I am not sure if I had mentioned it earlier, but I am back on my own, sadly enough. No, no, I am not a prototype of the highly-debated new divorce legislation back in Malta, but the wife headed back to the sunny rock since the term is over and there is not much point staying alone for most of the day while studying for the upcoming exams. Thus, I needed to devise new ways to keep myself entertained. Last weekend's trip to Bath and Cardiff was the first such event...
On the Friday evening, I took the train to Bath and landed there at around 10pm, where I met my good Maltese friend waiting for me. How lovely the city is! This was my fourth visit to the ancient Roman settlement but I am nonetheless enchanted each time I pass by the Avon, the Pulteney Bridge and the Abbey. This was my first time to see the city lit at night and the view was fantastic.
Once at his abode, I got rid of my belongings and headed off to the union on campus with a bottle of his favourite wine and over 1,000 words or more emptied it in no time. The temperature was comfortable, the setting peaceful (all the undergrads were gone) and it was good to catch up with a friend outside Skype/MSN/Facebook/email. At around 12 we decided to head back and get some sleep for a long day awaited us. We did not sleep until well after 1 due to more and more talking, ranging from work, buildings, music, Malta, people, divorce, food and (did I mention it?) buildings.
The damn alarm rang at 7am and miraculously we got up and one coffee and only a few essential words later we headed down to the station and got the 8.30am train to Cardiff. It was my first time to Wales and I was looking forward for the day trip. By the way, the idea was this: my team Inter was playing against his team Milan on the Sunday and being the hottest game of the season, we decided to go to Cardiff on Saturday and then watch the game on Sunday. Luckily (or otherwise!) Inter qualified for the Champions League quarter finals and the Inter-Milan game was re-scheduled for Saturday, which meant we were going to miss it! This did not take away any of the excitement for our visit to Cardiff and we still managed to get a sneak of the game at a Welsh pub there and we were kept up to date with SMS texts from our friends. I am postponing this last detail not to re-open any wounds, but sadly "we" lost 3-0. Embarrassing. Anyway.
Once at Cardiff, we started roaming around the city centre. The weather was rubbish at first, but in the next half an hour it cleared up and was sunny and very pleasant throughout the rest of the day. We strolled about and headed to the Cardiff Castle, which kept us entertained till lunchtime. It was a fine example of motte and bailey medieval architecture and it was very well preserved and documented. By 1.00pm we were starving and headed off to the first pub and had a decent pub lunch which kept us going till the evening. After lunch we slowly headed down to the Cardiff Bay area and its former docks which were modernised and now boast some fine examples of contemporary architecture, much to our liking. A pit stop at the Starbucks there fuelled us with much needed caffeine and we strolled for a few hours in the area, taking some 300 pictures and, needless to say, the omnipresent Maltese talk on 101 topics. Dinner was at a Chinese buffet place which we spotted and immediately grabbed our attention. It was not bad but had better, though it did fill me up till lunchtime the next day...
We got the 8.30pm train to Bath and landed back home at 10pm. We watched the dreadful game highlights and a shower and change of clothes later went back to the Bath centre and to a local club. This venue and its antics kept us entertained till 2am or so, by which time it was time to retire.
No alarms were set and we got up at 11am or so and off to the city centre, beautiful Georgian Bath. By now, hunger was becoming an urgent matter and given the considerable munchies, we unanimously decided to go to another Chinese buffet place. This was way better than the Welsh equivalent and we stayed there for 2 hours or more, eating, pausing, talking, drinking and many cycles thereof. I did not eat till lunchtime the next day and to make up for the enormous intake of food, I seriously considered to fast in a Ramadan fashion (this did not work out).
Back home, I packed my few belongings and headed back down to the centre and after a few more roaming around, I was on the 9pm train to Paddington. I got home considerably tired and after a decent power shower and one final glass of wine to round up the weekend, I slept till 9.30am.
What a good start for April! And this was no April fool.
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