Welsh Wonders

O’ what’s occurrin? Last week I visited the lovely Welsh city of Cardiff with my family and had a splendid time! As far as I was aware, we were taking the caravan down to Devon...this turned out to be a huge lie and as we entered Wales my mum told me to look at the signs, I had no clue what she was talking about and then she said we were going to Wales not Devon! I was utterly shocked and couldn’t quite work out whether she was joking or not; thankfully she wasn’t! You see, those who know me well will know that for the past five-ish years I have been begging my parents to take me to Wales (this may or may not have something to do with ‘Gavin & Stacey’ and ‘Doctor Who’) and it didn't disappoint!

Cardiff Bay is absolutely beautiful as you can see!

Cardiff Bay is lovely!

We spent the second day in the Doctor Who Experience and, like an excited little kid, I spent the whole morning just buzzing with excitement! The experience is a 30 minute interactive walk through in which you are 'attacked' by Dalek and have to rescue the Doctor from the Pandorica (I won't say much else as I don't want to spoil it!) and it's great! It honestly doesn't matter what age you are as there were loads of people ranging from little kids with their parents and fully grown men taking part!

The second part of the experience is an exhibition over two floors where you can spend all the time in the world looking at the costumes and sets from the show, some are replicas but most are the originals. I simply had to take a gazillion photos and even some selfies with the best loved monsters!

Exterminate!

There's even the chance to grab a sonic screwdriver, put on a fez or maybe a scarf, and hop in front of a green screen to pretend you're in the TARDIS and take some pretty funny photos! Now I won't lie, they aren't exactly cheap at £10 for a single photo, £5 for every photo after the first or four photos for £25, but it's to be expected at an attraction such as this! We forked out for four photos, all of which are hilariously terrible, but we figured that you're only there once so you might as well go all out!

A picture with the TARDIS was simply necessary!

Don't Blink!

Myself and a rather scary looking wax work of Matt Smith

Afterwards we went for a rather lovely wander around Cardiff Bay and went in a little Cafe which I can't remember the name of! But I had a wonderful Chai Tea Latte and a Scone with Jam and Clotted cream! It was yummy!

Cardiff Bay

The next day we took a little trip to Penarth which was also quite beautiful in terms of scenery! 

Penarth

After spending a little while in Penarth we drove a short way to Barry Island because, as I mentioned previously, I have a lot of love for the show 'Gavin & Stacey' and I really wanted to visit the place in which it was filmed! Straight away I sat outside Nessa's arcade in the spot where the final episode ends with James Corden, Ruth Jones, Matt Horne and Joanna Page eating fish and chips! We then sat and had some delicious fish and chips of our own as no trip to the seaside is complete without them and they were very tasty indeed! We wandered along the edge of the beach as it was a wonderfully sunny day!  

Barry Island Beach!

I also asked my dad to drive up the road which has the house used in the show on it to see if I could pick it out...I most certainly could, what with tinsel hanging around the door and a sign on the window saying 'Gavin and Stacey House' it was impossible to miss!

On Thursday we walked into Cardiff city centre and wandered around the shops although I didn't get to go in anywhere such as Topshop or H&M :(

The arcades/alleyways (I'm not entirely sure what you call them)

 were beautiful with lots of cute little shops and tea rooms!

An Arcade/Alleyway!

After we had wandered for quite a while, popping in and out of shops, we also visited Cardiff Market (where I simply had to try Welsh Cakes which taste like a sort of shortbread with raisins in and are coated in icing sugar and are delicious!) Now Cardiff Market is entirely indoors and has rows of different stalls. When you first enter there's a fish counter which I rather speedily hurried away from while my dad had a nosey at the fish, mainly because of the awful smell fish comes with and because, well to be quite honest, like most people, I don't exactly see the appeal of looking at a load of dead fish. 

We then decided it was time to stop in a little cafe for a drink and something to eat. 

Mmmmm...soup!

Ooo my lovely Green Tea!

We stumbled upon Torre Coffee which is right opposite Cardiff Castle and is a very cute little place. The atmosphere was lovely and it was one of those places where none of the cups or plates matched which I adore! I ordered a Green Tea which came in a little green teapot with a cute patterned cup and saucer; the tea was proper tea made from tea leaves and there was a little timer to let you know when it was ready to pour! I also decided to try the Lemongrass and Ginger soup with a slice of toast and brown bread which was mouthwateringly good! I'd 100% recommend you visit if you're ever in Cardiff because it was a really lovely place to sit and eat!

A sheep and it's little lamb hiding behind!

Later in the afternoon (oh yes, we had a very busy day!) we drove to St. Fagan's National History Museum which is an open-air museum where original historic buildings are re-erected to preserve them. You can basically walk around looking at buildings from all different time periods and each one gives you a bit of information about what life would have been like which was all very interesting, however, as we only arrived an hour before closing, we didn't have enough time to see everything which was a shame and I'd definitely go back there, but I think you need to spend a full day looking around as it's a very big place! I didn't take very good photos whilst there but there were some sheep that I felt were photograph worthy! 

And that's all for my trip to Wales! I had a really great time and enjoyed every minute (despite having to squeeze in a few hours of revision, which is even less fun when you're in a caravan!) I would definitely recommend visiting Cardiff as it's a really beautiful city!

If you got through this incredibly long post, well, I applaud you and thank you greatly for taking the time to read it! And if you only looked at the photos...well thanks for giving it a go!

Leave me a comment letting me know if you've been anywhere nice recently, or if you've been to Cardiff let me know what you thought and if there's anywhere I should have visited as well!


Love Jess 
xxxx