rakka and leff do europe 2012, day seven, cardiff

day two in cardiff. did i mention that i had an espresso machine in my room? no? um, I HAD AN ESPRESSO MACHINE IN MY ROOM!

i can't remember how many coffees (cawfees) that i made but i will tell you this, IT WAS NOT ENOUGH BECAUSE THEY WERE DELICIOUS!

anyway, anyway, occasionally there is sunshine in wales! WHO KNEW?!? in fact, i got a slight tan while i was in the uk?  well, i mean, with weather like this, how can one not?

shed had some errands to attend to so while we were waiting to meet him in reception, we watched a man walk a falcon around on the roof of the john lewis pictured above. i know, right? A MEWS ON TOP OF JOHN LEWIS!!

this was not news to anyone in the uk though. apparently, they are on top of their pigeon control in ways that we are not in the states. see, instead of setting peregrine falcons (or the british equiv) loose in the cities and then having falcon problems that replace the pigeon ones, falconers are employed to walk the birds around. they hold the bird up and are all "ah ha! see this, pigeons?! this bird will mess your shit up! (or the british equiv)" occasionally the bird is allowed to attack.

long story short, there is not a pigeon problem near that john lewis. it's brilliant.

we had had a change in plans the night before. originally, we were going to head to tintern abbey and then maybe st. fagan's but, you know what? that is a lot of driving and sight seeing. TOO MUCH. so we opted to hang around cardiff instead. BEST IDEA EVER!!!

shed took us to this really cool looking antique sort of place? it was too bad that it was closed because it looked like there was a lot of interesting stuff inside. NEXT TIME!!

nearby:

i can't help it. i love these garage type places underneath train tracks. maybe it's because i watched "a fish called wanda" too much in my formative years. *shoulder shrug*

but enough about train garages! (do they have a proper name? i wonder.) shed knows all of the arcades. he took us by the soon to become bang & olufsen. it is soooo pretty on the outside.

and we also went by spilllers!!  SPILLERS!!!

sadly, we did not go inside as this is really my and shed's kind of shop and not really leff's. but HOLY SHIT I HAVE GOT TO GO BACK!! maybe i can make it for record store day? (HAHAH! DON'T I WISH!! (that and rough trade. i would go to BOTH on the same record store day. IT. WOULD. BE. EPIC!!!)(god, and now i want a red crosley spinerette. damn and blast. *adds to wishlist*))

right, right, where was i? oh yes, DO NOT EVEN TRY TO ESCAPE THE DALEKS!!!

here we are at the castle arcade? my notes are really terrible this trip. apologies.

anyway, i DO know that they have a large stock of wigs.

and that it would be a really good place to start a jazz band.

but beware of floating zombie heads?

they might get in your way when you are trying to buy all of the buttons.

finished with window shopping (although! there are paper guitars and amps for sale in a toy shop in cardiff?!? AND THEY WORK?!?) we hopped over to the city arms. mmmmm.....beeeeeer!

this is where we found out about piss dungeons (ed note:  sorry, dad and chris! i didn't include a link so just pretend that you didn't read it.) and i got to try peroni for the first time. IT WAS NOT THE LAST!!!

after downing a few pints, we were all feeling a bit peckish. this is when we decided to try to eat at ALL OF THE NANDO'S in cardiff. on the way there, i checked in on the chiquito dalek. yep, still there!

oh, yeah...um, DO NOT TRY TO ESCAPE THE DALEKS!

so THIS nando's had the extra extra hot sauce. soooo goooood.

i got this really lush hummus. (ed note: i got permission from shed to use that term. PROMISE TO NOT ABUSE THE PRIVILEGE! HA!)

said hummus comes with peri peri drizzle.

so, let's do the math. lush hummus + peri peri drizzle = what???

YES!  A VERY, VERY HAPPY RAKKA!! very good, class!!

after lunch, we stopped by the tesco express to pick up some snacks and beer because OMFG WE HAD THE BEST VIEW AT THE HOTEL!! also 6MUSIC!!!

so, yeah, we drank away the better part of the afternoon and it was really one of the best parts of this vacation! HOORAY!!

also, i could live in the radisson blu. i really, really could. THAT VIEW!!!!

anyway, what do you do to continue the buzz? YOU GO TO THE VULCAN!!

cider for me, of course. HOORAY!!

the vulcan is chilly. in fact, ALL of cardiff had gotten incredibly cold while we were finishing up our last drinks. so cold that we couldn't walk shed back to the train station. (i am a total wimp when it comes to being cold. sorry, shed!)

so, yes! BEST DAY EVER!!! too bad that we didn't make it to the third nando's. heh.

next time on rakka and leff wonder why they ever leave cardiff: we leave cardiff and we wonder why we did this. ALSO! bath! PIIIIIIIIIP!!!! , sally lunn bunn, we royal crescent it the fuck up. and then?! london again! and the horrid student flat! will i end up getting trench foot, mange, fleas AND bedbugs from this place? I WILL TELL YOU TOMORROW!!!