Ineffectual Doctor Who stalking

On to Cardiff! From Bath, I bordered a dodgy train that was allegedly going to get from from one country to another... I had my doubts. Also, it was chockas full of people... I don't like people, esp not when I have a have a massive backpack. Thankfully, most of them got off at Bristol, only two stops and 10 minutes down the line! Anyway, a tunnel ride later and it was hello Wales... which did look differnet to England, so yay!

Pulled into Cardiff and walked out into the way dodgy train station... plus, it was a Sunday so there was nobody about... hmm. Walked to the hostel, which again was dead... allegedly the night before, there was absolutely NO accommodation in Cardiff... yeah, I don't know where all the people went. Anyhoo, booked in and then walked into the city, where there is just a big castle! Heh. Did the castle first, as wanted to make sure I got that in while I was in Cardiff. It was very intersting... it had been built by the family that practically owned Cardiff until recently, and were responsible for making Cardiff, at one time, the largest port in the world. There's a nifty Norman keep in the middle, and around the walls are the former living areas of, um, what were their names? They were Earls, I remember that much... meh, who cares? Anyway, they had decked out the place like a medieval castle would have looked and what's so cool about it is because it's relatively recent (late 1800s), all the glory and colour has been retained. It's a def must look if you're in Cardiff. After the castle, hopped on the sightseer tour, which was interesting cos I was the only punter on it! They had a live guide, as well, so she just chatted to me about Cardiff while we trundled along. And then we got to Millenium Plaza... sweet! It looks exactly like it does in Dr Who and Torchwood... you don't need weird angles to make the Millenium Centre look all weird and freaky, it does that on its own. I took photos of me standing on the stone that takes you into the Torchwood Hub (heh, hello Captain Jack!) and then I wandered around the bay. Yeah, not much there. Still, fun to see it. I caught the bus back and the tour guide on this one was talking about Torchwood. Apparently, I had missed them filming at Millenium Plaza by two weeks and John Barrowman's teeth are really white! Damnit! Got back to the city centre and wandered the (closed) shops before popping in to Marks and Spencers for some dinner. Went back to the hostel, watched telly and enjoyed a local brew (Brains Beer!).

The next day, I needed to kill some time before my train so went to Millenium Stadium for a tour. Again, not many people in Cardiff! On the tour, it was me and a couple from England... still, nice to get the personalised tour! The stadium was pretty impressive, and it did kill a couple of hours. Oh, and the reason Cardiff accomodation was allegedly all booked out Saturday night? They had a Middle Weight Title fight on between, um, I think it was an English guy and a Dutch guy? Anyway, the English guy won, so everyone was really happy.

So after the tour, I did a bit of window shopping and then collected my stuff for the big trip down to Penzance. I got there about 6pm and it was pitch black! I decided I would walk to the hostel rather than catching a taxi... yeah, bad idea. It took me about 30mins to get there and I was afraid I was walking the wrong way the entire time. Joy. Anyhoo, got there, checked in and then got some dinner. It was Bonfire Night, as well, so pretty fireworks lit the sky... apparently, there were heaps of fires lit by the fireworks and the Fire Dept got called out to about 50 fires! Heh.

The next day it was off to Lands End! I caught the bus at the unheard of hour of 8.25am (I wanted to make sure I got there and back in time) and the double decker bus (of which I'm sure I was the only passenger) wound its way through very narrow streets, hitting tree branches forcefully and making me fear for life and limb on more than one occasion. Anyway, got to Lands End in the end... only to discover, yeah, not much there. I saw the pretty coast, and then, not sure what to do, wandered towards the hotel... which also encompassed a little tourist village. There were dodgy attractions, souvenier shops and then the Lands End sign, which of course you had to pay for a photo with. Stupid entrepreneurial people. I managed to take a photo with something that said Lands End, tho, so ner!

One of the dodgy attraction was the Doctor Who Experience... heh. Cos I missed out in Cardiff because a) I was there for 1 day only and b) I couldn't be bothered, I decided I would partake at Lands End, catching the next bus which I thought would come in an hour. So I paid my money and went in... heh. It was so completely naff, but I loved it! There was costumes from all three series, and it was just totally cheesey... ah, fun times. Plus, there was a 'scary' dalek at the end, rising out of the dark in a cloud of smoke... come on, how could you not love that?

Anyhoo, after that, I went to the bus stop, prepared to wait 20 mins for my bus... only to discover the next bus was two hours away! Nooooooooooo! Damn you, Dr Who and your cheesey goodness! I went for a bit of a walk along the coast, but it wasn't that great and my ankle started to hurt. So I walked back to the Visitors Centre and what do you know, a bus of old people had rocked up. So the tea rooms were now open, with their beautiful cafeteria style. Nice. Got myself a cup of tea and a cornish cake and sat down to wait.

The bus finally arrived and I made my way back to Penzance, where I bummed around for four hours waiting for my train. Yeah, not much to do in Penzance. Note to self... next time in Cornwall, just rent a car. Everyone will be a lot happier! So anyway, the train finally came, made my way to Exeter and caught a taxi to the hostel (never say I'm a slow learner!), watched Liverpool thrash some Turkish team (8-0!) and then it was off to bed.

If you are thinking of going to Exeter for the non-stop fun times and excitement, yeah, don't. There is not much there! The do have a pretty nifty new shopping centre... Walked into the city centre and tried to find the underground caves. Thought I found them, but after much walking, yeah, so didn't. Anyway, I gave up on that and went looking in the shops, where I found said new shopping centre, which is completely open air. Very interesting. Anyway, the tourism office was in the shopping centre, so found out where the underground passages were, and also some walking tours. I booked in to the passages, and then wandered around again, looking at shops and the like. The passages were pretty boring, just some tunnels that were dug under Exeter to allow people to get to pipes in the middle ages. Yay. No bones or anything. Still, took up some time! After that, I bought my beautiful Clark shoes (so super cute!) and wandered some more, deciding I didn't need to do the walking tour as I felt my feet couldn't handle it. Trying desperately to think of things to do, I decided to go down to the wharf to see what was shaking down there... yeah, not much. In fact, most things were closed. Awesome. So Exeter in the end turned out to be a wonderful place for me to spend the day shopping!

Caught the train to London, checked in to my hotel (which was interesting trying to find the thing... London should really look into de-confusinising their streets - btw, like my new word??) and then met Prash at a bar in Soho! Fun times were had, much vodka was drunk and my thrid to last day was over!