Weekend of WORLD CUP RUGBY ACTION
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2007
1
17
31
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Cardiff,
Wales,
United Kingdom
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Eileen) in London as the remaining 5 of us traveled onto Cardiff in
Wales. The tension had been building since we arrive in France as Daryl
(our token crazy Canadian fan with flag made from a hockey stick) eager
to learn about the game they supposedly play in heaven. After working
our way through Stansted airport we got to express train into London
and then the famous underground across the city to Paddington street
station where we got a train to Cardiff. I advise anyone wishing to
travel by train in the UK to check out buying their tickets before hand
on the internet as we paid top dollar to buy on the day
Only One of These People is an Aussie
. The trip toCardiff was nice and quiet with a bit of time to relax and get a bit of
shut eye. The trains around the UK these days are much better then what
I remember from a few years ago when I used them last.
We arrived
at Cardiff central station and caught a taxi to an address that Simon
and got from the women we were letting a few spots at a B&B off for
the weekend. We arrived at the address (a small house in a regular
street) but there was no one home so Simon and Heather decided to go
looking for a phone to ring the contact number. Whilst they were away
the people from next door came out and said the people who lived there
were out the back and they went and got them. When the household owner
came out they told us that the women we were looking for hadn't lived
there for several months but had only moved a street up
Cold Beer at the Walkabout Pub in Cardiff
. At this timeSimon and Heather returned still unable to reach the women but now
knowing the proper address. When we arrived at the proper address we
found that our spots in the B&B were unavailable (or never existed,
take your pick) and the women had called us a cab that would take us to
a hotel that she had organised for us (which was in another part of
town). At this point in time I decided to go for a walk down the
street to alleviate the steam coming from my ears and nostrils. I got
chatting to a bloke across the road from where we were standing who ran
a car mechanic workshop. He told me that we weren't the first to visit
this place today and it seemed that those before us had worse luck then
us. Our taxi finally arrived and the driver was very helpful which was
both good and bad. It was good cause he told us where we could get a
cheap meal and a few drinks and bad because the part of town we were
staying in was one of the roughest in the whole city. This second point
was realised when we showed up to the hotel called the Blue Dragon (it
even sounds dodgey) in the area called Roath. The final piece of this
disaster fell into place when we found at reception that we had only
been booked in for one night and not the three we had originally
organised and there was no other room for us. At this point in time I
had lost all patience and sense of reasoning and could have gone into a
murderous rage if not for concentrating on finding a place for the
other two nights. After searching at the local internet cafe Heather
hit the jackpot with find us the Quality Inn just on the outskirt of
town. It was a little pricey but really we didn't care. After we had
settled this we all head to a pub recommended by the taxi driver and
ate and drank our woes away. Our spirits were lifted even more by
watching England get smashed by South Africa.
The next morning I
left the group to find our new hotel whilst I headed into the city as I
had planned to meet an old mate from Newcastle, Rick Bridge (a.k.a
Bridgey) at the Walkabout pub. The Walkabout has the biggest projector
screens (it has about three of them) of any pub in Cardiff which
is great for watching sport on. I rang Rick from a payphone and found
that his bus from London was late and another old mate from home Mark
Willis (a.k.a Wilbur) was also on his way from Bristol but was no where
to be seen yet. I finally caught up with both of them (and Rick's
partner Megan) at the Glamorgan cricket club where the Aussie embassy
was set up. We had a few stubbies of Tooheys New and then headed for
the Millennium stadium to watch the Wallabies take on the Welsh. This
stadium is probably the best ground I have ever watched rugby at. It
took no time to get to my seat which was good as I was running late but
still made it in time to punch out one of my best renditions of Advance
Australia Fair. Australia won the game on the back of a great first
half performance especially the backs (those pretty boys had to finally
do something). After the game I met back up with the old Belmont
connection and we headed into downtown Cardiff (only 200m from the
ground) and caught up with Rick's current landlord Mick McKensy who had
traveled over from London with a few mates. Mick also happens to be
from Newcastle and also attended Merewether High School like yours
truly. Mick was also gracious to loan me his lounge for one night in
the upcoming week before heading to Amsterdam. We had a few drinks at
various pubs in Cardiff only getting kicked out of one of them (thanks
Wilbur) and we also found another Newcastle boy and former Hamilton
Hawk Rugby team mate of mine Todd Slatter. So we sat around and drank
for several hours reliving our glory days from back home. I also had
arranged a couple of nights on Wilbur's lounge in Bristol after I left
Cardiff and before I got back to London.
I finally got back our new hotel around midnight and the night clerk
let me check in. As it was very late and Simon had my luggage I crashed
straight on my bed and slept much better then the night before.
The next day we had a good old fashion English breakfast and then
suited up for the second of our rugby games Canada verse Fiji. This
game didn't have the hype of the other game we saw but having 3 of our
5 members being Canadian it was special for them to cheer on their
homeland. Simon as an adopted Canadian (I am abit skeptical of this
tag) also got dressed up in as much red and white as possible. Canada
showed alot of fight against a team in Fiji that on paper should have
beat them easy with the Canadians coming home strong and Fiji only just
lasting the distance. After the game we headed down to the Cardiff
wharf area which has been restored really well and grab dinner before
heading back to the hotel for an evening spa and sauna.
The next morning we hit the spa and sauna one last time before the
touring team that had started back in Paris several weeks earlier
finally went our separate ways, Kris and Daryl staying in Cardiff for a
few extra days, Simon and Heather getting a car and heading west to
explore the Welsh countryside and me taking the next train to Bristol
to spend a few days with Wilbur.
Hear from your all soon.
Mick
