Caerphilly Castle and Ladies Day with the Cardiff Blues

Hello everyone,

I apologize if my blogging has fallen a bit to the wayside; as easter break approaches, the work has begun to rapidly increase, which I suppose is understandable.

This past weekend, Jackie and I went to the lovely Caerphilly castle, a mere 30 minute train ride away (I LOVE trains). This is one of the largest castles in the UK and is certainly a site to see. It has a wall within a wall within a wall structure that kept it very well protected from invading hoards. We wandered around the castle grounds for an hour or so, and then, to our surprise, it started to rain! Now, many of you may be thinking, doesn't it rain a lot in Wales? That is what they say, but we have been blessed with almost no rain at all. I can count on one hand the number of times it has rained here. Im looking out the window now at another blue sky day. Anyway, we sat out the rain while eating our packed lunches, then set out for a walk. A couple of weeks ago, we bought these great little guide books that have a number of short distance walks in the Cardiff area. Its nice to have, since Jackie and I love to hike so much, and Jackie is always in search of a nice view. We found some sort of trail, though it didnt quite match up with the one in the book. It didn't really matter; we had a nice walk around the woods, and even got to pet some cute horses.

On Sunday, I had lunch and wandered around downtown with Laura and Ken before meeting the rest of the group to go to a Cardiff Blues rugby match. We found a really awesome rugby paraphenalia store that had a bar where I got to eat the best welsh cake I have had so far. We met up with the rest of the group and took the shuttle to the stadium, where we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was Ladies Day! This meant that all the girls in the study group (of which there are A LOT) got 5 pound tickets instead of 10, and the Blues played in their away jerseys, which are pink. We were also very excited to sit in the section that was completely warmed by the sun (another perfectly blue sky day!). The game itself was very fun to watch, even though rugby is a lot more complicated any other sport I have ever watched. I have recently become quite a sports fan, and I really enjoyed rooting for the Blues, even though we lost.