiest way to get some wows is with the AudioGuide system. Already implemented at the castle, it offers visitors the chance to see the castle at their own pace. They simply haven’t monopolized on it enough, only offering about 20 commentaries. That seems like plenty, but at 1 minute on average each, that’s not a lot of time. It also didn’t help that one of the gates where there were at least 3 more was closed off for preparations to a festival next week. I found myself number hunting, punching in random numbers hoping to find some commentary I missed here or there. I must sound angry. But I insist that I’m not, nor do I feel like I somehow didn’t get my money’s worth. $14CAD is a bargain to get to stand at the top of the keep in a castle older than my own country. For the most part, I just feel bad that Cardiff has underutilized this monumental attraction. And unfortunately…Cardiff doesn’t stop with the castle, but more on that later. Hungry from my expedition, I looked around the city for a while, seeing areas I missed before. The broad street is a long street filled with stores, an absolute shopper’s paradise. All the major brands are there, all the brands I don’t really care about. Moving on, I saw the City Hall and Museum of History, both of which I decided to visit the next day. Finding a small quaint looking pub, I noticed some well priced food and settled in. The Rummers Tavern is very UKish (since I don’t really know what “Welsh” is and it would be near suicide to call it English), the Ales are all hand pulled, food is ordered from the bar, and the staff are generally pretty friendly. The local brew was refreshing, and the 8oz steak was cheap at only £5. It was cooked to perfection, medium rare as I asked, but unfortunately had no flavour to speak of. Strike two for Wednesday.

Fortunately, my day was going to be redeemed as I was meeting friends from the Regimental Band of the Royal Welsh, whom I met at the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Determined to walk from the train station in Newport to their barracks where they rehearse, I got myself completely lost, and eventually just called a cab (strike one for David’s navigation skills). In my defence, I had directions written down, and NONE of the streets are marked. If I ever complain again about North American streets not being marked, remind me of this. A great night of catching up and meeting new people was refreshing, and I went to bed that night quite happy, regardless of the day’s disappointments.

As planned, after another wonderful breakfast, I was off to see the City  Hall and National History Museum. The City Hall is understandably closed on a weekday, but is nonetheless impressive to view from the outside, or take in while having a picnic on the huge lawn in front of it. The history museum is next door, and is similarly impressive. Admission is free, and upon orientating myself with the free map, I headed eagerly for the exhibit on the history of the Welsh, hoping to learn something about the local culture. I was immediately struck by the attractiveness of the room I was entering. Long and narrow, it seemed like it was to be viewed in a counter-clockwise direction. The number of ancient artefacts was highly impressive, especially for someone from a country which never saw the Bronze Age. Unfortunately, the display was not meant to be viewed in any particular direction, and I found myself jumping not only between centuries, but between millennia, from the Crusades to the discovery of Iron, etc. And it was about the Age of Iron when I noticed that none of these exhibits had a Welsh slant to them. I was hoping that the Welsh would take advantage of this beautiful museum to teach visitors something about history from a Welsh point of view. After all, the exhibit IS called “The Evolution of Wales”. There were mentions here and there, and as the exhibits are closer to current day, they make mention of specific actions taken by the Welsh nobility, or other highly important people. But nowhere in the exhibit of “The Evolution of Wales” did it discuss the quintessential differences between Wales and England. Why are the Welsh so fiercely patriotic? What separates Welsh culture from English culture? Why would it be suicide to describe a Welsh pub as feeling “English”? I’m no expert, but I believe these are topics which could have been covered in an exhibit called “The Evolution of Wales”. My complaints aside, it is a lovely museum, and another section covers in some detail the origins of the world through tectonic shifts, the various prehistoric ages, the dinosaurs. The upstairs gallery which I ventured into, but did not linger, has a wonderful display of worldwide art throughout the ages, including from what I could tell some priceless one of a kinds. But I am no fine arts specialist. I look at a painting and think “oooo pretty painting!” I might as well just look at them online.

With memories of the previous supper, I decided to take Thursday night’s dinner into my own hands. I stopped by the Cardiff Market again, stopped at the deli and picked up some bits of lamb. Some curry balti sauce and a bag of rice later; I was ready to make my own supper. I spent the afternoon and evening being lazy and planning the rest of my trip, with a brief break for cooking and savouring the delights of my own cooking (apparently I’m not too bad!). That past, I was easily talked into a night on the town, which I shall not delve too far into. Needless to say my head hurt this morning, and I discovered that the Cardiff nightlife is anything but disappointing.

I left Cardiff not disappointed, but wishing that one of the four capital cities of the UK showed everyone why it is Wales, and not just another part of England.  Now that I’m back into England, let’s see how Oxford goes!

I will leave you with an image of how the Welsh view Canada (from a very stereotypical point of view of course) in symbols.  Some, I’m not even sure what they are supposed to be, points for anyone who can name the more obscure ones!