The early afternoon of February 18th, 2015. The skies were fresh and alluring though the air still carried the chill of winter. This day marks the first day of the rest of my life.
As soon as the train began to pull into the airport, my ability of keeping myself distracted abandoned me. It left for me a stomach turned upside down full of hyperactive butterflies and anxious fidgeting instead to keep me company. Little did I know, his plane had already landed. He was already there when I entered the airport. I spotted him. Nervously, I hid behind a pillar, then messaged him to let him know that I was hiding behind the pillar in front of him. He will never let me live that down. Never.
Considering that this image didn't quite come out the way I had planned, I'm still fond of it. This is one of the screen corridors in my local IMAX cinema, decorated with funky strip lights that I adored. I can't say that I adored the movie that we saw though, which was Jupiter Ascending. Special effects, 9/10. Story plot, a measily 3/10.
We ventured into a local settlement called Ironbridge. I wanted to show him his place for quite a long time and he loved it. Here, we're standing on the bridge that represents the birthplace of industrial revolution. The first of it's kind in the entire world. A very popular bridge for tourists. I was there for the scenery and cute gift shops.
I discovered one of my favourite kind of cafes there. It's a tea store called The Tea Emporium where we sort of ignored the whole reason why we went there in the first place and rebelliously ordered milkshakes instead that were delicious but far too sweet for my taste. They satisfied his sweet tooth so much that he finished mine aswell. Next time I walk down to Ironbridge, I plan to come back to this cute little place and order actual tea.
I'll be honest with you. Yes, I made him a lovey dovey breakfast. I had a lot of fun making them and yes, he loved them and loved me for doing this for him. But no, they were not the best pancakes I had ever made. I made everything from scratch and there was one ingredient that I'd forgotten about. The gooey chocolate chips made up for it though.
We took off to spend the last half of our holiday in Cardiff, South Wales. I partially grew up in the valleys of South Wales and I wanted to show him just how beautiful the country is, also where part of my heart will always remain. However, it was my first time visiting Cardiff Bay. Upon exploring it's trademarks, I instantly felt ashamed that I'd never discovered this place before despite living under an hour train ride away from there. I definitely would love to go back and watch a musical at The Millennium Centre, as displayed above. I'm not much of a musical fan, but some shows caught my interest.
Now, the food in Cardiff Bay is something else entirely. Within Mermaid Quay, sat an ice cream cafe called Cadwaladers. This is the part where my idea of healthy eating is eradicated because look at it. My mouth still fills with saliva at the very sight of it. Knowing all about the insane sugar monster sitting next to me, I cleverly ordered something with an ingredient that he doesn't like. Cherries, which were sat amongst melting vanilla ice cream on a bed of hot pancakes with tiny streams of chocolate sauce. As you can probably tell from looking at his plate, chocolate is the obvious dominant flavour. I can hardly blame him.
Carrying on with our love for the food in Cardiff Bay, we stumbled upon this place by accident and by sheer childish amusement towards it's name. Wagamama. Almost immediately after, our amusement transitioned into excitement when we found out it was partially a noodle bar with ramen on the menu. For the both of us, it was our first time eating meat stuffed dumplings with lush sauces and ramen, and we can safely say that we will definitely go back at some point in our future. I can also safely say that I'll be buying their cookbook and attempt to make some of it myself. I highly recommend this Japanese restaurant.
I have a never-ending, colossal infatuation with churches, especially those that have gothic revival architecture. It fascinates me and Wales is home to countless amounts of them which made my holiday that much more enjoyable. This is St. John the Baptist Church which stands tall in Cardiff City. Stunning building.
One of the things about Cardiff City that I thrive off exploring is the multiple arcade allies they have. The arcades are hidden in between huge buildings with big shopping centres inside and they are packed with many more stores you won't see or even know about if you don't venture into them.
I, unfortunately, couldn't tell you what this building is all about. All I know is that it's not far from St John the Baptist Church and it is gorgeous. The reason why I didn't stop to study it for long is, well, I'll show you.
This outdoor market! I'm not entirely sure if this happens regularly in Cardiff, but I have been to and purchased from this market a couple of times in my life and it's amazing. People set up their products on display to sell in one of these little sheds and hope for business to come their way. Some of the things people sell here is phenomenal. I found out about flame working in this market after watching a man who sat on a stool making a glass rose using a flame right in front of us. My only two regrets is that 1. I didn't purchase a glass rose and I shall kick myself for all eternity and 2. I didn't photograph him working. Why, is the burning question.
For anyone who decides to go to Cardiff for at least one day, they must venture into the City Hall. My jaw almost genuinely hit the floor when I saw the statues and architecture inside. This is just one of their stairways.
And this is just one of the many art pieces that decorate fireplaces and doorways. This was my favourite piece of the building and no one would ever know the lengths I would go to, to have this placed above my future fireplace in my future home. I fell irrevocably in love with it.
The holiday was regrettably drawing to an end and I thought that showing the love of my life the place where I spent the most amazing years of my life would be the sweet icing on the cake for this whole trip. Abercynon is just one of the little villages in the valley where I come from and I hold many fond memories of the whole valley.
Back home, we had one more short weekend to spend together before the other half of me flew back to The Netherlands. We decided to adventure to a town that's not too far away from where I live now and to my surprise, we found more gothic revival churches. This church, St Mary's Church, nests a little newly opened cafe inside it, in one of it's back corners. I was a very happy bunny that day.
Another thing that I love to explore, though I haven't see many of, are castles. This is Shrewsbury Castle which is open to the public. People are seen eating lunch here, casually, which made me a little green with envy. I'd love to be able to have my lunch break at a castle. We climbed up to the top ground and explored the towers, though I stopped just before getting to the towers as I have a slight fear of heights. I pushed it aside as much as I could though because the view was stunning.
That marks the end of this spotlight as that was the end of my holiday. I'm going to be posting spotlights as little snippets of my daily life every now and then, weaving through my other posts which are aimed more towards my expressions. Until next time!
0 comments:
Post a Comment