Cardiff! *lots and lots of text*
Okay. Be prepared for an enormous post, because I have just spend the last couple of days in Cardiff with Rowan and a lot has been going on, especially in the first two days. First off: It was bloody BRILLIANT! I loved it! Didn’t feel like 4 days, felt like 2 weeks! And not in a bad way. Yay Cardiff!! Now, on to the joy of LJ-cuts!
Day One. August 1. No, wait, let’s start with this other brilliant thing that happened the night before. I had just seen JB’s Tonight’s the Night, and I went on Twitter. As you do. I saw that John had tweeted something about his suits, so I thought: “Ha! I’m just gonna reply to him!” Then Rowan came on line on MSN and we chatted a bit, and I told her I replied to John’s tweet. I was just telling Rowan that I would be in heaven if he ever replied when Rowan exclaimed (I imagine she was making fan-girl sounds behind her laptop): “OMG, HE REPLIED!” Wháááááááááááát?!?!?! John Barrowman replied to ME?! THAT IS SO COOL! It’s like, last time we were in Cardiff we saw John on stage (love) and NOW he tweeted me, just before I was going to go to Cardiff again! Whaaaaa!
Anyway, after not that much sleep because I was darned excited about both Cardiff and John’s tweet, it was time to get up and get ready. The only thing that went wrong was when I locked my suitcase and I couldn’t open the lock anymore. Darn. But that was quite easily fixed with a screwdriver (not a sonic one, though). So, at 7 or something I got into Truus (my car) with my suitcase and my parents and drove myself to Schiphol. Wicked eh? Best thing to keep the nerves at bay, because I had to focus on the road.
At Schiphol I met up with Rowan and said goodbye to my parents and we went to the hall where you have to check-in. Goddamn, it was seriously crowded there! After checking-in we had to wait about half an hour before we could drop off our luggage. Pfffff! We wandered around Holland Boulevard, not impressed, and went to buy ourselves a bottle of water. At the little shop-thing one of the most freakiest things happened (which actually happens quite a lot between us). We were looking at the bottles and were outraged by the prices and then went quiet. And then, at the exact same moment, we both said/yelled: “SOOOOO!!!” while pointing at the price of some bottle. Hahaha.
After some flirting with the guy behind the counter we went to the gate and through security. The X-ray thing spotted something on my back, but apparently... it was nothing. Or maybe it was a big plastic beetle. I dunnow! I called my Nan to say goodbye (she rang while I was driving, so obviously, I couldn’t speak to her then) and we got into the bus to the airplane. We were both pretty nervous before the flight, and I think people noticed. We were very loud. And giggled a lot. But the flight was okay. No turbulence. No icky food-stuff but salty-things and chocolate chip cookies! The only really exciting thing that happened was the pilot suddenly walking through the plane while we were in flight XD We also saw Flatholm Island from the plane, which was pretty cool.
Oh gosh, have I really written this much already? Help, the real stuff hasn’t actually happened yet! Okay, so, onwards. When we waited for our bags on the belt-thing we noticed that there actually weren’t that many bags on the belt-thing. And we couldn’t possibly be mistaken the belt because there is only one at Cardiff Airport... After ten minutes an employee approached us and said that about 40 bags were missing. Including ours. Crap, darn, bugger! One of the things at Schiphol had broken down and our luggage was still in Amsterdam. Nice! So we filled in some forms and headed towards the place where the shuttle, that would take us to Rhoose Station, would pick us up. Only, it would take another 50 minutes before that shuttle actually arrived. We were already a bit grumpy, because we now had to do some necessary shopping and we couldn’t refresh ourselves in the hotel first. To make things worse, Rowan realized that all her stuff for her contact lenses was in her suitcase. So we decided to screw the shuttle and take a taxi into St Mary Street, where we could do some shopping.
The taxi-driver was very helpful in making us forget our luggage-woes for a bit, because he kept on cracking jokes. Very fun:
Taxi-driver: “So, what does KLM stand for?”
We: “Koninklijke Luchtmacht...”
Taxi-driver: “What was that?!?!”
We: “Royal Airlines.”
Taxi-driver: “Oh really? Well, want to know what we think KLM stands for? Collect Luggage Maybe.”
Whaha, that was so brilliant! Anyway, he dropped us off and we went looking for a Boots first thing, so Rowan could buy some eye-stuff. We found a Boots easily, but there we couldn’t find any stuff. So we asked the people at the optician’s who told us that the only possible way we could get contact lenses was on prescription. Now that is seriously lame. So Rowan now had to sleep with her lenses. Not good.
After buying all the necessary (and not-so-necessary) things, we started on our walk towards Cardiff Bay over Lloyd George Avenue. Cue some serious sunshine. Damn, that road is LONG, especially when you’re wearing jeans, dragging a heavy handbag filled with books etc, and the sun shining on top of your head. No fun. But the sight of the Millennium Centre, Roald Dahl Plass and in the distance the St David’s Hotel is always well worth it.
Apparently the KLM loses luggage often, because when we explained our troubles at the hotel they said it wouldn’t be a problem, as they were used to it and would bring our bags to our room when they arrived. Great reputation, the KLM. We went into our glorious room 506, exactly the same as 502, except for the view. A bit more to the right, hehe. The key-card system wasn’t working, so we were escorted to our room by our new favourite hotel-dude Rui (yes, we actually paid attention and know his name, unlike the very helpful guy at Christmas who we refer to as Ianto XD). We chilled and then decided that it was time for a serious walk along the Bay. We really went quite a way and spotted a Doctor Who location and then walked some more. We both had bought the same Welsh-dragon cap at the Tourist Information (the real one), which was very clever of us. That sun just kept on shining!
On our way back to the Bay (and some food) we ran into Vincent! Whuthufu! You’re supposed to be on vacation and then you meet someone you know! That was very funny! So we talked a bit, made a picture as proof that we had run into Vincent, and then went to eat in a place where a scene in a Doctor Who episode was filmed. As you do! By God, that was some delicious sea-food! Yum, yum, yum! We also received the very delightful news that our bags would be at the hotel the following day.
And now something very wicked! We both know that the apartment block next to the hotel is a place where people from the BBC stay when they are in Cardiff for a while. We know this... because David Tennant films the hotel from his apartment XD Anyway, so we were sort of joking that we would run into some DW people and stuff. Well, we strolled back to the hotel with a delicious ice cream and were discussing names on boats. Straight ahead of us, two people and a cute little white dog turn the corner. The woman on the left was wearing, well, normal clothes. The person on the right was wearing a long white coat and was hooded. First thing I thought: “That woman dresses WEIRD!” And then I heard a man’s voice. So I thought: “Oh, weird dude, same difference.” But then, just as we passed this couple, the man lifted his head and looked me straight in the eye. At that moment the salmon I had just eaten came back to life and did a summersault in my stomach. My mind went: “Oh my f*cking God, that is MATT SMITH!” My face and outward reaction was: straight and only bit big eyes. As we passed them, I subtly leaned over to Rowan, who was still going on about boat names, and whispered to her that that was Matt Smith. Rowan’s reaction was just brilliant and I wish someone had filmed it XD
The moment she realized what I was saying, she exclaimed: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”, shoved her ice cream in my face (so I could hold it), grabbed her camera and took a picture of the couple’s backs. Then we both exploded into laughter, which he definitely must have heard XD We debated on whether we should wait for him to return to the apartments (because he is obviously staying there), but I was already feeling stupid at the idea of waiting for someone and ask them for a picture. So we went back to the hotel and laughed some more. Rowan went into paparazzi-mode and camped out on the balcony to take a picture of Matt on his balcony. But that got boring after a while. We did see him walk back to the apartment though, and again debated whether we should go down. But we were both to tired for that, and we figured it would’ve been too fan-girly. We don’t even like him. All we ever do about him is nag XD AND... Matt Smith’s incognito-stuff isn’t really that clever. It was very warm outside and everyone along the Bay was walking around in their shirts. And then there comes this guy in a white coat, not a jacket, a coat and a hood over his head. It drew my attention, I can’t possibly have been the only one =P
Anyway, after that very eventful first day (yes, can you believe it, that was only one day. 2,5 pages on Word!), we watched some Sherlock (bloody brilliant) and went to bed.
Day Two. We started the day with shouting “Goodmorning, Matt!” from the balcony. We then had a serious Full English Breakfast. Oh, I love that hotel even better just because of the breakfast. Yuuuuuuuum! So we refreshed ourselves a bit and went the row of houses opposite the hotel. Only because the tiniest of scenes was filmed there for Torchwood and it’s where Tosh’s house is. We moved on to Roald Dahl Plass and went into the Millennium Centre. And wow, we just walked onto the set of the episode New Earth. Aweeeeeesome!!!!
Then we went to the Doctor Who Exhibition. Hooray! I loved it! That was so cool. Touched the Doctor’s coat (at the buttocks, of course) and the Captain’s coat (also at the buttocks) even though you weren’t allowed to touch anything. But who cares! XD I must say that moving Daleks and Cybermen are actually pretty scary, and I now understand what all the actors are always talking about. Made LOADS of pictures and then spent quite some time looking at Doctor Who merchandise. Ended up buying a pack of Torchwood playing cards, though.
We then strolled along Lloyd George Avenue once more because we wanted to pay a visit to Cardiff Castle next. But it was also lunch-time, so we bought some sandwiches at the Spar and went into Bute Park to devour them. Bute Park is also where Hooverville was filmed in the stupid Daleks-and-Martha(cow)-in-New-York episode. Oh, and where Captain Jack was buried for nearly 2000 years! We sat on the grass, chilling, when 3 guys passed us. One was waving at us and we were like: weeeiiird!
Then, one of the guys started doing some push-ups and Rowan thought: “I can do better!” and started doing push-ups. To which the guys started cheering and then one by one came over to chat with us. That was very funny. The first was a guy whose name I forgot and who accused us of sounding American. The second was Karim from Somaliland (apparently completely different than Somalia) and who had been to the Netherlands once and shared his experience with us. The third was Peter (or, Pe’ah) from South London who looked like a gangster but was actually a spiritual dude who was in love with water. Or he was just stoned. Anyway, after some talking they invited us to a game of football. Okay, we figured, we have now actually made some friends, so why not? And we were gooooood! Well. We were okay. We beat them though. Moohahahaha!
After a while we were all exhausted and they started flirting with us for real. We weren’t interested, hehe. We had enough after some time, but didn’t really know how to break it up. Pe’ah filmed us saying “Godchild TV” in Dutch, which was apparently very wicked, and then they escorted us to Cardiff Castle (which is in the Park). During which Pe’ah really started spacing and then went off to flirt with some other girls XD
First thing we did when we were in the Castle was see if we could get to the highest point and re-enact some Torchwood (Jack yelling: “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE” when John Hart blows up half of Cardiff). That was a bit of a climb... But worth it. We got a fantastic view of the city. We were also surrounded by elderly Dutch people, that was a bit of a waste XD After hanging out there for a while and making some funny pictures we went and looked at the rest of the castle’s grounds. The building itself was useless, but we paid for it so we had to see it. We also found some things that are filmed as some tunnels of Torchwood, so that ended up in loads of pictures as well.
After the endless and hot stroll over Lloyd George Avenue back to the hotel we were delighted to hear the lovely Rui tell us that our bags were in our room! HOORAY! Joy of joys! We put on fresh clothes and went to get some Fish ‘n Chips! At the place where we got them we asked for a table for two, to which the waiter responded dryly: “We’re fully booked.” As we had this happen before at Christmas we weren’t waiting till we were pushed out of the place and already turned around, but then the dude said, just as dryly: “No, of course not, I’m only joking.” Gosh, did we feel silly then.
We had some Fish ‘n Chips, Rowan gave all her change as tip and we went to the cinema to see Inception. Wow. Cool film! Very cool. We were very loud again at the end of it, unlike the rest of the people there. The ending moved us. So what. We then giggled our way back to the hotel, yelled “Goodnight” to Matt and laid our heads to rest in those lovely beds.
Day three. We weren’t really sure what we were going to do on day three. We had seen everything that was interesting in Cardiff, so we decided to take the train to Barry Island, where Gavin & Stacey is filmed. The trains in Wales are unbelievably slow, but also very cheap! The coolest thing of the train that we took from the Bay to the centre was that you had to hang out the door to open it from the outside! Hahaha. Love it!
Unlike Cardiff Bay, Barry Island really shoves it in your face that a very popular TV-show is filmed there! The first thing you see is a banner with the text: “This is the park where Gavin & Stacey was filmed.” Then, when you walk along the beach, there’s a board thing that says “See what’s occurring at Nessa’s booth”. Bloody brilliant! Barry Island is so proud!
Barry Island should also be proud of the beautiful, Beautiful coast line they’ve got! At the one moment you have a sandy beach, and then, quite suddenly, you’re standing on top of some rocks that you don’t want to steer your boat on. We did some adventurous climbing and some artistic photoshooting and cooled our feet in the water. At some places the sand was really WEIRD and our feet sank in very deep. We then headed back to the boulevard and had a burger and chips. When we were both finished with there were still some chips left, and we just had them on the table. Big mistake. When we both weren’t really paying attention, this HUGE seagull appeared out of nowhere, jumped on the table, grabbed a chip and took off again. It scared the living daylights out of me, whaha.
Oh well. After that little adventure we took a stroll along the other cliff side and found a bit of a private beach. Not naked people or anything. Just... hardly any people. We sat there on some rocks, and I noticed a guy on the opposite side holding something in front of his face and looking in our direction. We soon realized that he had some binoculars and that he was probably looking at us. To test this out, I waved at him, to which he responded by suddenly lowering his binoculars. Haha. Dirty bastard!
We walked back to the beach and the train station when it started to rain a little. Just a little. Mind you, it was the first rain we had in Wales since we got there, so we didn’t mind. But the people on the beach apparently did. Out of nowhere they all rushed on the boulevard, put on jackets and tights and were dressed as if Autumn had suddenly arrived. Five minutes later... the sun was shining brightly again. Needless to say that after a day in the sunshine and the wind and a lot of walking we both had red noses and cheeks and had some seriously aching legs. Still, it was worth it, and we enjoyed some lovely nature!
We had dinner at an Italian place where, again, a scene in DW was filmed. I don’t like those Italian people. Blah. When we got our plates with our food, the two waiters suddenly appeared with an enormous pepper-thing and sprayed some pepper on our food, while the other asked if we wanted parmesan while he was already throwing it on our food. And then asked if we wanted some more. Haha. We were there only half an hour, or so.
We wanted to go to the pub that night, but it was still early, so we decided to go see a movie again. The queue was pretty huge, but we waited anyway. At first we wanted to see Karate Kid but that film was sold out. So then, because we didn’t want to see any of the other films, we bought tickets for Inception again. What the heck, it’s a wicked film and I don’t mind watching it again! When the film was over it was too late to go to the pub, so we watched QI on the telly and then went to sleep.
Day Four. Now we were really clueless about what we were going to do. So, just for fun, we went to the Doctor Who Exhibition again. Still brilliant. I noticed that the Eleventh Doctor’s outfit was there as well. I hadn’t noticed that before XD Good thing we came again.
We then took the train towards the city centre, because we were not feeling like walking over damned Lloyd George Avenue AGAIN because our legs were seriously aching. We went shopping, which in our world means: spending a long, long time at HMV, WHSmith’s and the souvenir shop. Oh, and Poundland of course.
We actually wanted to see Cardiff Castle again, but we didn’t want to buy tickets, so we figured we could sneak in via the entrance in Bute Park. We thought we’d succeeded, we were really almost there, when out of nowhere a dude appeared and asked if we had any tickets. Of course, we went into tourist-mode and acted as if we didn’t know, turned around and sat on a bench in order to think of what we were going to do next.
Just for the heck of it we strolled along the City Hall and saw the National Museum. Because we didn’t have anything else in mind, we entered the museum, as it is always free entrance, but that was quite lame. Only rocks and a few dinosaurs. That was it. So we took a detour, walked past some Torchwood pubs and went back to Cardiff Bay with the train.
That’s the first and only afternoon where we just hung out an hour or so in the hotel. We were tired and a bit bored and we needed to rest our legs and feet. And shoulders. Then, at 6, we figured we could have another go at the DW Exhibition as it was a free entry all day long. We were the last ones and had the place for ourselves. Cooool! I am really, completely refilled with Doctor Who energy now. The fangirl inside me is really content. And so is the geek. Yay!
We had dinner at the Ba Orient, a dim sum restaurant where they again filmed with Doctor Who. This time with a DT episode! (The other two restaurants were from the first series). The other really cool thing is that we could see all the places where we had dinner from our hotel room!
Then we finally went to the pub and enjoyed a pint. After a while we started discussing picking up guys and how you were supposed to stuff like that:
Paulien: “Yeah, well... I just need to have some more courage to do stuff like that!”
Rowan: *gets book about flirting out of her bag*
Hehehehe. One pint was enough to make us giggle about almost everything and we went back to the hotel. Last chance to see Matt Smith again, but it didn’t happen. Awwwww. Maybe it’s for the best, it would not have turned out into our best pictures, hehe. We packed our bags and went to sleep in those lovely beds for one last time.
Day Five. Homewards. We enjoyed our last English Brekkie (which I lost again because of the nerves XD) and checked out of the hotel. For some mysterious reason we got back £2,50 from the hotel. Really, dunnow why. Oh well.
The airport was not exciting, only that we did go through security right away and were able to spend some time shopping, unlike what happened last time XD We weren’t paying attention back then.
The airplane was a lot more shabby than the one we had on the flight to Cardiff. We also had the exact same seats as we had when we came back last time: back row, next to the engine. The cushion in my seat was loose, the window cover was stuck so we didn’t have a few and there was a rip in the wall so that I could see the isolation-stuff. The light also started flickering when the engine started, and I also heard the other engine squeek when we were boarding the plane. All in all, I didn’t really get the ‘this is a save plane’-vibe. But we survived, and now we’re back.
My mum and dad picked us up and we all got into Truus. I drove Rowan to Noordwijk (I missed the byway thing, so we had to do a little detour) and then we took the scenic route back to The Hague. I was pretty tired when I got home.
And then I came into my room and saw that my mum had tidied it for me. Awwwww!!! That’s so sweet!
So now it’s back to business. I really had a brilliant couple of days. Laughed a lot and walked a lot. I have a couple of pictures which I’ll post on Facebook in the morning. But I don’t nearly have as much as Rowan has XD I am SO going back to Cardiff once again. Just because it’s a brilliant city. There. I’m done.
I can sleep now! XD
*Fun fact: this post is 4.129 words long. That’s half a BA-thesis, written in less than 2 hours, hehe*