A schoolfriend of mine is currently studying at Cardiff University, so in mid-February we organised a group trip to visit her (and the city). I'd been to Cardiff once before in order to watch a rugby game (Wales v Italy) for my brother's birthday, but hadn't properly explored the city, so was excited to do so.
Three of us were travelling from London, so after packing manically in the morning, we hopped on the sub-2 hour train from Paddington and had a proper catch-up over some snacks. As soon as we got off the train on arrival, the gusts hit us and I realised how under-prepared for the cold I was. As we waited for our remaining friends at the Pret opposite the train station, we warmed up a bit and then we were ready for lunch. We walked from the station to Franco Manca in the city centre, having a quick peak into Cardiff Market en route (the market is less so 'Time Out' vibes in Lisbon, and more so 'Central Market' vibes in Valencia). After a lucrative January, we were all on a tight budget, but the pizza did the job, whilst being cheap and cheerful too.
We then lugged our bags over to my friend's house, which was a 25-minute walk away, providing great exercise throughout the trip and keeping us warm. Unfortunately, she'd left her keys elsewhere but luckily one of her flatmates was in the whole weekend so regularly opened the door for us. We had a long chat and then figured out our plan for the evening. We were leaning more towards an activity, such as an escape room or shuffle boarding, rather than a night out, and ended up settling for bowling and laser tag. But first: Spoons.
We headed to a huge Wetherspoons in the city centre, but it was rammed so we moved onto a second one, in which we nabbed a table immediately. Sadly for us, the staff had removed our table number from the app as the previous table had been too rowdy, but we eventually managed to order some food and drinks. I cannot emphasise enough the shock I felt when I saw that a double orange gin and lemonade was only £3.60. In London, I've paid £9 for a pint before, so this was truly magical for me. After a few drinks, we headed to the bowling alley (which also offered laser tag) in the hopes that there would be availability and to our relief there was!
We started without the barriers, however after going four rounds without hitting a single pin (for one friend), we decided that the barriers had to make an appearance. Of course, the scores skyrocketed thereafter, and after a couple of spares and a strike, I came away victorious (much to another friend's dismay, who had been the most keen for bowling and kept hinting at how good she was). We then played laser tag, which I was genuinely excited for as I'd never played before but always wanted to, and it was such an effective workout. I was loving it until the staff member announced that I'd came last, when in my mind I'd done fairly well. As we left the room, we looked at the scoreboard outside the entrance and as it turned out, I'd actually come second, so it was a great ego boost.
Eventually we returned home, which was genuinely freezing as one of the housemates refused to turn the heating on, so we made sleeping arrangements and bundled up as much as possible. Luckily, there was a portable heater available to us, so I opted to sleep in my sleeping bag on the floor with the heater. It was surprisingly comfortable and I managed to remain warm throughout the night.
We used the Sunday to sight-see and explore the city properly. We started with brunch, which was surprisingly hard to find availability for, but eventually we managed at Coffee Barker, which was located in one of Cardiff's famous 'arcades' and are well worth visiting. Although the food was quite good, it was daylight robbery, especially given that we had to seat ourselves, go up to place our orders, and wait around for our drinks to then take them to our table. I realised whilst ordering that I'd left my phone (and thus, my means of paying) at the table, which was humbling, but luckily my friend sorted me out.
We then visited Cardiff Castle, which was pretty, and there's a lot you can see here for free, including wartime shelters. We looks around a couple of the arcades and admired the City Hall, which was my favourite building in the city, before completing a top-priority task: trying Welsh cakes. I'd never heard of them before, but they were similar in texture to scones and were tasty and cheap (but not sweet enough for my liking). We passed a surprising number of Portuguese cafés/restaurants, which I always love to see, and by the end of the weekend we were able to orient ourselves fairly easily due to the small size of the city.
We had open returns, so all headed to the train station at the same time, and although the Pret was now closed, we still managed to buy some snacks and relax while we waited for our trains. The group split into two as one half boarded a train for London, and the other a train bound for Manchester, and whilst both journeys were chaotic, mine consisted of a middle-aged, drunk man running towards our table and shouting out that we needed to look out of the window and appreciate the 'White Horse', which signified that we were back in England.
The entire weekend was a lot of fun and we didn't stop laughing, concluding that we needed to visit each other more often, whether that be in London, Manchester, Cardiff, or Edinburgh.
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