Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Simply Wales - Cardiff Day 1


Right after completing our Italy-Swiss trip, my parents and I continued our journey to the west of United Kingdom which is Cardiff. Cardiff is the capital city of Wales. When we arrived in London Gatwick from Geneva, Switzerland, we stayed overnight in Travelodge Gatwick. We headed to Cardiff the day after by taking National Express bus from Gatwick Airport.

First, we took the bus from Gatwick to London Victoria which took about 2 hours of journey. We had lunch at London Victoria Station because there are a lot of halal restaurants there. I had a cheeseburger meal and my parents were having chicken nuggets and chips. After finishing our meal, we waited for our next bus there. The journey from London Victoria to Cardiff also took 2 hours. The bus stopped at Newport for a while before continuing to Cardiff.

We arrived at Cardiff quite late in the afternoon which was around 4 pm. Then, we checked in at Travelodge Cardiff Central. Travelodge is a budget hotel chain in UK & Ireland. The earlier you make reservation, the cheaper the price. For the triple room that we had, it only cost around £30. We had a rest for a while before heading outside searching for a place for dinner.




We found Wok to Walk, an oriental restaurant which is similar to one in Glasgow. The most important thing was this is a halal restaurant. Firstly, we chose the base which is either rice or noodles. Then we added some topping such as chicken, beef, mushroom, shrimps etc before choosing the sauce. Sauces include teriyaki, spicy, soy sauce and many others.







After that, we walked to the Cardiff Castle. We only managed to take photos at the exterior because the castle was already closed by the time we reached there. It closed at 5 pm if I'm not mistaken. The walls of the Cardiff castle are quite high. I wished we arrived early so that we could enter the castle. There is admission fee if you wanna enter the castle.










Next destination was Queen Street. This is a shopping area as there are many shops and retails located here. We passed by Cardiff Market as well but it was already closed.








Most of the signboards in Cardiff are bilingual, usually English and Welsh. In fact, Cardiff in Welsh is Caerdydd. So don't be strange if you encounter weird language there. :)

We went back to the hotel after buying some food from a grocery store. By the way, please bring along your plastic bags or any bags because they don't provide any. You have to buy your own bags if you don't own any. I think this is because Cardiff practices Go Green campaign.


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