Greetings from Cyrmu
24 Sep 2007 by Tom in Wales | 2 Comments »
We’ve made it to Cardiff, Wales. Or as they call it, Gaerdydd Cyrmu. We arrived at around 9 am this morning after a relatively quick and comfortable flight over the Atlantic. The weather here is manageable, so far, and is pretty much what we expected from Britain. It’s blustery and bright and feels like fall, but it’ll rain at the drop of a hat. The rain will last only 15 or 20 minutes and then the sun will come out again. There are rainbows all over the place. I guess that’s pretty common here.
These Welsh folks (and British folks over in Bristol — where we arrived) are extremely friendly. They seem proud to show off their homeland. They probably like us for our pounds (the currency, not my beer gut), but hey, that’s alright by me. The customs official (who stamped our passports) actually held up the line at the airport to recommend to us sights to see in Cardiff.
Their language, Welsh, is just wacky. It’s so wacky that I think they’re just screwing with us. It can’t be real. There’s no way to pronounce any of these words. No way at all. Beer is pronounced Cwrw. Cwrw! How do you even begin to say that? Fortunately everyone speaks English so we won’t need to try, but still.
They also speak really fast. I’ve had conversations with four people now, and I’ve had to ask all of them to repeat themselves. It’s pretty hard to keep up with them.
Anyway, Cardiff is a pretty small and laid back city. Lots of great architecture and history. It has the charm of a city like London, but about eight million less people. There’s also a feeling of national pride that is visible everywhere you look. Speaking of pride, their local beer is called Brains. I sampled a couple pints at a pub just a little while ago — a light and a dark. Both were tasty. Warm, but tasty. We hadn’t even planned on visiting this pub, but it started pouring as were walking down St. Mary Street so we had no choice but to seek cover. I was just looking out for Jamie. I didn’t want her to get wet. Because that’s the kind of guy I am.
OK, we’re going to settle in and watch some British sitcoms before we fall asleep. We plan on checking out a few more sights in Cardiff tomorrow morning before boarding a train for the five-hour trip to Falmouth, Cornwall.
Hwyl. (That’s goodbye in Welsh. Go ahead … try to say it. See, that’s what I’m talking about.)