Day Six: Cardiff

Sarah and I got up stupidly early to take a train to Cardiff. Only one thing could be so enticing as to trump sleep: The Doctor Who Experience. On our way there, we slept through idyllic English countryside and had the worst hot chocolate on the face of the planet (you know how with instant hot chocolate you get clumps of chocolatey goodness at the bottom? Yeah, the chunks were slimy and totally flavorless). After a few hours, we arrived in the rather brisk capitol city of Wales. There, we discovered the Roald Dahl Plass, a place with special meaning for any Torchwood-watcher.

We then had a mediocre breakfast and followed the very nice cashier lady's directions to the giant blue building that houses the Doctor Who Experience. The way it works is that you're touring a museum in a future when suddenly the Doctor, trapped in the Pandorica, says that he needs our help even though we're a inferior subset of humans known as "shoppers". The TARDIS is revealed and we walk through the doors. We go through a whole adventure involving Daleks and Weeping Angels before finally rescuing the Doctor. It was very cool. It was also a bit odd because there was no one who wasn't either a young child or a parent. Apparently teenagers in the UK aren't generally as goofy and fannish; there are playgrounds that are prohibited for anyone above 12. It's weird and kind of unfortunate because we like playgrounds too. Anyways, then we went through the museum section and took lots of pictures-

We were quite impressed. We then went to the gift shop and wanted ALL THE THINGS, but the really cool part was that we met an old English man who was both surprised and excited to know that Doctor Who has become popular in America. 

The food court there seemed alright, so we ordered chocolate milkshakes. They turned out to be puddings and not even vaguely milkshakey, so we decided to go to Eddie's Diner. The diner was used to film part of The Impossible Astronaut, so it's a popular spot for Whovians like us. It was a bit odd seeing an American style diner decked out with as much Americana as they can fit into a room. We ordered cheesy fries and chocolate and "fruity" shakes from our waiter, who was quite charismatic and sweet. Unfortunately, the food was not as good as he was.

The fries were fine, but the cheesiness was was just nacho cheese, making them thoroughly soggy. The shakes were worse. Sarah's chocolate tasted fake and ages old, whereas mine tasted like sugared-up cough syrup. Also a bit like vomit. As you can see in the picture, the shakes separated into two parts after a while, there's the milky looking stuff on top and the weird chemically stuff on the bottom. Mmmm, appetizing. We didn't want to make them feel bad though, so we steeled ourselves and ate half of the fries and as much milkshake as we could handle. We essentially drank them as if we were taking shots- quickly and trying not to let it touch our taste buds. 

Food aside, Cardiff is a beautiful city and the Doctor Who Experience was everything I hoped for. It was a good day :)