Jon In England: Hang on my darling...

Hang on if you wanna go

Here it's a really groovy place

It's uh, just a little bit of uh, said uh, Spanish Castle Magic.

¬Jimi Hendrix

(It was actually a Welsh castle but this was the song in my head at the time)

6/26/10-After St Fagans

I took the next bus back to Cardiff which dropped me off as close as it could get to the Cardiff Castle stop but couldn’t go all the way because some streets were still closed from the parade earlier. Regardless, I had a nice walk through Bute Park and over the Cardiff Bridge to the castle. When I arrived I saw the introductory film which looked as though it could have been directed by George Lucas. In it this girl draws the castle which then comes to life and then begins to tell the story of the castle and the city of Cardiff from ancient roman times to today. Interestingly, the castle was closed earlier today because of a visit from the royal family. As the film ends the screen lifts and you are left with an awesome view of the castle. The main attraction was the Keep (the castle itself within the castle walls) located on a hill surrounded by a moat which had over a hundred very steep steps to the top. From the lookout point I can see amazing views of central Cardiff, a polo match being setup in the grounds, and red white and blue skywriting (presumably for armed forces day).

After Cardiff Castle I get back to Nos Da and watch a little bit of the USA-Ghana match before catching a 9:48 train to Swansea. On my way to the train station I pass by the Millennium Centre (Wales’ largest Rugby stadium) where I overhear the Paul McCartney concert. He was plaing “I got a feeling.” I have several, but the only one on my mind is getting to the train on time. On the train ride to Swansea I read Dylan Thomas. Swansea will have a tough time beating Cardiff but I’m looking forward to exploring more of this magical land.

At the Swansea train station I met Csaba an all-around great guy and student at the University of Swansea who I met on couchsurfing.com and who agreed to host me for the night. We walked back to his place while getting acquainted. He’s originally from Romania but here in Swansea getting a masters in English. We stay at his dorm. It turns out that he is specifically from Transylvania and we talk about stereotypes found in stupid movies like Transylmania and how Transylvania used to be in Hungary until the demise of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of WWI.