Happy New Year! Or, as people say in Wales - Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
My husband and I wanted to celebrate 2023's New Year's Eve and the New Year in a different country, and we decided on Cardiff because it turned out to the cheapest option! From Swindon it is a direct train of 1 hour duration, at the cost of £22 for a return trip per person - A perfect budget holiday!
For a months prior to the trip I had prepared myself by learning Welsh on Duolingo, but turns out that wherever we went we were by default served in English! In fact, I began to worry that if blurted out Welsh in front of a stranger who did not speak Welsh, I would die of embarrassment.
We stayed in the centre of Cardiff for 3 nights. I expected most stores, events, attractions and services to be closed around the New Year, but Cardiff was actually very busy and surprisingly eventful! In this blog post I would like to go over some of the highlights of the trip:
Arcades
Left: Royal Arcade; Middle: Morgan Arcade; Right: Cardiff Central Market
Cardiff is also known as the City of Arcades, and we found some of these Victorian and Edwardian arcades as we strolled up the High Streets from the Cardiff train station towards Cardiff Castle. The arcades are lined with very quirky shops and cafés, and made a perfect retreat in rainy weather. My favourite was the Royal Arcade, which had many vintage & antique shops. the indoor Cardiff Central Market was also very interesting, packed with stalls that sold food, wigs, fabrics, second-hand books and vinyls.
BBC 100 in Wales at National Museum Cardiff
We were just in time for the BBC 100 in Wales exhibition at National Museum Cardiff, it displayed many of the old equipment used for BBC radio, and the evolution of household radio and television.
It also exhibited costumes and props from His Dark Materials, Doctor Who, as well as some old children's TV series such as Bagpuss:
Left: Bagpuss; Middle: Gabriel the toad; Right: the 'marvelous mechanical mouse-organ'
Up until this point I had never heard of Bagpuss, although I did find the cat's pink appearance quite familiar - I thought it was the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland...
For the first piece of art for 2023, I have drawn Bagpuss using watercolour (see right) based on the photograph I have taken from the exhibition. It was quite challenging to paint with watercolour as the paint was prone to dissolve and blend together, so I had to wait overnight for the details to dry before applying the overall shading.
Caerphilly Castle
Bottom right: Dragon's Lair. Does this mean dragons really existed and lived within the Castle walls?
What's a holiday in Cardiff without visiting at least one of the historical monuments? We visited Caerphilly Castle, the largest castles in Wales, and best known for its concentric castle defences (castle within two or more walls). And it takes 40~50 minute to get from Cardiff city centre to Caerphilly Castle by bus 26.
Unfortunately, it happened to be very wet and windy on the day we visited, and most of the castle was in open air (apart from the Great Hall) so we did not stay for long. The free Caerphilly Castle Guidebook that came as a part of the admission was however, very insightful, and worth a good half-day's read.
Tales of the Brothers Grimm at Sherman Theatre
This was more of an impromptu idea: I had never been to a play/musical, and we found out that there were several Christmas-themed performances that were showing from pre-Christmas to the New Year.
Tales of the Brothers Grimm was an original musical performance set in Edwardian Christmas Eve, it breaks the fourth wall and questions the stereotypes in fairytales, and the performers also play musical instruments to the catchy songs at the background in-between their acting roles.
Norwegian Church Arts Centre & Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve
Cardiff Bay was a pleasantly quiet place on a rainy New Year's Eve. We went to Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve where we watched many species of birds and parked boats, and then took refuge in the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, where they served coffee and food including LAMB CAWL. Suffice to say, I ordered the Lamb Cawl to complete my full welsh experience.
Cardiff Castle, Winter Wonderland and Bute Park
Last but not least, I must mention Cardiff Castle and its nearby Bute Park and Winter Wonderland. The Castle ground was turned into an ice rink as a part of the Winter Wonderland attractions, and the rest of the Winter Wonderland was situated to the east of the Castle, on the City Hall Lawn, which is packed with funfair attractions, festive food and drinks, and live music. My favourite moment was when I sipped Bailey's hot chocolate, sang along to the chorus of Let's Stay Together and Country Road with the crowd, and waiting for the New Year's countdown and firework display.
On New Year's Day most places were closed, so we took a 2-hour stroll in Bute Park - starting from Animal Wall (to the west of Cardiff Castle), walking up to Blackweir Bridge, and back down to the northern entrance of the Castle - we came across a lot of families who were also there for a New Year's first breath of fresh air.
That's all for now! in my next blog post I will talk about this hidden gem of a place that I came across in Cardiff city centre... Stay tuned!
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