A terrible pun – the best kind.
Now, I know that Wales rarely makes the list of countries (yes, Wales is a country) you should visit, but something alluded to in the previous post is that my wife and I are big nerds.
You see, at the time, we were really into Doctor Who. I mean, REALLY into it. We were also really into its spinoff, Torchwood. Maybe we were just really into John Barrowman.
Cardiff is the filming location of choice for much of Doctor Who, and the central location for Torchwood, so naturally the city has a Doctor Who exhibit along with lots of bits of Doctor Who street art.
I really can't express how obsessed we were with these shows. Watching them week to week on BBC America felt like one of the few stable things in our life. The campy, quirky stories offered levity that contrasted with the difficulties of every day life. I wanted to be David Tennant so bad.
Part of the Doctor Who exhibit involved a walking tour, and I took every picture of every place of significance (and at least two pictures of the all the insignificant ones). The photo above, for example, is of a reception desk. An ordinary reception desk, except that it had been dressed up, decorated, and displayed in several notable episodes.
I'm pretty sure we ate here because it was both a filming location and a good opportunity for a cultural exchange. My recollection was that it was fine – sort of the way Americans do fish-and-chips. I obviously felt too silly to take a photo inside (see previous post about being "too cool" to take photos of my food).
Even without the Doctor Who tourist trap, Cardiff is a scenic little coastal city worth visiting.
I think this might have been our very first train trip, if you don't count subways/metros/etc. and definitely the first trip where half of the announcements were in a language with didn't understand.
