So so so... we went to Cardiff. A bit of a shock to the system after being in London as Cardiff 'city' is about the size of Wollongong. Except it has a big castle literally in the middle of it. When I get home i'm going to build a castle where the mall is. That will show you all. Ha!

Anyway, it was very pretty. The hostel we stayed in was a bit dodgy - the bottom of it was all renovated, but they obviously hadn't gotten to the bedrooms yet. It was OK, until we tried to shower - it was probably the worst shower either of us have ever used. NO water pressure. Awful. So we had terrible hair the whole time we were in Wales (see photos for proof). Besides all that though, what did we do? We saw lots of castles, which was very cool. We did a tour of Cardiff Castle (the one in the middle of town). It had an old Roman fort in the middle, but the rest of it was built in the 1800s on the old Roman foundations. It was very tacky inside - each room had a theme. It was Cardiff's Graceland.

We did a day tour out to some other castles, a national park and Big Pit mining musuem. We got to actually go down in the mine 400 feet down, which meant we got to wear hard hats with lights and battery packs. Ooooh. We both felt like members of Devo - unfortunately no photos though (our tour guide had never heard of Devo, even after we sang 'Whip It'. Pffft). Then we saw soem of the Welsh countryside, lots and lots and LOTS of sheep. It was raining so we didn't get to have a really good look around, but it was still pretty. Then to Caerphilly Castle, where it was absolutely pouring down with rain. It's pretty much ruins so all outside, we did the tour anyway - it's the biggest medieval castle in Wales (out of 641 - impressive). It was pretty damn cool. Then we saw Castle Coch, which was the inspiration for the Disney castle. We had wanted to do a tour inside, but then found out the architect that designed Cardiff Castle did it, so were glad to just see the outside. The tackiness would have ruined it.

Hmmm, what else.... we went to the National Wales Museum and saw a bunch of Welsh history stuff. Including a pile of bones they'd found buried somewhere, then treated them with "dignity and respect" by putting them on display in a glass case. Very nice.

Oh, most importantly, we tested our scrimping skills by only spending like £25 each the whole time we were in Wales - bread rolls, 'crisps' and nutella for four days straight. Boo yah! It was actually kind of fun, setting a challenge to ourselves to see how little money we could spend. But it was also nice to come back to London and eat real food and sleep in a nice bed (we've been spolied here, we're going to have to get used to hostels again when we leave in a few days).

So that was Cardiff.