Travel Notes 5: Cardiff

Previously in Travel Notes: SFO to NYC, Aboard the Queen Mary 2, London, Bristol.

Does Wales have the coolest flag in the world? It’s possible.

The dragon symbol goes back to Roman Britain

Cardiff, the Welsh capital, is a mere one-hour train ride from Bristol, where I’d been staying with friends Jane and Andy. We decided to make a day of it: a journey to a different country with a different language that is also, confusingly, the same country with the same language. To put it in terms a Californian would understand: It’s as though Alta and Baja California were still one seamless territory, and you could travel from San Diego to Tijuana without the border inspection and passport control.

This sign, which greeted us when we embarked at the Bristol Temple Meads railroad station, is all in English, but it still requires a little translation.

“Don’t bring the kitchen sink Kevin. Luggage space is limited — so plan ahead”

“Kevin” appears to have been chosen deliberately. It’s a common enough male name, Celtic in origin, that somehow has acquired pejorative overtones in some quarters. In Germany, Kevinismus is “the negative preconception German people have of Germans with trendy, exotic-sounding first names considered to be an indicator of a low social class.” In France, the New Yorker…