The Lands of Peter Gabriel and Roald Dahl

We started our next day at the Roman Baths. It kind of hit me at this point that England is pretty old. I knew that, but I don't think it had struck me just how old it is until this day when we ventured into this place that came into being around Christ's time.

As you can probably tell from that nice green tint, the water is kind of dangerous to drink or even touch. However, there was a part at the end where we could drink (extremely) filtered water from the Baths. I did. It was warm. And it tasted like blood. So, if that's the Roman life, count me out.

It's just casually by the beautiful Bath Abbey.

After perusing Bath a bit like the tourists that we are (we were shopping for souvenirs), we made our way onto the coach and headed to Cardiff (Wales).

An awesome street performer in Bath.

One of the many beautiful views on our way to Cardiff.

It was quite the transition going from the Romantic Bath, to the Viking-esque Cardiff. Sleeping basically the entire way there probably didn't help the starkness of this contrast either. I went from daydreamer to intimidated-er (just go with it).

My evening included a bit of shopping around Cardiff and then watching a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the middle of Cardiff Castle. Probably one of the coolest experiences of my life.

I've read quite a few of Shakespeare's plays, but I've never actually been to a live performance. So, this just happened to be my first time with that experience. It's kind of ironic that I've never actually read/studied Twelfth Night, but it was pretty freaking awesome.

I think I might have judged Cardiff a little too harshly. I was a bit caught up in how romantic Bath was and judged the harshness of Cardiff as something inferior to the Romanized Bath. But, truth be told, Cardiff was pretty great. While the extreme hen (bachelorette) and stag (bachelor) parties we encountered on our walk home through downtown (thank you, Saturday night) were hilarious/kind of scary (I actually saw a drunk lady doing sign language, so that was an experience), my favorite part was when we were inside Cardiff Castle and I realized (yet again) just how old the UK is. Those buildings were so Viking-esque no one could deny how rich this incredible place is with culture and stories to be told, and not just Shakespeare's. 

I jokingly sent this picture to my roommate:

The story of King Arthur did originate from Wales. And just seeing that building made me believe (maybe just for a second) that maybe the story of Arthur and Merlin just might be true. I might go back one of these days and just knock on the door to see if that wonderful wizard is home to tell me the true stories of Camelot.