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Even though Cardiff has grown in the last few years it has managed to keep that small town feel, maybe it's the architecture and the green parks but everything is easy to get to, each part molds into each other, there is so much to explore.
There must be something in the air we breathe as well because Cardiff and Wales are winning everything!
Information on Cardiff can be found on various websites, my favourites are www.visitcardiff.com/ and www.cardiffontheweb.com
Head down Avenue Louise to the Chatelaine area and check out the lovely shops and cafes and, of course, the Art Nouveau architecture (including the Horta museum).
On Wednesday afternoons there is a little market on Place Chatelaine. Le Passiflore cafe, next to Trinity church on Rue Bailly, is a great place for hot chocolate and crepes.
The four-star Radisson SAS EU hotel next to the parliament does very cheap weekend rates for high-quality accommodation, but eat breakfast out to save even more money!
www.hortamuseum.be/
www.radissonsas.com/cs/Satellite?pagename=RadissonSAS/integration/hotelInfo&hotelCode=BRUZR&language=en
Remember, folks! Travel on the weekend from Brussels is half price. Now there's no reason not to visit Ghent, Antwerp or Bruges - in fact, all cities with an Irish theme bar (pretty much every city in Europe, then).
Brussels is an excellent centre for train travel to elsewhere in Belgium. Why not spend a day or two in Namur? Namur has a well-maintained Vauban fortress which is open to the public, and great restaurants. There is also an excellent hotel, the de Flandre, right opposite the train station.
Go out east to Louvain to see the old university and try asparagus in the many restaurants.
Take a train to Ostend, sample many beers and wear comfortable shoes.
As a Bangkok resident I love nothing more than to get out into the Thai countryside. After 20+ visits I've discovered temples in caves, Chinese graves, villages with buffaloes, pot-holing and waterfalls galore. Just head west (and buy a map first so you don't get lost).
Over the river towards the mountains. Get a map and if you have a compass, then all the better. Just ride and enjoy. (one of these days I'll create a map!)
When you hit the needle - like rocks don't stop - follow the path round, this hidden gem is trapped between two hills, one bearing a Jesus graffiti for the purest Catholic within. Just avoid the mud bath.
North of Arambol Beach along the cliffside
One of the most interesting places I've visited. Cycling through Bangkok back roads along canals, taking a local train, then continuing into the countryside, where you can visit farmers, villagers, schoolchildren, temples, markets.
People are very friendly. We had lunch in the simple Thai house of a village head. Participating in a local classroom was also fun and lively, with people trying to speak to us, even though they couldn’t speak English. While cycling, you are surrounded by rice fields everywhere you look. I was blown away.
You can see pictures of our tour here: www.absoluteexplorer.com/share/dailypic.php?year=2006&month=6&day=22
Absolute Explorer Bicycle Safari: tel: +66 (7) 077 9696
email: info@absoluteexplorer.com;
www.absoluteexplorer.com
Plovdiv, 120km out of Sofia - on the airport side, is the place to go to experience the "true" Bulgaria. Or should that be Macedonia? The people here will talk to you for hours about their ancestry, so you may end up slightly confused!
However, confusion is all part of the fun – for example when your table begins to fill up with a lot of the world’s most tantalizing white wines, you are, of course, at first confused at why the Bulgarians export such cheap rubbish while keeping these liquid treasures for themselves, and when lots more start to arrive, you reach the section in your guidebook which reminds you that nodding horizontally is affirmative, so each time you thought you were saying “no”, it was “yes” - you’ll work it out eventually!
So why else Plovdiv?
In the first instance it’s not Sofia – which most locals will lecture you about; “Sofiacentrismus” is a political disease which has caught on since the fall of communism, giving rise to a huge hate and jealousy of the capital which seems is the magnet for FDI, tourism, etc as the government seems to ignore all other areas of the country (apart from the Black Sea resorts).
Secondly, you will get to Plovdiv in a luxury hire car for about $35 per day, faster and more comfortable than to anywhere in the traffic-snarled smog of Sofia, via a rolling carpet of comfortable uncrowded motorway. That should take about 1 hour – no more no less, as speed cops are everywhere pulling the faster cars, but also the slower ones!
Thirdly – it’s cheap! Amazingly cheap! One “Lev” is 50 euro cents, so it’s easy to calculate exchange rates on the go, but when you eat and drink like Donald Trump, do lots of tipping, and count in the accidentally-ordered extras from the nodding errors, and find yourself paying a bill of say 15 LEV (EUR 7.50), your mind is going to reevaluate exactly why you do that commute every day back home!
Fourthly, the people are wonderful, happy and very proficient in English! There is no misery here, so you don’t have to feel like Kofi Annan listening to woes of hard lives, gypsy issues, “fall of the wall”, etc; they are happy – as have been the people here for 3000 years, as would you if you lived in this little part of heaven with beautiful weather all year around, fresh produce abundant in fields and gardens, etc.
Fifthly, the standards here will shock you! As in they are so high! Your ROI brain will wonder how every restaurant and bar can be more stylish than any in Manhattan, and the service more friendly (genuinely as tipping doesn’t feature) and professional at these prices. It’s like Terence Conran was let loose here with one of the Roux brothers as part of a community service operation.
Sixth! There are lots more reasons to visit Plovdiv, lots more reasons to rush there before the Eurocrats get there to impose lots of regulations, and we hope to continue - especially when we start to talk about skiing opportunities here! Meanwhile check the links!
Enjoy!
The world - like life, is not a candy coated pudding! You can't simply read some non-sense from some guy who sat in a bar one afternoon in some foreign place and had 'such a fabulous' time!! If this is what you're looking for then you've missed the whole point of travel and indeed life itself! The greatest moments come when they're least expected, in places you'd never dream of enjoying. The moments in life that stay with us, the most profound and valuable, are those in which we had an emotional link, a bond with special people around us - it's called poetry / art / life / love. You have to get out there and find it for yourself - not sit in front of a computer screen or walk around with your nose in a guide book hoping paradise and 'the most amazing experience of your life' can be reached on the number 56 bus!! My recommendation? Burn the guide books and walk with your eyes and heart open. Find your own moments and places which are special. Other people can not live your life for you!
Look around you!
Walk up to the Perlan for great city views. Then, go down the back side of the hill, past steaming hot springs and down to the hot beach (actually the water outlet from Perlan), then follow the path along the shore and round the back of the domestic airport. It's peaceful, shows you some 'real' Reykjavik as it goes past houses and is a nice way to spend a morning.
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