So, first I must apologize that I have been slacking on the blog posts lately, but turning in a 26 page paper on Monday made me at a loss for words. I sat down to try to do the posts about my trip from last week and I physically could not do it, so over the next few days, there will be a few posts because I have been 4 cities since my last post!
Tuesday, 6 November 2012, Bath: After we left London, we travelled to Bath. I cannot begin to tell you how much I recommend Bath. It was so fun and beautiful!
Of course we went to the Roman Baths, and I cannot even tell you how much I loved (we all did) that museum! It was fantastic.
After that we walked across the bridge (that doesn’t look like a bridge…according to locals–they’re correct) and we went down the street to the Holburne Museum, which was the house used in Vanity Fair and other movies. Oh, by the way, the day before, Les Miserables had been filming scenes in Bath. I cannot lie, I am a little bummed that we missed it. I literally cannot wait to see it!
But, back to the Holburne Museum, it was great–they have an amazing fine china and a fantastic art collection. It was great–they even have cabinets filled with tiny miniatures that are so intricately carved it is crazy to think that they are as small as they are.
Then, we went to the Bath Abbey. It was absolutely stunning. The organ in the church has over 5,000 pipes. It was gorgeous. I was a little bummed that we didn’t get to hear it being play. FYI, one of my life goals is to learn to play the organ. That would be too cool.
Fun fact: the sarcophagus in the Abbey of a nobleman and his wife, used to be open so visitors could look inside of it and see their mummified bodies. Oh, and not just a casual open every-now-and-then thing. It was something that people would actually come to see. Which, if you think about it, isn’t too different from people’s fascination with mummies, but it’s still weird.
After we went there, we ventured to an amazing sweet shop where we got huge, and I mean HUGE, meringues. I got a chocolate one. I can still taste it in my mind. It was that good. If you’re ever in Bath, go to the sweet pastry shop on the corner of the bridge that doesn’t look like a bridge, and that is across from the Bath Market. It’s amazing!
After being in a sickly sugar coma from eating the huge meringue alone, we went to the Bath Market and took some more Call Me Maybe pictures with various things in Bath before heading back to collect our belongings and head to Cardiff, Wales!
Wednesday & Thursday, 7-8 November 2012, Cardiff, Wales: When we arrived in Cardiff and walked into our hostel, the Bunk House, we knew this place was going to be great. It was the coolest hostel I have ever seen. It was decorated tiki-hut style in the bar on the ground floor, there was a movie theatre downstairs for hostel guests with couches made from bathtubs and old beds (it sounds weird, but it was awesome!) and the whole hostel was filled with really cool people.
The morning after we arrived, we went to the Cardiff National Wales Museum, where we saw art, dinosaurs, sea life creatures, a huge whale, woolly mammoths and other natural history things, anthropological artifacts and so many more things. We even talked to a zoologist there for over an hour at a handling table–he was so cool. After that, we explored Cardiff, which is a city I would recommend to anyone.
The next day we went to the Cardiff Castle. It was amazing.
Cardiff Castle has grown since its creation 2000 years ago as a Roman Garrison, then a Norman stronghold, and finally a castle. In the 1860s, the 3rd Marquees of Bute made the castle into the amazing building that it is today.
Fun fact: the castle was used as an air raid shelter during WWII. Over 200 people lived in one of the hallways in the castle wall during the war.
Oh, and the military museum under the visitor center of the castle was fantastic. I cannot explain how much I recommend this museum to anyone!
Then, we had time before our train left, so we went to the Cardiff Story Museum. Oh my goodness, that museum was so cool! They have amazing interactives and a fantastic museum. Apparently Cardiff was a city based on the coal and cigar factory industries. I learned so many amazing things in that museum and had an amazing time there!
We also went to the Cardiff Market, which was absolutely awesome. We met a really cool man who runs a nut/candy stall in it and we all got bags of some of his sweets. They were amazing. I highly recommend yogurt covered honeycomb. Yummy.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip! I loved every minute of it. Oh, we got mustaches in Bath from our hostel, so naturally, we took them everywhere with us and took pictures.