You Can't Be Me, I'm A Rockstar

As I am sure you know, I went to Wales this past weekend (well...it wasn't a weekend so much as a prolonged day trip...?)
We met up at 1:00pm and started on our way.
We get to the tube station, wait a bit for the next train to come, and when it does, an announcement is made: "There has been an incident at Tower Hill. As a result, this train will be turning around at Whitechapel."
This was not good.
1. Whitechapel is about 8 stops before the one we wanted to get to.
2. Presumably, if this train is turning aorund there, so are all of the other trains, and thus using the line just wouldn't work.
So we get off the train, a little upset and worried, and wait for the next one.
Luckily, the next one merely announces that there has been an issue of some sort at Tower Hill and trains are still getting through, but slowly.
We have to be AT the bus station by 1:50, but we end up arriving at the tube station (not the same place) at 1:50 instead.
So we have to run from the tube to the buses, which though they are technically both located at Victoria Station, the bus station happens to be a completely separate entity and quite far from where we get off the tube.
We end up arriving at 2pm, which is right when the bus was suppose to leave.
Luckily, it was still there.
The driver teased us a little for being late (if he meant to be mean or snarky, it didn't come across that way at all) and then let us on.
We had a 3.5 hour bus ride that ended up lasting closer to four hours (Oh London traffic....)
But it was okay, because I sort of slept a little (it was more like I spent 3 hours in a semi-conscious state, to be shaken out of it every once in a while when my head would fall sharply on Annah and I'd "wake up").
I don't remember what time we arrived in Cardiff, but we had told the people at the hostel we'd be there at 5, and it was definitely not 5.
We had been told what bus to take, but not the direction or what stop to get off at (which are actually pretty important when you have no idea where you are).
Luckily, we met a nice woman at a bus stop who seemed to know the city well. She told us that we were indeed at the correct bus stop and that we would take the 28 until we got to a stop under a bridge. Then we should just turn down the street to our left and it would be right there.
Well, it took about an hour for the 28 to come, and in the meantime the 27 showed up.
The old woman said we could take the 27 too, so we hopped on and waited, hoping we'd get to the right spot.
Lo and behold, it was definitely the very very wrong bus.
We ended up getting off, and going back to the original bus station.
We waited for the 28 (it only took like 20 minutes) and asked the driver if we were going to go by the hostel.
He kindly told us that he would let us know when we had reached the hostel, so a few minutes later he yelled it out for us.
The hostel itself was very nice.
I mean, it wasn't the nicest place I've ever stayed, but the only hostels I've ever seen (I've never stayed in one) have been the sketchiest places. This one was clean and well maintained. The people were nice, and good lord were the beds comfortable.
Being that we hadn't had a meal since 1pm (or earlier in my case) we decided to try to find some good food. We asked around and everyone seemed to be suggesting that Mermaid Quay was the place to go.
The guy at the front desk said to take the 8 bus down there, so we got on the next 8 bus that came.
At first we were going the right direction, then suddenly the bus changed drivers and became a number 9.
So we got off and were fairly lost in a part of Cardiff that was not so nice (maybe the Welsh version of the ghetto....even though it still wasn't very bad (Cardiff in general just seems like a nice, well-kept, clean city)). A really nice guy saw us looking confused and offered to help us. Being that we ere so hungry, we just asked where the nearest good restaurants were.
He told us that there were a lot of good restaurants if we took our next right and went up the road a bit--there was a lot of good Indian and Chinese food, according to him.
I wasn't really in the mood for asian food, but I was also really hungry, so after thanking the guy, we walked a bit and found this really nice looking Chinese restaurant.
We went in, ordered, and were then informed that every customer had to order at least 12GBP worth of food, not including the dessert or anything. We were a bit upset about this since 12GBP is expensive even by London standards (no joke, standard meals in the east end cost about 8GBP and they're usually damn good), so the waitress tried to convince her boss that we shouldn't have to pay that. It didn't work, but we left her a nice tip because she was so sweet and at least she tried.
At least the food was good and warm--that's all we really wanted, so even though it was expensive we were all still really happy.
Afterward, the owner of the restaurant approaches us and asks where we were from. We told her that three of us were from America and one of us was from Germany.
She seemed ABSURDLY happy to have Americans in her restaurant, I'm still not entirely sure why....
Anywya, then we found another bus stop and took the 8 bus down to Mermaid Quay, which was a good time.
I'm not going to describe the rest of the weekend to you, but I'll post some pictures and explain them a bit:

This is Annah and Allison dancing at a nightclub at Mermaid Quay


Church of Saint John the Baptist...or something like that.

The first inn (and oldest pub) in Cardiff--it's called Dempsey's.


The stupid stairs to climb to the top of the tower at Cardiff Castle...but I climbed them all and was proud of myself, what with the my fear of heights and all...

Cardiff Castle....well, part of it.

The view from the top of the tower at Cardiff Castle.


The Church where Roald Dahl was baptized...which is now a coffee shop that serves delicious hot chocolate...which is nice when you've been walkinga round since 9am and it had been raining and cold all day....

Mermaid Quay

More of Mermaid Quay