Whales? WALES!

Since our somewhat sketchy rent-a-car road trip feel through for this past weekend, a few of us decided that a day trip to Cardiff, Wales, would be a good way to utilize our Saturday. As usual, we were right. Let's break down the very Welsh day, shall we?

5:45
Wake up after four hours of sleep. Exhausted, but what else is new? Pumped for Wales, and that eliminates much of the tiredness. Funny how much energy I have when homework and cleaning aren't on the agenda...

6:30
Meet the crew in the courtyard to walk to the train station. Today's travel group includes the "Core Four" (we're so middle school), which is Sally, Gracie, Holly and I. Adam joined us in our day trip, but also there were Carl, Sammy, Gavin and Elias who planned to spend Saturday night and Sunday in Cardiff as well.

7:37
On the train. Thought we were going to be snoozing for two hours straight, but it turns out that trains do not go directly from Oxford to Cardiff. Lame. No catch-up sleep and a lot of train connections instead.

10:00
Arrive in Cardiff! Fairly unimpressive. Dirty and run-down.

10:30
REALLY arrive in Cardiff. Not dirty and run-down. A little exploration always yields good results!

11:00
What to do, what to do? Checked a list of castles--because what else is there in Wales except castles--and decided that Cardiff Castle, purely on proximity, was our best bet.

11:10
Nine pounds to explore Cardiff Castle? Is it worth it?

11:12
So worth it.

11:30
Exploring the beautiful castle grounds...which are tainted by massive hoards of Italian teenagers. Seriously, they are everywhere. All over Oxford, and now they had followed us to Wales. WE are supposed to be the loudest and most rambunctious group wherever we go! Not cool, Italian teenagers.

12:00
Mulitple photos have been taken. Multiple steps have been climbed. Multiple Italian teenagers have been sneered at. Time to leave the castle!

12:30
HUNGRY.

12:40
Finally found a spot for lunch, and what a spot it was. "Baguette Express" might sound like a bad chain, but with about 40 different sandwich options and the owner who told us to carpe diem about a hundred different ways, Baguette Express was a great choice.

12:43
Baguettes devoured.

13:00
Ah, a park. Our favorite. Found a huge sundial and decided to sun ourselves on the center rock.

13:10
Asleep.

13:30
The boys find us, call us lazy seals, and tell us about a cathedral nearby that we should see. Also there is a museum. Discussion.

13:40
Discussion...

13:50
More discussion, sprinkled with inappropriate jokes...

14:00
Discussion about how we spend tons of time discussing and even more time telling inappropriate jokes...

14:10
Cathedral it is! Who wants to see a museum when you can be outside on a surprisingly beautiful Welsh day?

14:20
We meet Oxford. Oh, Oxford. Random and super friendly cat on the street. Probably got diseases, but at least he has a name now.

15:00
After a long walk through a lovely park, we hit the cathedral and start wandering about.

15:10
Carl and Adam accidentally photobomb a wedding happening in said cathedral. We decide that maybe we've seen enough of the cathedral.

15:30
Exploration of the graveyard! Who knew that February 31 was ever a date?

15:35
A trip to the coast sounds nice, complete with dinner. Water taxi leaves at four? Off we go!

15:40
We meet Oxford the cat again! He's been waiting for us.

15:43
The elderly lady nearby begins talking to us about the cat.

15:45
The elderly lady nearby begins talking about her life.

15:47
The elderly lady nearby begins talking about our lives.

15:48
The elderly lady nearby introduces herself as Anne Way, Christian and poet.

15:50
Anne Way tells me that I am not allowed to ever again call her Ms. Way. It is Anne. She may be 81, but she will always be 21, if we know what she means. We do.

15:55
Anne offers us a book of her poetry, privately published. She praises God who has brought her to this place at this time so that she could meet us. We agree.

16:00
We miss the water taxi. We don't care.

16:02
I give Anne my Chapel Hill address so that she can send us more poems, and she gives us her Welsh address so that I can send her the photo we all just took together.

16:07
Anne hopes that we will never lose the idealism that we now have. She makes us promise. We happily oblige.

16:09
Anne quotes Frost.

16:11
Anne quotes Shakespeare.

16:13
Anne tells us to "gather our rosebuds while ye may."

16:20
Anne must be going, as must we. We promise to write, and she kisses us all goodbye, remembering our names one by one.

16:25
We walk away, thanking Oxford the cat for the wonderful experience of meeting Anne Way.

16:45
We get in line for the next water taxi.

16:55
We are forced to defend our rightful place in line against a 4-year-old and his mother.

17:00
Water taxi to the coast! Much discussion on what to eat when we're there. Much discussion on how much we discuss what to eat. Much discussion on how much we love food.

17:15
Still discussing food.

17:25
We arrive at the harbor!

17:30
Burgers it is. We're feeling very American today, and Gourmet Burger Kitchen sounds too delicious to pass up.

17:45
I decide that I will never again be able to enjoy fries without malt vinegar.

18:10
Food coma.

18:15
Up we go. Off to walk around a bit, then to the train station to end our "Welshpent" (thanks, Holly) day.

20:30
On the train.

21:30
Still on the train.

21:45
Connection to another train.

22:00
Wondering why this train isn't stopping at Swindon, our connection.

22:10
Conductor tells frustrated me that it's signal trouble. We'll be getting off at Reading and can find our way there.

22:15
Still fuming.

22:20
Arrived at Reading. 45 minutes until train to Oxford. Thanks, signal trouble.

00:30
Finally back at Oxford.

00:31
Asleep.



A very extensive rehashing of our long day in Wales (and on trains). Don't worry, I won't break down this weekend's Edinburgh exploits quite as extensively. Hopefully you all don't mind too much because I do still, as always, love and miss you all.