Last weekend I jumped in my car and hopped it up the M4 to Cardiff. It'd been a while. I lived in Cardiff for four years in total - three when I was doing my undergrad (way back in 2006, where I met Rich... feeling old!) and then another year when I was doing my teacher training. When I lived there I held a lot of love for the city, but boy was I blown away on this visit! Cardiff has always had a great buzz, and in my time there a huge Topshop was built (every girl's dream), loads of new restaurants popped up and when I returned for my teacher training the new St David's 2 shopping center had just opened. Having thought that alone was rather lovely, I was shocked to return this time to find a whole load of amazing shops, restaurants and bars had infiltrated the city. Think Burger and Lobster, Cosy Club, Wahaca... as well as some really amazing looking burger and BBQ joints. Cardiff, you've made it into the 21st century!
I visited with a couple of my pals from my teacher training days, and we stayed in the Maldron hotel. Great location and affordable rooms, it was perfect. Obviously we were wooed by St Davids 2 and spent a few too many hours in and out of the shops, as well as stopping for food and drinks every couple of hours. We also visited Winter Wonderland which was pretty... crap. Yeh, it never was great, but this year it really did seem to be naff-tastic. The German Christmas market in town was much nicer, with bratwursts and mulled wine on every corner. Dreamy!
This little trip back to the Welsh capital has made me really miss my student days, and long for the ability to live somewhere so central but at an affordable price. I always forget how reasonable the cost of living is in Wales... it really does show how ridiculously overpriced Surrey (amongst others) is. You never know, maybe we'll make the move back one day...