Cardiff Wales, Stonehenge, and Bath

So I took my very first trip outside of England. Yes I know Wales is still in the UK and it's not even a flight-worthy trip, but still, Wales is considered a country after all. So we [20-something WC students] took our bus (10pounds round trip!) ride to Wales very early Friday morning and got our first taste of the English countryside. Although I was not thrilled to have to wake up at 6:45 on a Friday when I don't have class, I was happy to see the sun rising over the English countryside as we rode toward Cardiff.

On arrival, we immediately realized one very nice fact about the Wales capitol: everything is much much less expensive. The cab ride to our hostels cost around 7 pounds whereas in London it would've been pushing 20. The hostel I stayed in was called the Nomad. It was my first hostel experience and I must say a more pleasant one than not. For some reason, all the private rooms were books so me, Miles, and Mike ended up in a shared dormitory room which had 6 beds and 2 other people spending Friday night. I feel bad for the random girl who was also staying in our room. She must have been terrified at the thought of being in the same room with 4 guys she didn't know. During the day, I was feeling the effects mono and stayed in and slept the majority of it.
Cardiff is not London. It's much smaller, cleaner, and more laid back. The buildings aren't as big and the signs are in English and Gaelic. There are less cars and friendlier people. The Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Bay are pretty much the only tourist attractions in Cardiff. The weekend as a whole was very relaxing as our smaller groups did our own things respectively. I really enjoyed visiting the Cardiff national museum but my favorite part of the Cardiff trip was being able to spend three pounds for a full sized meal of fish and chips and cup of tea at a quality restaurant. Sunday I ended up walking the length of Cardiff 4 times when I got lost searching for church, lost looking for the rest of my group, lost looking for the Cardiff Bay, and finally the walk back to city centre where we eventually were picked up by the bus for the ride home.

Another week of classes. Some more public transportation and Serbian cooking at home. We got two boys, this time from Denmark, to add to our diverse household which now includes Serbians, 1 Greek-American, 2 Italians, 2 Norwegians, and now the 2 Danish

Friday a few of us took a day trip guided tour to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was very very interesting...for the first 10 minutes. The most impressive fact about it is that each stone would taken at least 60 men to carry and also that each layer of stones were from different regions of the UK. The only other interesting fact I learned about Stonehenge is that it is we about 1/3 of each stone is lodged underground so it would be virtually impossible to tip one over. Even if we were allowed to go near the stones. In fact, someone did. There were these two guys from California on this tour who had more facial piercings than I have fingers and toes. The one, on a dare, decided it would be funny to get a picture while leaning on Stonehenge. He jumped the little fence and struck his pose while leaning on the stone. Within 5 seconds, a security guy also jumps the fence and snatches our proud American friend before the picture was even taken. Needless to say, it was quite comical to witness someone getting kicked out of Stonehenge of all places.

The second leg of our day trip was to Bath. The city of Bath had a very unique style to it. Very Victorian with its limestone buildings and pseudo-Grecian pillars. We gained entrance into the Roman Baths (hence the city name, Bath), which were built some centuries ago when the Romans invaded this far into Britain. The Baths are basically a bunch of natural water reaching so deep into the center of the earth that the core heats the water near its boiling point. The water itself is untreated and we were warned not to touch it (I touched it). I wonder if the water was always green when the Romans used it regularly...I should have asked my new buddy, Octavius something someone and something more in Latin. This guy had like 12 names and seriously believed he was the head priest to serve the gods at the Bath. I gotta give the guy credit, either he was a little cuckoo in the head or he is going to win the next Oscar for never getting out of character. Well anyway, visiting the Roman baths was a unique experience to have in the UK. We then rode our bus home which concluded our day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

Spark Notes
Cardiff, Wales - very nice atmosphere, I want to return if time permits.
Stonehenge - impressive for about 10 minutes, witnessed a fellow American do our country proud by getting kicked out of the place.
Bath - very unique town with an attractive flavor to it. I touched Roman bath water. It was green. And warm.

Until next time!