Outnumbered & Abroad: Cardiff Castle (Part 14)

Cardiff Castle, Wales (Saturday, September 29, 2018 | Day #5) - Although the hostel was c lean and the location seemingly safe enough, I found that I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was the individuals who got in to the bottom of our tower in the week hours after midnight or the sneaking suspicion that I have never had explored our stair case to see just how far and where it went, but I didn’t sleep. I feel on the edge the entire time.

Unable to turn the light off on our mirror, it became an extremely bright night light. I welcomed its warmth, however, and found myself journaling for most of the night wile Nicole snored in the twinned parallel to mine. We had made plans the night beforehand to leave really early in order to make all of our activities for the day. Already packed and ready to go, it wasn’t long before Nicole and I were sitting on our beds ready to start the day. That’s when Nicole made a peculiar observation.

“Why haven’t we heard any noises?” she asked, looking directly up at the ceiling.

Uh oh….

I waited until exactly 7am, the time we had planned to leave with bags packed. I gave our not-so-secret knock code. Nothing.

I just plain knocked. Nothing.

I pounded on the door. Nothing.

Then I spoke loudly, “Randi! Warren Clayton! Time to get up!”

That’s when we finally heard some movement and, with a chortle to myself, I headed back down the staircase to wait in our room. In a most impressive feat, the two Johnson’s appeared in our room, backpacked and dressed in, I kid you not, six minutes flat! Shocked and impressed, I was worried that they had forgotten something, but both assured me that they had not.

Our road tripping clues led us to the country of Wales, which felt like we were driving to the town over in the U.S., where Nicole had planned for us to get breakfast. But, just like in Bath, and in what seems to be a recurring theme here in the UK, the parking was atrocious. We somehow ended up on a side street, parked next to the graffiti garage door and broken glass window of what may have been an operating business at one point in time. I felt concerned leaving all of our stuff int he vehicle, but in the end, my hunger won out over waiting with the car.

I will admit that I threw an audible at this point in time. We were heading toward’s “Jane’s Kitche” (or some name like that) and I saw “Pettigrew’s Teahouse.” For any of you Harry Potter fans out there, you’ll recognize the name “Pettigrew.” In hindsight, I’m not sure WHY that would make me want to go there, Pettigrew is the name of the Benedict Arnold of the Wizarding World.

The small teahouse was set into a stone wall that outlined the edges of the park outside of Cardiff Castle. In order to conserve some money, I simply ordered crumpets for my breakfast. It came out with a sampling of fruit preserves. A pretty orange preserve took my fancy and I put a tasting on my crumpet…

… and proceeded to almost vomit over how nasty the acidic stuff was. It was an almost immediate vomit. I quickly scraped the topping off and, when Randi gave me a quizzical lok in response, I replied, “DO NOT try that.”

She laughed and explained that the orange stuff was marmalade, not jam like I had assumed, like the apparent American heathen that I am. Cautiously I checked the other three preserves jar and found a strawberry jam - I put some on my crumpet praying that it would be something edible. Thank God it was, otherwise I would have not only been exhausted but starving on top of it. The breakfast conversation more than made up for it as we recounted our own reflections of the different aspects of the trip so far.

While all of this was playing out on my plate, I noticed the amazing breakfast that Randi had ordered. Fresh, thick cut sourdough bread, topped with seasoned mashed avocado and scrambled egg. I couldn’t help but be envious! She picked way at it, barely eating, much to my dismay. If it wasn’t for the chai latte that I had ordered that was absolute divine, I think I would have stolen her breakfast and that wouldn’t have been very ladylike as we sat on the edge of a castle of all things!

This was near where we parked the car and I had to laugh at the difference between the word “Super Bowl” in the UK versus the US.

I wish that the UK honored the refill rule that us Americans live by. I think that, for my rebuttal to no refills, I wold like to make a request to British hospitality and restaurants to at least serve the drinks with the meal and not 20 minutes prior. They also need to bring out water, but I am also very concerned as to why they only bring us bottled water whenever water is requested …. presumably the tap water is not safe? Everything food wise is so not safe here.

Well aware of the limited amount of time we had in our sketchy parking space, we couldn’t resist the magnetic draw of the castle shadow looming over our teahouse. When will we ever be in Wales again? We couldn’t help but rationalize. This was our shot, while here, to go check out Cardiff Castle!

We walked along the bridge, guarded at every post by a statue animal sentinel. We rounded the corner to the gates where there were two police guards. Like everything else i this world, the castle cost entry to visit.

Bummed that my tight budget was going to curb extra fun and knowledge on this trip, we morosely entered the gift center. Just like in every gift shop we entered, Randi immediately road something for her little brother William that we had to leave behind as he was still in high school, and post cards to send back home. As I waited for her to collect her stuff, I began to notice that once a ticket was purchase, you could exit the gift shop onto the castle grounds. No one was checking tickets, however, as they seemed to have just opened.

Testing the waters, I meandered out onto the veranda where the cafe portion of the gift shop had an outdoor seating area. Watching the guards in my peripherals, I noticed that they were completely unaware of their surroundings.

I started to meander my way further out into the center of the fortress, where Nicole, who had got wha I was up too, followed me out. Then here came the Johnson’s. I was pretty sure that they had no idea that we didn’t have a ticket and, therefore, the jurisdiction to be out on the castle grounds. I figured that their ignorance would be very important to keeping up the ruse to invade the castle, so I kept my mouth shut.

The Johnson’s wanted to head over to the right hand side of the castle stronghold which was some sort of grate. Nicole and I decided to cross the moat and head to the top of the castle knowing that our time was limited due to both our trespassing ways and the ticking time bomb that was the parking meter for the car. As Warren Clayton and Randi headed off in the opposite directions, I heard Warren Clayton loudly exclaim to Randi, “We don’t even have a ticket!” To which Nicle fluttered nervous eyes to me. I simply shrugged and kept walking. I had no need to look to see if the guards had heard.

I knew the irony of this photo would be great once we got home - the whole “invaded a castle just to get a picture in the stockades” kind of thing.

At this point, they didn’t know that the four of us were all one group. Ever since we had walked in, we could have passed for two separate groups. If the Johnson’s got caught and thrown our or forced to pay - then that was their fault! (Don’t worry, I was well aware that if they did get caught, they probably would have thrown us under the bus, either intentionally or unintentionally.)

The right handed path must have been closed, however, because shortly after the Johnson’s were seen scurrying up to catch us. I took the moment to use the stone wall as a mount for my camera and set the self-timer in an effort to get at least one photo of all of us in Wales.

For all of our sneaking to get in, we really didn’t stay in long because of the parking space time crunch. While Nicole and the Johnson’s explored at the top of the castle, I did my best to keep my eye on the entrance. I felt the strategy of a clean escape beginning to build as I realized that the few other tourists that were leaving were going through the guarded front gates where the two guards were checking tickets.

“Awhhhh…” I thought to myself, “That’s where' they’re checking for tickets!”

The strategy was completed. A few quick sentences to communicate to Nicole and we were out. We headed back to the gift shop where, unfortunately, there was nothing more any of us wanted to buy. Instead we went to the deli/cafe where we purchased snacks and water… probably amounting to the same amount as a ticket but the ruse was adding to the mornings excitement!

Heading out the way we had come in, Nicole and I worked on figuring out the best way to get back to our car. Although instructed to chat with each other and walk out with authority…. we did not.

“You know, you two would make the worst criminals,” Randi commented on the walk back.

“Excuse me?” said Nicole with a lot of offended attitude.

“Ya! As soon as you realized you weren’t supposed to be in there, you made a mad dash out,” she added. To which I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. My inference is that Randi and Warren Clayton realized shortly after Warren Clayton’s shout about tickets that we were supposed to have tickets. In a mild panic, they had scurried back to us to see what we should do where all they caught of the conversation was how we were supposed to exit. They had no idea I was well aware of the entire situation the entire time.

“Actually, we are in a hurry because we are potentially about to get a parking ticket,” I said to smooth things over and adding “or our stuff stolen” in my head.

“Oh…” Randi said, but I couldn’t tell if she thought it was an excu7se or not.

Did the guards know we broke in? Probably. Did they care? Obviously not.

Once in the car, Nicole gave us our next clue, which had to do with ……