dia 7

Day 07
"Sumertime, and the living is easy"

Today we had a glorious morning in Bath, the sky was clear and it was warm. Early in the morning I headed for the but station to get a bus to Bristol and after that Cardiff. Wales is something totally new to me, so I was wishing for the best. As I had no place to stay so far, i phoned to one hostel from a list I have and asked for a place. “We got plenty of room here”, the voice answered, so I just took note from the direction.
The trip is made crossing a river, and its beautiful to see. The first city is Newport, which has the bigger metal recycler company in the world (SIMS company). The city looks very industrial and it is visible that its main activity there is as a shore. It seems that the city is being renewed, but still is not very pleasant sight.

CARDIFF

Cardiff is the capital and shows it, the buildings looks older and better, there are some palaces and official buildings, gardens and a Roman castle in the center of the city.
The flag of Wales features a red dragon under a white and green background. The legend says that Merlin, the magician was born here. As he was a talented infant, many were jealous of him . As the king needed to build a castle to defend his land, he called the best workers for the job. But they could not complete the job because every morning the work from the last day were destroyed. The king asked advice for his council which suggested him to make a “human sacrifice, with those who has no father on this world”, this meaning Merlin, which had no father. Merlin by his side went to the king and said that the castle could not be finished because there were two dragons fighting underneath it. the dragons were a white one (representing the Saxons), and a red one. Merlin prophetized that the white dragon would be defeated by the red dragon, being the symbol of Wales. Merlin opened the ground and the dragons could get out and continue his fight. If you believe in this, you can believe in anything.


The city seems very cosmopolite from the start: you see people from all over, and they are not tourists as Bath, they are more like residents. They seem to love these malls here in Cardiff. You can find them everywhere in the center. They give some glamour to the city, and are quite nice to walk through them.


After some time until find the “Information Bureau”, which was surprisingly hard to find following the directions on the street, I could get a map and the direction to my hostel.
The backpacker gets close to the center and the Millennium Stadium, a big arena which doesn’t seem to be very old.


The area I am in, although very close to the city center couldn’t look more residential. Not only, it is a clearly immigrant area, that basically hosts muslins (Indians, Pakistanis, Afghans), Chinese and Africans. The area is a big mix of cultural background, but as long as I could see, the muslins prevail. They dress in their way, as their children. I went to buy a drink at the Indian shop in front and there was a woman totally covered except by her eyes. And were beautiful green eyes.
Today I just took the day to relax and become familiar with my new place. I will have to change some habits, but I think it all will work fine.