Adventure Time: Cymru
Sep. 30th, 2014 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinOver the August Bank Holiday weekend, I visited some friends in Wales who had been kind enough to invite me. It was the wettest and chilliest weekend of the summer, and I was overcome by a stealth cold in the time it took the train to go from Cardiff to Swansea, but the holiday glows so brightly I hardly remember any of that.
The journey started by getting to Cardiff, where I'd been a couple times before, but somehow missed ever seeing the High Street:
Of all streets I've ever seen, Cardiff's High Street seems most to preserve that sort of feeling you get from old photos, despite modern signage and all. Other places can keep the old buildings but still somehow feel new; I don't know what was different here but it felt like a little window into the past.
The fact that this, of all streets, has that authentic feeling is particularly significant because the Royal Hotel fronts onto it ...
... which is where the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 had its gala farewell dinner. This is, perhaps, not quite as high-profile a selling point as it might be.
Cardiff has a number of arcades, probably because it's supposed to be raining all the time, though I'd only ever seen it in the sun – I may be the only person ever to have got a sunburn in Cardiff. (I caught it in its true nature Monday afternoon while waiting to catch the bus back to London, so now I know.) London may have more arcades by number, but they are a defining feature of Cardiff to me.
The first full day had us at the National Trust property at Bosherston, which had been an estate once upon a time but somehow fell into public hands and is returning to its natural state. It has one of the five best beaches in the world, according to some poll or other – this was the other one, which I found much more photogenic. Almost suspiciously so, as if it had been designed.
There was a karate class doing exercises on this beach; I could have sworn I'd taken a picture as it looked like something out of a movie, but it didn't make it onto my memory card if I did.
Centrepiece of the property are the fish and lily ponds, which this year had been taken over by algae (the long sunny summer perhaps?) and the snails which ate it, which was fascinating in its own right if not conventionally beautiful. I learned to identify Jack-in-the-Pulpit and bryony, which has beautiful red berries that are highly toxic and give meaning to the choice of the name for the character in Atonement.
There was also this:
There is a willow grows aslant a brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do 'dead men's fingers' call them.
(I don't know if this is the flower Gertrude meant, but I couldn't resist.)
Day Two was an excursion to the other coast of the county, which was entirely different in character. We did a short hike to a crag which had been used as a hill fort in the Iron Age, and it was easy to see why because you could see for miles from the top of it (see first photo). The heather and gorse were blooming more enthusiastically than my hosts remembered seeing in recent years:
+ + + BONUS FEATURE / NODWEDD BONWS + + +
While going through my photos, I discovered two consecutive ones had almost identical compositions. So I did a thing.
It worked better in my head, and might have done on the screen if I had a better working knowledge of Photoshop tricks, but ... there you have it anyway.
Also, Cardiff Central is not a particularly photogenic station, but I thought this sky looked suspiciously like a matte painting and still think so now:
THINGS I LEARNED IN WALES / PETHAU FF DDYSGWYD YNG NGHYMRU
1. Ginger-lemon-honey tea is probably magic
2. Beets grow poorly in acidic soil
3. Bluestones are aptly named
4. Spring honey is definitely magic
5. Ash wood will burn very shortly after being cut down
6. Cwm Gwaum
7. If you want to bust a cold, go on a rigorous walk in fresh sea air with good friends who also happen to be amazing cooks
The journey started by getting to Cardiff, where I'd been a couple times before, but somehow missed ever seeing the High Street:
Of all streets I've ever seen, Cardiff's High Street seems most to preserve that sort of feeling you get from old photos, despite modern signage and all. Other places can keep the old buildings but still somehow feel new; I don't know what was different here but it felt like a little window into the past.
The fact that this, of all streets, has that authentic feeling is particularly significant because the Royal Hotel fronts onto it ...
... which is where the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 had its gala farewell dinner. This is, perhaps, not quite as high-profile a selling point as it might be.
Cardiff has a number of arcades, probably because it's supposed to be raining all the time, though I'd only ever seen it in the sun – I may be the only person ever to have got a sunburn in Cardiff. (I caught it in its true nature Monday afternoon while waiting to catch the bus back to London, so now I know.) London may have more arcades by number, but they are a defining feature of Cardiff to me.
The first full day had us at the National Trust property at Bosherston, which had been an estate once upon a time but somehow fell into public hands and is returning to its natural state. It has one of the five best beaches in the world, according to some poll or other – this was the other one, which I found much more photogenic. Almost suspiciously so, as if it had been designed.
There was a karate class doing exercises on this beach; I could have sworn I'd taken a picture as it looked like something out of a movie, but it didn't make it onto my memory card if I did.
Centrepiece of the property are the fish and lily ponds, which this year had been taken over by algae (the long sunny summer perhaps?) and the snails which ate it, which was fascinating in its own right if not conventionally beautiful. I learned to identify Jack-in-the-Pulpit and bryony, which has beautiful red berries that are highly toxic and give meaning to the choice of the name for the character in Atonement.
There was also this:
There is a willow grows aslant a brook
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do 'dead men's fingers' call them.
(I don't know if this is the flower Gertrude meant, but I couldn't resist.)
Day Two was an excursion to the other coast of the county, which was entirely different in character. We did a short hike to a crag which had been used as a hill fort in the Iron Age, and it was easy to see why because you could see for miles from the top of it (see first photo). The heather and gorse were blooming more enthusiastically than my hosts remembered seeing in recent years:
While going through my photos, I discovered two consecutive ones had almost identical compositions. So I did a thing.
It worked better in my head, and might have done on the screen if I had a better working knowledge of Photoshop tricks, but ... there you have it anyway.
Also, Cardiff Central is not a particularly photogenic station, but I thought this sky looked suspiciously like a matte painting and still think so now:
THINGS I LEARNED IN WALES / PETHAU FF DDYSGWYD YNG NGHYMRU
1. Ginger-lemon-honey tea is probably magic
2. Beets grow poorly in acidic soil
3. Bluestones are aptly named
4. Spring honey is definitely magic
5. Ash wood will burn very shortly after being cut down
6. Cwm Gwaum
7. If you want to bust a cold, go on a rigorous walk in fresh sea air with good friends who also happen to be amazing cooks
no subject
Date: 2014-09-30 10:17 pm (UTC)Unfortunately the city centre is less picturesque at night. It's rather infamous, in fact. One of the worst in the UK come closing time for drunkenly terrifying people. Much nicer by day.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 12:32 pm (UTC)There's also a Terra Nova-themed restaurant on the waterfront, but they don't have seal liver or pemmican on the menu, so my interest in it extends only to the photos on the walls.
One of the most impressive natural phenomena I've seen is the Descent of the Hen Parties at Cardiff Station on a Friday night in June. Truly this is on par with the wildebeest migration on the savannah and the red crabs on Christmas Island. It was awe-inspiring. So I believe you about closing time.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 12:39 pm (UTC)It's all the weirder since St Mary Street is so historic and full of nice old shops and cafes during the day.
Roath Park was my favourite park in Cardiff. The monument is actually in a lake. It's really beautiful.
Just outside Cardiff, I used to love to visit Castell Coch, a fake-medieval Victorian folly of a castle. You can walk/cycle there from Cardiff along the river. A wonderful way to spend an summer's afternoon.
Great photos!
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 12:42 pm (UTC)