Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff. Home of Roald Dahl and Doctor Who. City of arcades and castles, of the beautiful Bute Park and the Ianto Jones memorial shrine. I loved it there. I’d live there. I’d live at my hostel forever. It was absolutely brilliant, with free breakfast and dinner most nights, and even free cider on one occasion. It was also warm and clean, which was a definite step up from other hostels I’ve been to.

The people there were brilliant - Aussies and Germans for the most part. We went out on a pub crawl on the first night, and got to a grand total of three before everything shut down at 11pm. Each pub had two or three ciders on tap! We were the only ones out apart from a group of older Welsh men, but to be fair, it was a Monday night.

I spent the first day touring a couple of nearby castles with Laura, a lovely Melbournian I met at the hostel. I chose not to go to the Cardiff Castle, due to the fact that the entry price cost more than the combined entry prices of my chosen castles. I still can’t pronounce either of the castles’ names: Castle Coch and Castle Caerphilly. Both were stunning, Coch for the gorgeous interiors and Caerphilly for the dramatic exteriors. They’d been done up in the late 19^th century to look like they would have in the 15^th century when they were built.

Castle Caerphilly requires special mention for the fact that its keep housed a certain big blue box. I found the tardis in a sprawling stone castle in Wales!

When I asked at the information desk, I was told that there’d been some recent Dr Who filming at the castle, and would I like a free poster and postcard? Yes, yes I would – and I also got quite a few embarrassing photos with the tardis.

My second day was spent in an equally Who-related fashion. I caught a bus to Cardiff Bay on a beautiful sunny morning, and spent ages just strolling up and down the pier. I also spent ages taking photos of Roald Dahl plass. It’s beautiful, lies at the front of the Wales Millenium Centre, and is where Torchwood was filmed.

I also visited the Norwegian Church where Roald Dahl was christened. It’s now a café slash gallery. It’s situated rather beautifully on the edge of the bay. It also turns out that I was in Cardiff for Roald Dahl Day (his birthday) – awesome.

I spent my third night out on the town again, this time at a little club with a set of three bands. The headliners, Joint Pop (of Trinidad), were actually staying at our hostel, hence how we found out about it. We weren’t expecting much, especially after the two warm-up bands, but Joint Pop was brilliant! They had a great reggae sound. It was a really great night out.

So that’s Cardiff: a beautiful, relaxed sort of city with a beautiful castle-side park in the centre, a couple of magnificent castles nearby, great vintage shops, lots of Doctor Who locations and the best hostel in the UK, possibly the world. I’d go back in a heartbeat. Might still have to, if this train doesn’t keep breaking down. Next stop: Oxford, with any luck.