It Goes Like This

I am finally in the UK, the country in which I am spending the most time. I'm in Cardiff now, after spending a few days with family in their adorably English cottage near Bath. It was a wonderful visit and I was well taken care of. After Paris I told myself it's time to start eating normally again. Nope. My grandmother's nephew and his wife are such good cooks; I'm going to have to start running again in the mornings!

At this point, I don't get nervous anymore when I step out of the airport or off the train into a brand new place, that I have absolutely no idea where anything is. Today coming into Cardiff, I didn't even use the map on my phone. I knew approximately where the hostel was and found it somehow. Speaking of which, look how cool it is!

Took those real quick so excuse the poor quality. It's the bar downstairs, the only area with wifi so you're forced to be social. Sneaky.

For all those people reading this blog for the travel stuff, you're in luck! I have decided to do a comparison of the countries I've been to so far: the Netherlands, France, Spain, and England. I have moved 11 times to new places in the almost-month I've been away, so I feel like I finally have insight. And am very skilled at sleeping wherever, whenever.

The biggest differences reside in the transportation systems and food. That might be because these are the two things I tend to pay attention to anyhow... But regardless they are important.

The best transport system overall is... Drumroll please... Paris! The trains run every five minutes, sometimes more often, and the purchase system is so simple. You can buy a tourist card for a certain number of days and it gives you unlimited trips for metro and the bus. AND the bus!! DC would never do that...  I got a three day pass for €18, which was soooo worth it. The Netherlands was a close second but I found that bikes were much simpler to use and more common among the residents. I've used the tube in London once so far and it was not intuitive in the slightest. Let's see how it goes tomorrow when I begin my stay in the city... The Netherlands had the worst bus system; there were random exceptions that were not posted so it was all guess and check and then wait three hours for somethig to show up.

Food, of course France wins again. Everything I ate was delicious. EVERYTHING. Nutella crepes, pain au chocolat, baguettes, cheese (all kinds), macarons, wine, pasta, brick au fromage, quiche, and everything else I ate was never a disappointment. Sometimes it was a surprise because I did not always understand what I was ordering. Drinking was much nicer in Amsterdam for their beer, sangria in Barcelona, but I've found England to have the most variety so far. Tried a real (flat) beer the other night at the local pub in the village and it was actually pretty good. 

The language barrier was absolutely nonexistent in the Netherlands. I was very surprised. But as a mainly capitalistic country, and with such a small population speaking Dutch, they almost have to learn English. Wales has proved to be more difficult to decipher slang than I thought. Spain was next since I speak a bit of Spanish, and France was all gestures and "merci." The French and their language are all high emotion, no matter which it is. I saw people greeting each other with such excitement, and then yelling at strangers on the sidewalk for walking too close with the same gusto. To be honest, it was a bit exhausting, especially not understanding what was said.

Walking tours are the last thing I've done in each country. I still have Dublin, Edinburgh and London tours to do so that will be an entire post on its own. 

 Tomorrow, I am exploring Cardiff Bay and the Doctor Who Experience. There are a few other filming sites in the area so  if you are a BBC series fan, there will be lots of photos in the next post.

Cheers!