Am I in Las Vegas, or Cardiff?

Wales definitely feels like another country. Being in Scotland felt generally the same as England and Northern Ireland, except they had thick accents that could be hard to understand. Here though, in Cardiff everything feels different, the people, the town, and the overall atmosphere. The second I stepped off the train, I had to do a double take because all of the signs were in welsh, and I had to search for English translations. That led caused me to take forever to find my way out of the station, and managed to get what I thought was completely lost. Walking down the Main Street looking for my hostel was another complete shock. The amount of people out drinking in the streets at 3pm and the ruckus from sports games, the women and men shopping and out for a good day of fun almost made me feel like what I imagine Vegas to be like. I found my hostel checked in, where I have a lovely spacious room with all females, and I met two really sweet girls, one from Berlin and one from  Zurich. then went to a pub for some food, and instantly met a couple from Gloucester who talked to me while I ate. They were just spending a weekend in Cardiff for a change of scenery, and a weekend away. They were an older couple in their later 50's and they were kind and had many life stories to share which included some stories about bad chicken from meat markets, and talk about Camden town.

Since I was eating at a spanish bar, all of the dishes sounded unfamiliar to me, and I asked the couple for a recommendation. when I got my meal, these suckers came out, and I got a lesson in how to eat crawdads.When I went back to my hostel I hung out in the common room just to see if I could meet some people. I met a group of guys who were gushing about my American accent and invited me to go to the strip club with them, and I politely refused. Then after they got up to go get ready a hairdresser from Cardiff that is friends with the owner of the hostel came and sat down next to me and started talking about how he was going to take me out to his favorite bars, I wasn't completely comfortable with him though, and thankfully Antonia a girl from Germany that was staying in the same room as me came in and saved me. We decided to let him show us a local pub which was actually really neat, and something we never would have found on our own. After listening to a live band there, we decided to ditch the hairdresser and go find cheesy food. We found some Mozzarella sticks and French fries and ate them while discussing our next plan. The thing about Cardiff night life, is it's even more insane than it is in the day. There were bachelor and bachelorette parties happening left and right, literally all over the place, and there were people in costumes, and people in fancy suits all just walking up and down the streets. You had your normal guys and girls dressed up for a night out, and you even had some guys just walking around in thongs. It was really completely different from anything I had ever seen. Even just walking down the street talking to Antonia I was stopped multiple times by people wanting to talk to me because of my American accent. After we had our cheesy food we decided to head back to the hostel but met these girls who got us into this club for free. There we met these guys from wales that were celebrating a friends birthday but the friend wasn't around. We talked to them for a while and they took us to another local place that was really nice and Antonia and I got to dance some before deciding it was time to go back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, the original group of guys were there and were asking us where we had been, we told them we had gone to multiple places and they started begging us to go for another beer. It was 2 am at this point and we were both ready for bed, so we just went up to our room. Not even 5 minutes later there was knocking on our door and multiple guys telling for us to go get a beer. Luckily everyone was still out and it was just me and Antonia in there so they were disturbing anyone. They continued to knock and plead for about 15 minutes before they realized we weren't coming out. Hanging out with another girl was nice for a change, and we even got up and had pancakes together for breakfast. Maybe I will meet back up with her in Ireland, because she is thinking about heading that way around the same time I am. Today I found a park right along side a river directly behind the castle, and I've got plans to read, catch up on homework and have a nice relaxing Sunday in the warm sunny weather. 

Cardiff has been an experience and in curious to see if it calms down during the week, or if this place is always this crazy.