Cardiff Museum & Techniquest - May 26 - Day 11

In the morning, Helen needed to do some studying for her upcoming exam, so Heather headed off to Cardiff Museum.  By that point, she was pretty tired of museums, and therefore took zero pictures.  After lunch, Heather headed over to Jammo's house to find Helen (which was quite the adventure, since Helen's hand-drawn map was not QUITE the right degree of helpfulness, so Heather got a little lost after the official touristy map of central Cardiff ended and she entered the neighbourhood where Helen actually lives).

In the afternoon, Helen and Heather went down to the bay to go to Techniquest, which is a hands on science museum.  It's a little bit like the Science Centre in Winnipeg, except it's not in a basement so it's much more well lit.  We lucked out because it turns out that if you get there after 3:00 (we got through the doors at 3:01), adults only need to pay 3 pounds and they also get a free drink and snack (which is a significantly better deal than the normal price of 7 pounds and no drink or snack).

Some of the fun and exciting things in Techniquest included a heat sensor (turns out that, being from Antarctica, I'm actually pretty cold), a plasma static electricity ball (which are far too much fun to play with.  Also, you can shock people, which is pretty great), fun mirrors of all shapes and sizes creating various effects (including bodylessness!), and strange musical instruments.  Also, there's a telescope over the bay, and you can use it to spy on people walking down the street, which is a little creepy but also kind of fun.  I wonder how many young children figure that out... A good time was had by all.

Cardiff - May 22 & 23 - Days 7 & 8

In the morning, we checked out the hotel in Manchester and took a somewhat roundabout way to the train station and an equally roundabout way to Cardiff.  This was exciting, because Heather got to see Helen for the first time in about 2 years.  The first afternoon in Cardiff was spent at Helen's friend Matt's house, where she, Matt, and Jammo were studying for their ridiculously exciting exam the next morning.  Heather watched Doctor Who while they studied (which was much more interesting).  Helen introduced Heather to Black Books, a sit com from around 2000 or so that, naturally, never aired in Canada and is absolutely HILARIOUS.  After a delicious supper (prepared by Matt and Jammo), Helen and Heather headed home so Helen could get plenty of sleep before her exam the next morning.

The next day was Heather's first full day in Cardiff.  We went and visited central Cardiff, starting with Cardiff City Hall.

After deciding it was far too expensive to go INSIDE Cardiff Castle, we circumnavigated it instead (well... almost).

Next to Cardiff Castle, there's a very lovely wall known as the Animal Wall.  It has a lot of animals (but sadly, none of them are penguins).

We visited Bute Park.  It was a very lovely park, full of flowers and rivers and things.

There was a stone circle which isn't nearly as old or mysterious as Stonehenge OR the Nine Ladies of Stanton Moor, but still looks pretty cool.

For some mysterious reason, some of the trees had the COOLEST branches.  They grew straight up, and I was quite impressed.

There was also an old abbey that was excavated by the Victorians.  Apparently, Victorians were not very good at excavating things, since they covered it up again with some weird red stones.

We found a really hilarious souvenir shop, full of very Welsh things (such as rugby, dragons, and sheep) and with the best sign you will EVER see on a shop.

In the afternoon, we went to meet Helen and her engineering friends in the Student Union pub, where we spent quite a long time playing ridiculous quiz games trying to gain money (between the 8 people or so in the group, they won 4 pounds.  People, unlike penguins, are not so bright).

Post pub, we went to another pub for supper (2 for 1 burgers!  Cheap and delicious!)

Then we went home to bed.