Over the weekend of Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, I went on a study tour to Cardiff, Wales and got to experience the Welsh city, taking in its beauty and history. During each of the three blocks of the semester that I am studying in London, there is one study tour and Cardiff is the first one that I experienced.
On the first day, we left King’s Cross Chapter at 9 a.m. with the expectation of arriving in Cardiff at approximately 12:30 p.m. For anyone who knows me, you know that I hate long car or bus rides, and these circumstances were no different. Thankfully, I had my headphones and I was able to doze off with the rest of the bus for most of the journey. However, while I was awake during the ride, I did witness some incredible views. Once we left the city, we started seeing the countryside where there were sheep grazing. After getting stuck in a great deal of traffic due to the rain, we finally arrived in Cardiff at the hostel, NosDa that my group would be staying at for the two nights. My room in the hostel was shared the first night with eight other girls in the program. Surprisingly, the room itself was rather spacious and was thankfully clean, and I quickly claimed a bottom bunk next to the entryway. Once we organized our belongings, we were unable to settle in any further because we had to leave to meet our tour guide for the introduction that preceded our actual touring of the capital. In order to do so, we walked to Cardiff City Hall and got an extremely brief crash course on the Welsh language; we were told early on that we would not retain any of it or understand Welsh since the language is almost entirely made up of consonants. Then, we met our tour guide and took off to see the city for the first time.
We ended our first day touring and continued back to Erin’s hostel, Nomad for a Welsh food tasting. We tried a variety of foods and drink, including cheeses and cider. Afterwards, it was around dinner time and not sure where to go, Erin and I ventured back to the city center and got fish and chips with peas for the first time, which were delicious and hot enough to warm us up after walking outside on the cold, rainy evening. After finishing our meals, we chose to part ways for the evening since it was late by the time that we actually ate and we knew that we would have to get up early for the tour the following day. It is truly an experience walking on your own in a rainy, unfamiliar city for the first time, but God bless Google Maps for helping me find my hostel again. When I arrived there, I spent about 45 minutes down in the lobby listening to the live music that was being performed by a group of guys, before going upstairs and hanging out in my room with one of my roommates who also came from Fairfield.
The second day arrived faster than I think anyone expected and certainly, faster than we wanted. After breakfast, the first part of our agenda was going to Cardiff Bay to meet our tour guide and see the bay, itself. It was a 40-minute walk to the bay and on the way we saw several gorgeous swans floating in a river. The walk also gave us the opportunity to see the city as a whole, which was not so much a city in certain areas, but more suburban in appearance. At times, it felt as though I entered the fictitious Stepford because all of the houses had the same outward appearance and everything was a little too picturesque, but it was certainly serene and I’m sure a lovely place to live. Once we finally arrived at Cardiff Bay, we saw the surrounding area, which included some beautiful architecture on office buildings, and also the chapel where Welsh author Roald Dahl was baptized. Additionally, it was nearby Doctor Who Experience, which I did not realize until I saw someone run by dressed as David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.
After seeing the bay, we had lunch with our group and then had some free time before our individual excursions. During the hour that we had to ourselves, Erin and I went back to Castle Arcade and bought chocolate chip Welsh cakes and Turkish delight, both of which were incredible. The prices of the treats were incredibly low as well, so it took a lot of restraint to not buy 10 Welsh cakes for £2.90. The part that made eating the treats even better was that the weather was actually nice and we were able to sit outside in the shopping strip and listen to some live performers while enjoying the sunshine.
Once our hour break was up, our group met the tour guide and we went to Cardiff Story Museum. Inside the museum, we got more insight into the history of Cardiff through interactive displays. It was really cool to see how Cardiff developed over the centuries, but admittedly the most fun was when I sat on a plastic seal and it made noises (Erin and I are easily entertained). Conveniently, we happened to finish Cardiff Story early and we were then able to go do our own thing, so we visited Cardiff Castle in depth and we got to see the inside of it. We went all the way up to the top of the tower and then afterwards, we toured the mansion where the royalty lived. The decorations were incredibly ornate and perhaps the most beautiful parts of the mansion were the stain glass windows in most of the rooms and corridors, and the library that easily had over one thousand books.
Finally, the third day was spent one way … walking. Erin stayed in my hostel Saturday night since a lot of people left early to return to London, so in the morning we left mine and walked over a mile to go to hers so that she could check out. Then, we walked nearly three miles to Cardiff Bay so that we could see the Doctor Who Experience, which was incredible. The museum had an interactive adventure at the beginning where we got to engage with pre-recorded messages from Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. Afterwards, we got to look around the exhibition room, where there were countless props spanning the 53 years of the show. While some props and costumes were replicas, many were also original versions
— including the sets
— used by the actors throughout the years.
After we finished at the Doctor Who Experience, we walked another three miles back to our respective hostels where we then left to return to London. It’s safe to say that our first study tour was a success and I cannot wait for our second study tour in Dublin, Ireland!