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Yesterday Jeff, Lise, and I went to Cardiff castle, walking through downtown Cardiff. There are so many things about Cardiff that remind ne of a bigger, more European Victoria. It's very liberal (I saw gay pride flags everywhere-yay!), it's got a lot of niche restaurants and clothing stores in small alleys, and it's a university town by the sea. Of course, a major difference would be the looming castle in the background. Don't have that so much in Victoria. We passed at least five restaurants on our way that had a pun in their name: The Meating Place, Pieminister, Wok to Walk etc.

The castle was pretty neat. There has been a fortress (Roman or otherwise) on the site for at least 2000 years. There is a middle keep on an artificially constructed hill, a very fancy palace with main living quarters to the side, bomb shelters from WWII built into the outside walls, and a large courtyard inside those walls. We walked through all three places. The palace was very decorated, and mostly built by the richest man in the area at the time. Lord Bute was involved but I forget how exactly. There were many add-ons and renovations it underwent throughout the years. To give some indication of how fancy this place was: the main dining room was biblical-themed, with intricately carved angles and apostles and birds, as well as parings on all walls and a table equipped to handle a fully-fruiting grapevine grow though the middle of in permanently. I would've liked to see that, but they didn't have it set up. The library had the names of the Lord guy's favourite authors along with their crests along the walls, as well as carvings and such representing language and literature. Five ancient languages in particular were centrally carved above the fireplace: Hebrew, runic, Greek, Assyrian (or something-can't remember), and Hieroglyphics.

The bomb shelters were pretty neat too, in a different more gritty way. They played music and sound effects the length of the long tunnel, which coupled with the displays and constant period war posters made for quite the experience.

 

Today we left Cardiff towards Steep and Drake and Anna, and stopped for lunch on the way with Julia's family. They are also visiting the UK at the moment from Victoria, and we were able to meet at a pub for lunch just outside of Bristol (Stoke Gifford). It was neat to meet people from back home overseas, and lunch was superb. I caught up (mostly) with Julia. This was the last time I will see her till she comes home for Christmas, as she will be going to U of T in a few weeks. The end of summer has kinda crept up on us, I think. We are both a little apprehensive and amazed that university starts in less than a month… But it was great spending time with the Bowman-Young's, they are honestly some of the best people I've ever met. Julia told me to keep texting her memes. Be careful what you wish for, Julia. And if you actually read my blog at, all let alone this far, congrats. Hope you're having a great day. Everyone else have a good day too, actually. Just generally sending good vibes.

I'm right now at Drake and Anna's. Tomorrow we will be leaving at 6am for Heathrow, the back home we go. I'm looking forward to returning. Having my own room back will be nice. And then there are things to get done you can only get done at home. Ah well. I'll be happy to be back.

Cardiff/Cardiff castle: