Mini-Break Weekend

Hello!

Today was the second day of our min-break! It also begins my bit of traveling for the weekend. While some people are in Venice, or Paris, or Rome it's been planned that this is the Doctor Who weekend so to speak. Relatively early, it was off to the train station to catch our train to Cardiff! At the station I got breakfast at this little place called Eat. I ate at Eat once before seeing The Cripple of Inaashman but I hadn't had it since. I'm so glad I did! It's always good!

 After that we got on our train to the wonderful town of Cardiff in Wales! we got there a bit early, so we had lunch at the pub across the street from our hotel. I had a glass of cider and some chips!

Cider is delicious! 

 After lunch we ventured into our hotel to see if we could check in early. Luckily they had a room available for us and we were all checked in and ready to begin our Cardiff Adventures!! The first stop on the agenda? The Doctor Who Experience! Oh I was so excited! It was a bit of a walk from our hotel to the Experience, but it was well worth it. We just followed signs for Cardiff Bay and eventually came upon one of these signs:

Following Daleks. Always a smart idea. 

After following the signs we saw it!

So close yet so far!

 On the way I saw some swans and there ADORABLE babies.

 Then we finally came upon it!

 Jordan tried to tell me we were going to World of Boats that was next door...

I would've said some very unlady like words

 But luckily for all involved we were actually going to the Doctor Who Experience!!!

I was so excited!

 When we got inside it was fantastic! Everything was Doctor Who. I was in heaven.

Inside walls

DALEK MADE OF LEGOS I CAN'T EVEN!

A little bit of science 

We had to wait a bit in the lobby, but after that we were queued up to go in. When the nice gentleman (who looked a bit like Rory Williams) scanned our tickets the ticket scanner became unhappy. We learned that Jordan had brought our tickets for Thursday while we were at the beautiful Highclere Castle instead of Friday. But not to fret! We were allowed in anyway! Thank you Rory Williams look-alike/tour guide!

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the actual Experience, but we could take as many pictures in the exhibit as we wanted. The experience itself was super cool! I'm sure if I was a little kid I would have been completely involved, because even as an adult I enjoyed it immensely. I mainly looked at how everything was done, but it was still super cool! We were sat down in a room and the video was projected on a wall. I looked at the wall thinking, "Gosh. So many people come here you'd think they'd be able to get the cracks in the wall fixed." And then I just kinda made these faces:

THE CRACKS IN THE WALL LIT UP AND THEN OPENED UP!!! My mind was so happy I could've screamed, however I was trying to keep my cool...for the kids sake.

After that it was picture time frenzy! It must be noted that I really like costumes...so I took pictures of most of them...

Gentleman Doctor

Classy Doctor

Classy Gentleman Doctor

Eccentric Doctor

Cricket Playing Doctor

Colorful Doctor

Question Mark Sweater Vest Doctor

1800s Playboy Doctor

NINE!!!

Oh Tennant...Doctor

Me and Nine! 

Me and my First Doctor

Time And Relative Dimension In Space

Matt Smith wax figurine 

Precious and I

I love them so!

Older TARDIS set

TARDIS keys

                                      

3rd Doctor's Screwdriver

4th and 5th Doctor's Screwdriver

7th and 8th Doctor's Screwdriver

9th and 10th Doctor's Screwdriver

11th Doctor's Screwdriver

Sonic Cane from Let's Kill Hitler

Where the Wire was trapped in The Idiot's Lantern

Used in Vincent and the Doctor

Prop Selfie

Inside the TARDIS

Wish I had a full picture of me here!

TARDIS design winner from The Doctor's Wife

Sexy, I mean Idris. Love her costume

David Tennant wore these pajamas...

Above shot

 After exploring downstairs I headed upstairs for the second part of the exhibit. It was super cool!

An Ood!

I love the Ood!

Creepy guy from The Beast Below

Silurian

I like the Silurians too!

The Face of Boe

 This is the point where I tried to get a selfie with The Face of Boe and failed miserably. Luckily, a dad took pity on me and asked if I wanted help getting the picture. I said yes please and he snapped this one!

Thank you nice guy!

The Family of Blood Scarecrow

Scary guy...

Me and a Potato head...I mean...Sontaran 

Cyberman walk into the club thinking he cool

 

Creepy 1st version of Cybermen

Weird...

A Christmas Carol freezer!

A Christmas Carol Chair

Alex Kingston has touched this prop...

I want my babies to have a cradle like this

Handbot from The Girl Who Waited

I'm not authorized...

Trapped Cyberman

 There was this cool Dalek that was cut in half! Apparently in some of the Daleks people are actually inside controlling the plunger and whisk! That would be a fun job...

Inside the Dalek

A pretty Dalek

The prettiest Dalek of all

Nefertiti from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship...she was tiny 

Doctor Simeon  

Oh Matt Smith...

Top Hats are for gentleman 

Don't blink

Don't even blink

Oswin Oswald 

2nd Clara 

So tiny

Madame Vastra! So cool!

Dolls from Night Terrors

Rose Tyler

Captain Jack Harkness...his costume is posed in a very John Barrowman way

Good Ol' Martha Jones

Donna Noble!!

I love me some Donna!

Oh Rory Pond

Precious baby

Amelia Pond

Sarah Jane!

K-9

RIVER SONG MY BABY!!!

WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE?! 

The closest I'll get to a picture with her...

Stop it River

River stahp...

Adorable Astrid Perth

Mister Sweet's saying hi

Upgraded?!?

Nightmare in Silver

Costumes from the big 1940s musical scene from season 3

From one of the Doctor Who Christmas Specials

More costumes

Awwwww! 

Can I have this framed on my wall please?

My babies!

Also my babies

The Pandorica

Time Lord swag

Gallifreyan 

The question mark is 2013. You hear that? That's my heart weeping a thousand tears...

 It was so cool to see all the props and costumes. Most of the stuff they had out was original or refurbished originals! Gah! I loved every moment of it. I could've spent a lot of money in the gift shop...but I resisted and got my poster of the exploding TARDS that I'll buy a fancy frame for someday and hang in my future home above the fireplace.

After that we ventured off into Cardiff to explore a bit around the bay.

A cute cottage food place

A seagull

A ship restaurant 

A black swan

Is that... 

Torchwood! 

On the way out we passed by this sign! I had to stop and take a picture, not necessarily because I like the show. See, I met Boyfriend while we were both doing a production of Pirates of Penzance one summer...so it's kinda special even if it's not my favorite show. 

 Apparently the next day Jordan said she saw that it was actually playing the night we were in Cardiff...and I didn't see it...Carrying on.

A picture of the pub across the street

 After the Doctor Who Experience I went out and took part of a favorite past time: thrifting. First I went to an Antique Store around the corner where I got 3 45s for two pounds! One was Elvis, one was Cha Cha Cha and Charleston led by Victor Silvester, and one South Pacific that I figured, why not? After that I went to two thrift stores right around the corner from the hotel! I ended up picking up a pair of saddle shoe heals for 4 pounds fifty pence which comes out to about 8 dollars which is fantastic since most of the time they sell for at least 40 dollars for a good pair! And they're my big foot size!! I had to.

After thrifting I settled into the hotel before it was time to go to dinner. We walked down the main road and found a restaurant called Harvesters where we decided to eat.

 The salt shaker only had one hole while the pepper had three...not cool.

Pasta

That beauty up there was called a Rocky Horror. As it's name suggests, it was sinfully fantastic! It had wafers on top with fudge bits sprinkled in the whipped cream. Below the whipped cream was delicious Cornish ice cream followed by a layer of fudge cake and chocolate sauce. My God it was so good.

After that I watched a bit of Sherlock on the BBC before heading off to bed for Saturday!

SATURDAY

We started Saturday bright and early to go to Cardiff Castle right when it opened. On the way we passed by the Cardiff Markets and browsed around a bit. Everything was just opening though, so we went on to the castle to return after our adventure. 

Peacocks at Cardiff Castle

Using my audio tour guide

 One cool part of Cardiff Castle was the World War II  tunnels! Most of these pictures are neat signs...but it's still super cool!

Entrance

I liked this one!

Radio

This one was cute

Also cool

Especially cool

We need to bring cobblestones back

What the room would've looked like

The bathroom! 

I don't get along with spiral staircases  

 After the wartime tunnels and the fortress with the moat, we went into the house part of the castle. It was really ornate and pretty!

I LOVED this fireplace. A castle inside a castle? Yes please

There were so many nooks in this castle...built for me

It even had a library!

With monkeys! 

More nooks 

 After the inside of the house we went outside to see if we had seen everything. We saw the gallows and had to take pictures in them, and a nice guy dressed in Medieval wear took our picture for us! Afterward Jordan made a coin for  a pound. I would've as well, but I didn't have a pound coin. He still gave me a coin though! He was super nice!

I love this picture

 We then headed to the gift shop to see if we could find some goodies! Instead we found a little museum!

I love old pictures

I also love drawings...

And shiny things...

Cyberman?

Teehee

Ok...so it's German propaganda...but it's pretty German propaganda

 There was an area in the museum where you could try on different uniforms! If I had had the time I probably would've tried them all on. However, with limited time I picked my favorite ones and took a picture.

I felt like Captain Jack Harkness

 And then when I was taking it off I decided that another picture needed to be snapped.

It turned out better than expected! 

 After that we headed back to the market for some food and general time wasting!

There's no ham so it's not cheating

 After the market we had to wait a bit for our train to Manchester

 When we did get on the train it quickly became apparent that what I had thought was a two hour train ride was actually 3. Whoops. I snacked a bit on the train...

These were gross 

After arriving in Manchester we checked into our hotel and made our way towards the center of Manchester. Why are you in Manchester? That's so random. No it's not dear people because of a special thing called the Manchester International Festival's production of Macbeth starring Kenneth Bronaugh and a fabulous Alex Kingston!!! I would've loved to see it live, but the showing sold our in nine minutes before Alex Kingston was even announced to be playing Lady Macbeth...so I figured it wasn't going to happen. WRONG! They actually had a live relay at a car park in Manchester! Tickets were purchased and that's why we trekked through the city of Manchester. 

We ended up taking Manchester's version of a subway called the Metrolink. It was more like a trolley, but it got us where we needed to be. And look what I found at the station!

I didn't mean to cut out Kenneth's name...my inner fangirl was so happy!

 It was meant to be. Once we got to the center of town the agenda was to find food, a bathroom, and ice cream. Also, we arrived in the midst of everyone leaving Comic Con! Everyone was dressed up in cool costumes and I wished I could've been a part of it! One year I'll put together a costume and go (though I could've just tried to pull of Catwoman like I did this Halloween)

Alas, I don't just carry around my Catwoman costume materials where ever I go, so I was left out of the fun. Perhaps another year I'll get to go to a real life Comic Con and dress up and just generally be happy because I've realized going to one is now on my bucket list after being on tumblr all day and seeing the amazing stuff happening in San Diego. It needs to happen. Anyways, we ventured onward.

Found it on the way to dinner

We ended up stopping at an Italian restaurant because Italian food is always a good idea. Jordan and I walk in and the guy up front asks us if we had reservations. At this point I get worried that we might not even be able to eat here because one: apparently reservations are a thing and two: it seemed a lot fancier than it had appeared from the outside. Luckily we got a table and didn't feel too awkward once we were sitting down. Though I had trouble figuring out forks and stuff...I just winged it.

 But the food was so good! I got some penne stuff with aubergine (which I just googled and apparently it's eggplant). I didn't eat the eggplant though. My friend thought it was a potato so I tried it and found it not to be a potato and to be too squishy for my liking. I just ate around it! Still very good!

Awkwardly underdressed

 On the way to find a bathroom I passed by a magic bus! Which reminded me of The Magic School Bus so I had to snap a quick picture.

 After going to Mcdonald's for bathroom we found a cute little gelato place and I was SOLD! I had been craving gelato my whole time here in London and I still haven't found a place, but Manchester quickly won my heart over. I got caramel and cream and chocolate and cream and it was HEAVENLY!

I wanted to live inside of it forever

 After gelato we moved off to go the car park where we would be viewing Macbeth. There was a very nice lady to give us directions and a map!

 When we arrived there were already a lot of people having picnics and waiting in just as much excitement as me!

 We got in and settled down. Jordan went off to find out how much programs cost while I adjusted.

Kingston was there to keep me company!

When she returned with news that they cost 3 pounds I practically threw my money at the lady handing them out. They were so pretty!!

 Before I could start getting a real good look, we moved a bit closer.

Great view and the sound was so loud it made my insides vibrate

 The inside had some pretty pictures!!!

 I don't understand how a human being is allowed to be that amazing.

 There was a cute car parked just outside the gate.

Kingston and I enjoying our program!  

I tried them for the first time!

My first attempt at getting an Alex Kingston picture, but the Weird Sisters were cool too

It was ok! It needed a heavier beverage than water to have with it though

Fantastic candy was fantastic

WHY ARE YOU SO PRETTY?!?

 The performance was fantastic! Everyone in the cast did such a wonderful job. I'm not usually a fan of Shakespeare just because it's hard for me to stay engaged the whole time, but for a good 87% of the time I understood what was going on and wasn't in the least bit distracted. My favorite scenes included the first and last times you see Lady Macbeth. The first because Alex Kingston was...well...let's just say there was a muddy hand print somewhere not expected and the last because her sleepwalking scene was just great! It was intense and just...I can't even begin to do it justice. If there's a screening of Macbeth near you I highly recommend it! It was stunning!

After that we went back to the hotel to sleep! We caught an early train back to London this morning. I had a bit of fruit salad and discovered that my Kit Kat bar was all separately wrapped. It was precious to think I couldn't eat it all at once.

After we got back Jordan and I went off to the store to grab some essentials to hold me off the rest of the week. On the way we stopped by a cool candy store for some candy!

I also picked up Subway.

And after that I didn't do much. I wrote up the rest of this blog, I talked to Boyfriend...oh! I also just finished doing my own laundry for the first time! That was exciting.

After all my stuff was dry I started unloading. My timing, however, worked out to where the guy next to me was also unloading. The majority of my laundry included underwear and bras, stuff I generally choose not to show other boys. So I awkwardly folded a pair of shorts for longer than necessary before he left and I just shoved it all in my bag before walking back to my room...where I cooked dinner...it's getting too domestic here all of a sudden. I suppose it's time to head off to bed. One more day of the mini-break left! 

Thanks for listening!

-Pat