Roast Ham and Vegetables or Save On My Holiday

We, the very lucky of Bath University, are fortunate enough to get a week off after our first semester exams. The result of this for me was a holiday to the beautiful sunny isle of Cardiff with my girlfriend.

Our hotel room had a television in the corner, and though the Welsh-language channel was very tempting, we tended to watch Homes under the Hammer (because it’s awesome) while getting ready in the morning, which was followed every day by a program called Save My Holiday.

Funnily enough, this focused on people whose holidays needed saving. And our holiday was most certainly not one of those. In fact, it was probably one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. The hotel was in a fantastic location, equidistant from the station, the town centre and Cardiff Bay, home of the Doctor Who exhibition.

The main focus of our trip was to see Russell Howard at the Cardiff International Arena, but it became much more than that. We turned it into a 3 day stay, and went to visit Cardiff Castle and the Millennium Centre.

The castle itself was your standard motte-and-bailey, with a Norman keep (where they kept the Normans so I’m told) in the middle. The main house was gorgeous, with stunning architecture in some of the rooms, particularly the Arab Room (yes, it was really called that) with marble walls and a gold leaf ceiling. If you ever find yourself in Cardiff centre, it’s certainly worth a trip at about £5 entry, including a tour of the house and an audio guide.

Russell Howard was on good form, the highlight of his show being the moment he revealed the thong he was wearing. The Doctor Who exhibit was fantastic, right up to the moment the Cybermen tried to delete us.

Fortunately we managed to escape from the Cybermen, and moved on to the Millennium Centre, home of Torchwood, where we snapped some good photos. The bay was beautiful, despite the weather not really being great, and we took a look around to try and find a restaurant.

If you’ve ever been to Cardiff, you’ll understand when I say we were spoilt for choice. Every time we turned a corner there was another restaurant. We settled on a nice Chinese buffet called the Oriental Garden in the Red Dragon Centre, the third night in a row we had eaten out, so I was starting to get a bit full up.

It was a good trip at a great price, so if you ever want a good holiday on a tight budget, try Cardiff.