Whenever I have a paper due, you can usually count on a new blog post. Here is the live blog that would have been for the rest of our thrilling weekend in Cardiff.
5:20 pm - Emily and I make it to Cardiff with forty minutes to spare before our 6:00 bus back to London. We decide to grab some food for the road.
5:45 pm - We head back to the bus lot and search for the Megabus to London.
5:50 pm - With no luck, we ask an attendant where the Megabus station is. The attendant gives us directions and says it takes 10 minutes to get thee. We tell him we have to catch the bus in ten minutes. He suggests a cab.
5:55 pm - We hail a cab. The driver questions our need for a cab explaining that it isn’t a far walk. We assure him that we don’t have time to walk.
6:00 pm - The driver drops us off at a station near Cardiff Castle. The Megabus is nowhere in sight. Emily and I enter panic mode.
6:10 pm - We see a Hilton across the street and go in looking pitiful. We explain our predicament to the concierge. He spends the next 20 minutes looking up ticket prices for trains and busses leaving in the next 12 hours.
6:30 pm - We realize the next bus we can afford won’t leave until 4 am. Jorge the concierge proceeds to look up cheap hotels in the area. Jorge kindly tells us that the Hilton has available rooms, but they would be out of our price range.
7:00 pm - We thank Jorge for his time and leave the Hilton. The cheap hotels have no vacancies. With no money and no place to stay we wander the streets of Cardiff.
(It is important to note our appearance at this time. After a morning of coasteering, neither of us fully showered. We merely rinsed off and put our clothes back on. Each of us only packed sweats, jeans and enough makeup to get by. I was wearing leggings and a sweatshirt. My hair was in a frizzy ponytail, and my bangs braided back. Oh, and we each carried all of our belongings, including dirty swimsuits, towels and tennis shoes in our Karrimor backpacks. Keep this in mind as the night progresses.)
7:15 pm - We devise a plan. The next bus is scheduled to leave at 4 am. We decide to hit the town until then. We reason that if we don’t need sleep, we don’t need a place to stay.
7:30 pm - We enter a nearby pub. Because of our temporary homelessness, we head to the bathroom to deodorize and primp to the best of our ability.
7:45 pm - Still full from our convenience store dinner, we opt for a couple of drinks from the bar.
8:00 pm - We foresee the potential for a long boring night as no one has approached us to keep us entertained. I leave the bar to buy cards at the “Everything’s a Pound” store down the street.
8:05 pm - I jam to Michael Jackson as I search for a deck of playing cards. The music stops abruptly, and the clerk locks up without knowing I’m in the store. I quickly grab a package containing cards, dominos and dice, check out and head back to the bar.
8:10 pm - The bouncer rstops me at the door and asks to see ID. I tell him I’ve already been in the bar and explain that my backpack is inside. He asks me to get my ID and bring it back to him. I show the bouncer the ID. He looks me up and down then back at the card. I ask if something is wrong. He replies, “What happened?!” I ask what he means by that, and he says, “Well, in your picture you look respectable.”
8:25 pm - Emily goes to the bar for the next round of drinks. She is carded. While she is away, I make up a new card game: CARDiff. Hah. Emily talks to a couple of nice boys at the bar.
8:30 pm - I teach Emily CARDiff. We play for awhile.
9:00 pm - One of the guys from the bar approaches the table. We learn that he is in town for a stag do (bachelor party) with 12 other guys.
9:10 pm - The other guys join their friend at our table and serenade us with “You’ve Lost That Lovin Feeling.” We receive an invite to accompany them for the rest of the night.
9:15 pm - We pack up our backpacks and head out.
9:30 pm - We arrive at a very skinny bar and wade through a sea of people knocking them in the face with our backpacks. Dirty looks abound.
9:40 pm - The guys take us under their wing, and we become the main attraction of the bachelor party. Many questions and free drinks follow.
10:00 pm - A pig with a moving mouth appears in the hands of the bachelor. We learn that the bachelor’s nickname is “Piggy.” I ask why. I have to break it to the group that it’s “Pippy Longstocking” not “Piggy Longstocking.”
10:15 pm - We head to the next bar. The guys take turns carrying our backpacks for us.
10:30 pm - I fail miserably at my shot in pool and get teased. More questions and free drinks flow. We, along with the pig, have become the mascots for the party.
11:30 pm - We walk in a pack to the next venue. We stash our backpacks under a table. Dancing ensues. Keeping track of time becomes less of a priority.
1:30 am - Emily and I are separated. Neither of us has enough money on our phone to call the other. Using our free allocation of messages, a texting conversation begins.
2:30 am - Plans are made to meet at the castle where we will catch the bus.
3:30 am - Each of us, with help from some of the guys, finds our way to the castle. We are reunited, and it feels so good.
4:00 am - The Megabus drives down the road. Our eyes light up. It never stops at our station, and we lose sight of it. All our hopes are dashed.
4:20 am - We enter panic mode for the second time in less than 12 hours. We curse the Megabus name as we walk the lonely streets of Cardiff.
4:30 am - We decide to wait it out until morning. Fortunately we are able to take shelter at the guys’ hotel.
9:00 am - We still have no idea how we are getting home.
9:30 am - Through our sleep deprivation, we remember the National Express ticket office is just down the street. We journey there to look at our travel options.
9:45 am - The man behind the counter quotes a 25 pound rate for a bus ticket back to London. We talk about how that is out of our price range. The man behind the counter overhears and offers us the online deal that he’s not supposed to sell. The bus is set to leave at 11:30 am.
10:00 am - We grab an English Breakfast from a local theater turned pub for 2.99. We rehash the events from the night before.
11:00 am - After learning from past mistakes, we make sure we get to the right bus terminal with plenty of time to spare.
11:20 am - We board the bus and await our departure.
11:30 am - The bus pulls out of the station. It starts to rain. We sleep for the entirety of the ride.
2:45 pm - The driver lets us off near Earl’s Court. We breathe a sigh of relief as our feet safely hit the ground in London.
3:00 pm - We decide this was the best weekend ever.
-Rachel
OH MY GOSH! I’m so relieved that you survived this weekend and didn’t tell me about it until Skype allowed me to see you safe and sound back at Hogarth! I laughed out loud and gasped frequently as I read this. The timeline approach was so helpful. Take care of yourself in these final days abroad! Love, Mom