Cardiff Short Break || Travel

For my boyfriend's birthday this April, I offered to take him to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff as he is a massive Doctor Who fan. So, we decided to spend 3 days there and visit other places in Cardiff as well as we had never been there before.

Going into Cardiff, I was really surprised at how small and quiet the city is in comparison to London, even the City Centre. It is a very calm city especially during the weekdays which is a lovely change from busy life in London. I really enjoyed being there and we're already looking forward to visit again!



23rd April 2015 (First Day)

When we arrived, we firstly walked around the City Centre to figure out where everything was. We went to a few shops in the shop centre and it's amazing how there is hardly anyone around during the day - it makes it such a nice shopping experience. We then stumbled across the National Cardiff Museum and decided to have a look. It is a beautiful building as with any museum, but again, unlike London this museum was not busy at all so it was very pleasant. It has a range of collections from Art to Biology and taught me some interesting facts about Wales. My favourite part was a music area where you could chose a vinyl and play it. It was really fun!
After this, we checked in at our hotel The Big Sleep - I had booked it on-line and was pleasantly surprised, the room was massive and we had an awesome sunset view as we were put on the 10th floor. It also has the plus of an included breakfast and tea and coffee in your bedroom.
Later in the evening we went out for dinner at the City Centre and chose to eat at a quiet Greek restaurant called PiPis - I didn't take any food pictures during the trip but we ate calamari, vine leaves, lamb Kleftiko and chicken and pork skewers with salad and for dessert we shared some chocolate cream cake. I really recommend this restaurant if your in Cardiff!



24th April 2015 (Second Day)

We had breakfast at the hotel quite early and made our way to Cardiff Bay. In the morning we walked around the bay, all the way to Cardiff barrage and it was so pleasant as there was no one out and the weather was lovely.

At the Doctor Who Experience, I had a great time. I will admit, I'm not a Doctor Who fan and I've only watched a few episodes but going to the museum in Cardiff has made me want to watch it as it was great fun. I will not give any spoilers as I think it's best when you don't know what to expect but if you like the show I encourage you to visit. We also went on a Doctor Who tour that takes you around places where the show was filmed and it was amazing learning about how the episodes are filmed and the work that goes into it - this was my favourite part of the day!

The Doctor Who building in the background.

After this, we went back to the hotel and then came back to the bay to have dinner. We went to Bosphorus Turkish Restaurant (theme here?) a family run business. Here we ate Falafel with hummus, King prawns, Seafood Bosphorus way (monk fish, prawns and mushrooms in tomato sauce with rice) and Grilled salmon with veg. For dessert we had the Apricots with ice cream and Baklava.
The bay looks beautiful at night with all the lights reflecting on the water so we enjoyed the view before walking back to the hotel.



25th April 2015 (Last Day)

For today, we decided to rent some bicycles - these were quite vintage but were good enough for us! We cycled around the city which is great since Cardiff accommodates cycling really well (it seems like the majority of people cycle/run/walk everywhere here!). We again went to Cardiff bay and cycled to a town called Penarth to visit their church which was used for a Doctor Who episode. Go prepared if you are visiting Penarth though because there are some steep heels there!

After that, we cycled back to Mermaid Quay and went for lunch at Eddies Diner - it serves tasty American food and has a really cool '50s style. Here, my boyfriend had Chilli burger and onion rings and I had chicken wings and cheese fries. I recommend!
Later, we were a bit adventurous and went on a 15 minute boat splash. If you walk along the bay there's various boat tours on offer, the one we did also has a 1 hour tour available which we really want to do next time we go to Cardiff. It was so much fun and really exciting!

Lastly, we tried welsh cakes for the first time at a little shop and wow, they were so, so good. You can buy them packaged or freshly baked. We also visited the pier head and the staff there were so passionate and helpful in telling us more about the history of Cardiff. Beautiful building!

After this tiring day, my feet were definitely hurting so we cycled back to the City Centre to return the bikes and checked out from our hotel before getting on the coach back to London.

I really enjoyed this 3 day break and will be travelling a lot more in the months to come for sure!
Also, I might start posting some things in video format and perhaps do some travel vlogs...



I hope you enjoyed this post,
Thanks for reading!