A week or two back Laura’s dad unfortunately broke his leg preventing her parents from traveling to Cardiff for their weekend trip away.
Not wanting to waste the booking Laura and I were offered the trip by her lovely parents. We quickly cleared our planners, both wanting to visit Wales.
Due to a motorway closure the trip there was considerably longer than the return journey (4 hours there, 2 and half back). But I really enjoyed having Laura to myself for an extended period of time. We are both fairly busy people and it does mean we don’t often get to spend time together on consecutive days. In all honesty that’s been very important for my mental health I think, particularly with my issues around relationships. However, I have found myself (more often than I would admit) just wanting to be with Laura; to know she is in the same place as me, to be around her, to be able to just get up and hug her. So yer, I was enjoying the time together.
Laura tried to convince me this was her trying a hostel experience. But I’m not sure this really counts. I mean look at our room.
That afternoon we exploded some (a small part) of the city centre, have the best burgers ever at The Grazing Shed and decided to visit Cardiff Castle. I enjoyed looking/ walking around and taking photos. But probably my favourite thing was seeing Laura’s face as she listened to the audio guide and read the information boards. She flipping loves herself some history.
It was quite a surreal experience at times. Walking around these historic sites and buildings, while in the background we could hear the (very loud) music from the circus or theme park behind the castle. Yer, it was... strange. I chuckled in my head as we walked up steps less than half a foot deep to get to the top of the castle. From here we could see what I assume was most of Cardiff. Everything was so close, the castle, football stadium, city centre and I think some religious buildings.
That night we saw the Early Doors theatre performance, one of Laura’s parents favourite tv shows. Neither of us had ever watched the show, so we didn’t know what to expect. The first half was funny in parts, but not amazing. The second half however was funny as! Maybe because I’d got to know the characters a little more, but also a couple of the story lines (one in particular) really got me. In fact I started laughing before the lines where delivered a couple of times, you just knew what was coming and it was... quite humorous. I came away from the performance wanting to watch the series, which consists of only about 15 episodes I think. It was great!
Sunday morning we decided to hang around for a while before driving home. So we visited Cardiff Bay, where we had the fortunate opportunity to take a boat trip around the bay for just £3 each! What’s more, we were the only people on the boat, so for £6 we had our own boat tour! It was super interesting to hear about the Bay and it’s recent development. Which has supported local tourism, wildlife, culture and economy.
Unfortunately the Dr Who museum had closed, that seems like a silly idea. Surely that would still be making money. We also visited the Welsh Assembly, which was so open, transparent friendly and welcoming I didn’t believe it was a political building. We received some interesting information and where shown around the main chamber. It really was not what I expected. It was so different to how I see English politics.
It was great to visit Cardiff this weekend and so lovely to share the experience with Laura. It truly was a different experience to my Dublin and Amsterdam trips. Have you had any good city breaks recently? What do you think about solo or couples getaways?
