Day 19 - Glasgow to CardiffAuthor: jawapro
Date: Sat 07/02/2009 06:26 PM
Well - we made it. All the way from Glasgow in Scotland to Cardiff in southern Wales.
Today was mostly spent travelling. We didn’t really get to see much of Glasgow this morning, as we marched straight back to the train station. Turns out it was the wrong train station - but there was a free shuttle bus to the right one (different stations deal with the Northern and Southern lines).
Our First Class tickets got us from Glasgow down to a place called Crewe. It was a nice trip through typical English countryside. There was even baggage space for Emma’s bag - which now includes a semi-permantly extended handle (see previous blog).
The middle sections of England have apparently coped the worst of the snow - but it didn’t seem too bad to us as we cruised through.
At Crewe, we had to change trains, as the one we were on was bound for Birmingham.
The second train was another smaller one - and didn’t have any first class at all. Thanfully it wasn’t too crowded, and there was room for both of us and Emma’s bag to sit together.
As we got into Wales, it was interesting to see all the place names and other signs in English, with a ?Welsh? translation. Far too many odd letters in Welsh words - how are you supposed to try and say them?
We did eventually arrive in Cardiff. I hadn’t been sure what to expect from Cardiff. There were signs of a rough side to the city (the cops and ambos were helping a guy who’d been beaten up) but on the other hand, it was a very friendly place.
We couldn’t make the pay phones work to ring the hostel we wanted to stay at - so we ended up going to the Tourist Info place to ask for some help. The old guy there was extremely friendly and rang for us, and then gave us a map and some legendary directions on how to find the place.
As we walked along the road with our bags and map, a few people stopped to ask if they could help or if we were lost. It’s the first time anyone’s done that on the trip where it hasn’t been a cover to try and con us out of money (gypsies in Italy - didn’t get us, but we saw them con other people).
We made it to the hostel and checked in. The folk here are really nice and friendly too. Cardiff actually feels like a very welcoming place - with just a few undesirable elements - but I guess everywhere has them. Emma was more put out by them than me - as I didn’t notice the negative elements until she pointed them out.
Being as close to Ireland as we’re likely to come for a while, and as we didn’t know of any famous Welsh dishes, we went to an Irish pub for tea. Emma had some sausages with potato thing, and I had a good old Irish stew. Very nice, and not too dear either.
The hostel has free wi-fi (I love that about the UK) so we made the most of it tonight by checking email, posting overdue blog entries, and booking a hotel for our last night in London. Originally we’d only been going as far as Liverpool today, so we’d be in Cardiff the following night, and our last night would have been in Salisbury. We’d decided we wanted to be closer to London for the last night - and have managed to get a day in advance now - and have now booked the final day’s accommodation. So Salisbury tomorrow night, and London for the final night.
Tomorrow we’re going to experience what makes Cardiff really famous - and the main reason we came here - the Dr Who museum!
In other news - Emma finally broke my umbrella. It was a chickenfeed umbrella that Dad modified so it could fit in my suitcase. I’ve had it the entire trip, except for our day in Rome, which was the day it rained.
Sadly - the umbrella is no more. Emma’s probably quite glad - as she was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that I carried it around when it wasn’t raining.
On Emma's request - I will point out that the umbrella was almost broken for a few days now, it just happened to give up while she was holding it for me. Comments: 4
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