Sunday, August 8, 2010

angel of the north.




on our way to newcastle, we visited angel of the north. a huge thanks to paran who made the effort for us to see such a beautiful sculpture.

from far away, Angel of the north's outstretched arms reminded me of Christ Redeemer Statue in Brazil that overlooks Rio de Janeiro from atop 2,343-foot Mount Corcovado. (this is another thing ai ling realli wanna see one day! who's in?)

yarm.





if its not bcos of little paran, i wouldnt know about this small village let alone visit it. but here we are, paran's tiny hometown! small but peaceful ^^ like wisteria lane in Desperate Housewive.









cardiff.

the night we arrived in cardiff, it was near midnight, so we decided to take a cab. the taxi driver told us the hotel was miles away from the city and advised us to book a nearer hotel; it may be more expensive but it saves the transport costs. i have to say, he was absolutely right.



though situated in an odd area which was pretty soulless, the hotel was pleasant. a big room with a nice bathroom. poor tourists like me havnt been indulging in such luxury for a long time.
















the next day, it was a good day with plenty of sunshine. we took a bus to the town centre, leaving the luggage with the hotel reception.

first destination, the cardiff castle. WELCOME!!!! it was a gorgeous castle i have to say, im not sure if its the sunshine, but it just looked magnificient. we paid 10pounds each to get it. expensive but to me its worth the visit. the first time i came to cardiff 3 years ago, i just looked at it from outside, i decided this time we just treat ourselves better.







































a lady was training a fatso owl in the castle garden. the owl was pretty lazy, it took the poor lady so long before the fat bird flew to her to grab the food in her hand. it enjoyed quite a lot of attentions form the visitors though.





on our way for a quick bite, we stopped at a second-hand bookshop to tru to hunt for some cheap travel guidebooks (ai ling wanna hav an adventure in the middle east!). outside the shop, we saw a HUGE DOG. im not even joking, tat was one of the very few big dogs i hav seen in my life. however, it looked adorable, even a dog-lover-not like me found it quite harmless and cute.


















if you come to the cardiff market, try out the welsh cakes! we were not big fans. it tasted like plenty of flour with sugar toppings. but, do wad the welsh do when u come to wales lol.






millenium stadium has always looked pretty damn cool to me. i have no idea wad the big welsh words mean but they just looked overwhelmingly wonderful.






the mermaid quay. walking along the quay and feeling the sea breeze under the sun was a blessing.


































after a big meal in wagamama, we caught the bus back to the hotel. the hotel would have been so perfect to me if it wasnt tat understaffed. we were waiting for ages before we could get our luggage from the staff. and guess wad, when we walked out to catch the bus, we freaking missed it and the next coming bus was an hour later. FRUSTRATED!!! we walked back to the hotel to ask the staff to call us a cab. feeling unsatisfied and ripped off, we tried our very best to reduce wadever fares the cab would cost. thus we asked the driver to stop us at the castle in he town, and we walked quite a long way to the train station--it saved us a few pounds, but compared to if we just tooked the bus, we wasted a few pounds.

HOWEVER, we said no complains bcos God loves us too much, the moment we were leaving cardiff it starting raining. we had a good day all in all ^^