Beach At The Bay

Perhaps you remember Cardiff Bay from last year. Cardiff in fact sits on the water and while there is the city center and such, the part on the water is called Cardiff Bay. Imagine that. It is a 2 minute and 36 second train ride from city centre or you can walk 10 minutes through what I have decided is little Somalia, and arrive at the swanky, modern buildings overlooking the bay. The City of Cardiff uses the Bay for different festivals and events all year round. It was the Food Festival last time but yesterday, Lukas and I went to the Bay for ice cream and instead stumbled upon a makeshift tropical paradise.

Lukas explained to me that the current weather (hanging around in the mid-seventies) is quite the heat wave in these parts. In fact, the stores have sold out of fans. The city decided to put The Beach together for people to enjoy the weather. They brought in sand and beach chairs, pools, lazy rivers, and tiki huts selling daiquiris and pina coladas. I thought this was just the cutest thing. They were playing reggae music and the workers wore tropical shirts. How sweet of a city to do such a thing.

Even last year I got the feeling that Cardiff is good to it's people. There are always little things going on here or there and often times they are free so that everyone can enjoy. But most of all, I love that the city bothers to plant trees and flowers and make things look nice and clean all over the city. It's a 20 minute walk into the city for Lukas to go to work everyday. Usually he walks through the park, which you would expect to be just grass and a couple trees. But oh no. It's a well conceived and maintained garden. It is 130 acres of flowers, trees, sport fields, dog parks, and benches with perfect views. It's just so pretty. I ventured out yesterday to photograph it for you but I was distracted by all the hubbub and trying to remember to walk on the left side, that I didn't want to clog up the trail to take picutres. I'll try again later.

We walked through the park on our way back from the "beach" and saw this strange radiating sunset. Pictures don't do it justice. It was "brilliant" as they say in these parts.