A Year Abroad: Day Three. Cardiff.

I started day three quite early... 4am. I had a bus at 6am and as it was just starting to rain, I allowed myself plenty of extra time for hiding and potentially getting lost. I had to ask a cabbie for the exact location as I didn't think the internets instructions were the best, but I got there.

It look an hour longer than expected to arrive in Cardiff, so I got in at 10:30am. I couldn't check in until 2pm, so I had plenty of time to find it my hostel. First impression: Cardiff is beautiful! It's so clean and flowery and gardens, and there's a massive castle right in the centre of town! The people are also really nice. I knew my hostel was somewhere near the train station, so if I found that, I'd be right. I found the Main Street and asked a shop lady who stopped what she was doing, came out the front of the shop and gave me very thorough directions, ever though it was pretty much just around the corner. As I was thanking her, a young guy walked past and asked if I was looking for the station. The lady said yes, and he said he was heading there, so he took me. How lovely! He was a Londoner though, just studying at Cardiff University.

Then, once I was at the station I worked my way to the hostel. I was just checking the street with a man on the side of the road and he asked what number I was looking for. I told him, he didn't know it, so went into Subway and asked what street number they were so I could get my bearings! Haha lovely!

The hostel is really nice. I spent a good half an hour just sitting in the downstairs bar planning what there is to do in Wales. I've decided there are a lot of castles.

That afternoon, I went to Cardiff castle, the local markets for food, town hall, St. John's church,Millennium stadium, and the castle gardens. Cardiff is quite small, but spread out and is full of little things to do. During the day, it seems like there are more bars than people. At night, it's like every bar is full. And everyone stands out the front talking to each other from other bars. There's also a massive shopping centre and heaps of shopping streets, so I spent my afternoon shopping!

I opted for the hostel bar at night, which was very pretty. I met a group of Welshmen and a girl. So I stuck with them. They made me try this bacon beer... It was really weird, but had a bacony aftertaste which was kind of nice.