Serendipity

More mistakes have been made, but I'm recovering from them.

According to my schedule, last night I should have spent the night in the middle of Wales - in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it to be honest, but it was the only place I could find in Wales that had a bed for Saturday night. Last night the rugby semi-finals were on and Cardiff... and Swansea... and every-bloody-where else was entirely booked out.

However, I got lucky. And not in the pants down kind of way (sadly).

While I was at the bar on Friday night, the girl working mentioned there were beds available at the backpackers' down the road - did I want one? Stupid question really, I was dreading trying to find this place and was a little worried I might end up as a steak in some demented Welsh farmer's lunch (Torchwood, you are to blame for this!).

So last night I stayed in Cardiff again, which gave me some more time to look around. On second wander, Cardiff is a little bigger than I originally thought - there's a whole area not printed on the map I was given - so I took some time to wander around there. Not a lot there, just a lot of shops.

I also took the time to look through Cardiff Castle, which was equally garish as it was impressive. The guy who used to own it was somewhat eccentric, and he'd had the place decorated to suit his rather odd tastes. It was all very impressive and ornate, but it's not the kind of place I'd be happy living in. Aside from all the Catholic hullabaloo adorning everything, every room was just so over-decorated I'd be afraid to move for fear of damaging anything.

After this I spent some time in the Art Gallery. I took a good look through the exhibit explaning how Wales was formed, but I'm sorry to say that it's hard to become entirely enthusiastic about a bunch of rocks - no matter how many fossils are embedded in them. I tried to find the paintings - apparently they have the largest collection of impressionist paintings outside of Paris - but I couldn't find them. I might head back again today, now my feet have recovered.

By now, my feet were killing me so I decided to take the open top bus tour around Cardiff to see the sights... and it turns out I've already seen the best ones already, on my own. Most of the tour was 'this used to be' or 'this is going to be' - it turns out there's not a lot of original Cardiff left anymore, and they're still busy building new Cardiff. It's probably going to be worth a visit again in another few years.

Wait a moment, I was explaining my mistakes, wasn't I?

As I was saying, today I was supposed to be in the middle of Wales, heading north to Caenarfon but, instead, I'm still here in Cardiff. I figured it shouldn't be too difficult to get a bus or train up there, but I didn't take into account one thing: today is Sunday! The only bus (that only goes half way, mind you) leaves here at 6.20pm and arrives at 10.20pm - after which, continuing on would be impossible until morning.

Hence, I'm staying another night in Cardiff - however, this has led to something better. Rather than spending one night in Caenarfon, I thought I might stay for a few days and check out North Wales. I've also discovered it's not too far away from Portmerion - the site where The Prisoner was filmed!