Good morning, Vagabuddies.
We have been traveling around Wales
for the last week, and we're going to
finish things strong here in the capital
of Wales, Cardifff.
It's a beautiful sunny day, and we have
24 hours to make the most here in Cardiff.
We're going to do a bunch of stuff, but
it's early so first things first....
coffee.
This morning we didn't really know
where to get a coffee, so we tweeted
out for recommendations, and a guy
named Peanut Turner, whose Twitter
handle is Peanut Is Mint, recommended
this place, Coffee Barker
in the Castle Quarter Arcade.
It's pretty cool.
It's a beautiful, old building
and this super "vibey" little coffee shop.
We've gotten some avo toast with egg.
Mark got some bacon and sausage,
a cortado and a flat white,
and it's just really cool when you guys
get to tell us where to go and you give
us these stellar recommendations.
Thank you Peanut Turner.
We're right across the street from
Cardiff Castle,
which we're going to explore next.
One of the main features of Cardiff are
all these Edwardian and Victorian
arcades, not like video game arcades,
but arcades as in covered malls
with natural sunlight, which is cool
because even if it's raining,
you can still explore all these shops,
and it makes it feel like it's a bit sunnier
than it could be.
We just got to Cardiff Castle,
which has been the center of town
since Roman times when they built a
fort here. It's pretty cool because there
very distinct layers of history in this
castle complex.
The Romans founded it.
In 1066 when the Normans came,
they built the Castle Keep, which is in
the center of the castle complex.
In the 1800s, the Victorians updated the
whole thing with their very unique flair.
There're some really quirky things in the
Victorian side of the building, but first
we're going to check out the Norman
Castle Keep.
It's pretty awesome....great view up here
from the top of the castle keep.
Obviously, this was a strategic location.
They would have been able to see all
the surrounding countryside to
protect from invasion.
Pretty crazy to think that the Normans,
which were Vikings who invaded France,
went on to invade England and
also Wales.
It's pretty nuts that they made it
all the way here.
It's just crazy that there are so many
castles in Wales.
It has 600 castles, which is more than
any other country in Europe.
And it points to that history,
what you just said, of this being
an area that fought off occupation from
the Romans, the Normans, and the English.
Castles like these are present in
every single city, in every single town.
That was part of what was needed at
the time to make military stability here.
At this point in the 1800s,
this part of the castle, the whole castle,
was owned by the Buede family.
The Buede family at the time was the
richest family in Europe and possibly
the world, and that was because of coal exporting.
The hills behind Cardiff are big
coal mining communities.
And this family grew extremely rich
through mining.
You can see the opulence of this room
is a product of that......
a testament to how wealthy they were.
They built this room called the
Arab Room. It was designed by the
architect William Burgess,
and it was inspired by his travels through
the Orient, the French Orientalist style.
Even though this is on a small scale,
it's incredibly opulent.
It's incredibly detailed.
And all this gold.......
it's not just gold paint, it's real gold.
What's cool about this room is that
it has a very interesting blend of
oriental and European styles.
You get images of animals
and things that just would not appear
in Islamic artwork.
It's kind of awesome to have a blend of
these two styles.
It's not known how much this costs,
but it would have been millions.
It's just so impressive to see.
We're outside the castle now,
and another cool thing is the animal
wall here, which was built by the same
family in the 1890s.
They made all these cool statues.
It was like a zoo, kind of thing here
on the wall.... a little seal, an orangutan.
That's not an orangutan; it's a baboon.
Let us know. If you had your own animal
wall, what animal would you put on
the wall? Basically, we're asking you
what is your spirit animal? Let us know.
According to an online quiz, I am an owl.
And I am a hawk!
Right guys...the day continues.
We're on our way to meet up with Sian
from Loving Welsh Foods
who's going to take us to the Cardiff
indoor market and give us a little break
down on some traditional Welsh food.
What's the story behind this market?
This was over 200 years ago where
all the farmers used to come and sell
their cattle and sheep.
Nowadays, it just a quirky center with
food shops, material shops, gift shops.
But you can still get food, right?
Yes, loads of food.
What types of traditional Welsh foods
can you find in this market?
We're going to try lava bread, which is
our Welsh seaweed.
It has nothing to do with actual...like..
molten lava? No.
We're then going to try some lovely
cheeses. We've got a hundred different
cheeses in Wales.
We have a nice little spread....
four different cheeses.
We'll be starting from the softest to the
strongest. This is like a
Welsh take on brie.
Bon appetite.
Hmm. It's good.
I love cheese...you might know this.
The stinkier, the better.
This is Perl Las, which is
Welsh for "Blue Pearl."
We've officially found the coolest shop
in the market.
Marko's got himself a bit of a top hat.
I've got myself a little bowler hat.
Nice to meet you.
This is my steampunk version
with a stove hat. What do you think?
We are going to hop on a
water taxi and try to catch the sunset.
Now we're down at the water front.
This wharf was the point of export for
all the natural oars, minerals
and coal that was mined inside Wales.
It was put on canals and barges and
exported from here around the world.
Time for a drink.
Alex always likes to say.......
"Well day has turned into night,
and it's time to put the nosebag on
and have some dinner."
Cardiff is known very much for its
nightlife, but we're going to start off in
this place called the Potted Pig,
which has 36 types of gin, a great
G&T, and serves up some amazing food.
I've got the Brecon gin, which is
from Penderyn, the distillery we visited
yesterday in Brecon Beacons.
Very nice.
I got the Heyman's Old Tom
which is a recipe from the 1870s.
It's got hints of elderberry and mint.
And I just like saying "elderberry."
The space in here is really cool;
we're underground, and this used to be
vaults of a bank.
It's a really cool atmosphere.
We ordered the duck and the lamb,
both are Welsh, and they look delicious.
We've got two more gin and tonics,
and it's time to eat.
All right, Brother. Cheers.
Last pint of the trip.
At least we're doing it in one of Wales'
best craft breweries at Tiny Rebel.
It's been an incredible trip so far.
The last week has been eye opening.
It's been an adventure through a corner
of the U.K. that we've never experienced
before.
We knew a couple things about Wales.
We didn't know very much.
We knew that the language was unique,
that the culture was very old and
very different from the rest of the U.K.
And we knew that Wales was wild
and beautiful.
One of the foundations of Vagabrothers
as a travel channel is the idea that
the world is a cultural mosaic;
that every single place is a different tile,
slightly different look at the world.
I think that a lot of foreigners, at least
back home in the States,
they kind of look at the U.K. as this
monolithic/ single culture.
It's so much more diverse than people
realize.
We learned a lot. We saw some really
cool traditions. We had a ton of fun.
The world's fastest zipline was pretty crazy.
What was the best moment for you?
I really like Conwy. I liked Conwy Castle.
I just loved the situation of the town
with the castle on the estuary and the
mussels that we had right afterwards.
Yum. That was really cool.
Fore me, personally, driving through
Snowdonia, seeing the snow capped hills,
stumbling upon those wild horses.
Foraging....foraging, yeah.
That was so cool.
Anyways, guys, we're curious to hear
what your favorite moments were.
Don't hesitate to drop a comment.
Let us know what your favorite moment
of the trip was, what your favorite
vlog was. Make sure to tag your friends.
Give this video a thumbs-up if you
enjoyed it, if you enjoyed the series.
Remember to subscribe and turn on
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Big thanks to Visit Britain and Visit Wales
for helping us make this series possible.
Stay tuned for bonus material.
We've made a video about trying to
pronounce some Welsh town names,
which we are going to do very, very poorly.
In the meantime, stay curious, keep
exploring, and we'll see you on the road.
Cheers.