The Crawl...

The Swingers and I went to watch The World's End the other day (Bacon Wednesdays) and throughout it, despite being wonderfully refreshed after spending the day with Cherry and Red drinking, eating, and shopping, I couldn't help but get the thirst desperado feeling only a man marooned in the desert gets as he stares at a glass of water he can't reach evaporating. I don't think it helped that the cinema itself was the same temperature as a desert, and the cornettos we had (kindly provided by Cherry) did not help the thirst. If you didn't know, The World's End is essentially (Hi Tag!) about a pub crawl. And if you want to know more you should probably go check out Red's blog here...

But it got me thinking, let's do a crawl of our own. I've not quite figured out the basics, but I think if everyone buys their own drinks it'll avoid arguing over who's round it is. Some generous souls might provide shots throughout (or halfway). And the ladies can drink their own girly drinks (or perhaps Gin and Tonics a la film?). Either way it's got to be the equivalent to a pint's content or whatever. But as for the circuit, I've been thinking about that too. And you know how much I love a good map...

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1. The Westgate

We'll start at the Westgate, not only an obvious starting point, as it is a few steps from our base (Pill and I's house), but also, symbolically, the doorway we all entered the real world and Cardiff from the West (i.e. Carmarthen, Big End, or Ponty).

2. The Gatekeeper

Obviously, as we enter the city, we need to pay the Gatekeeper, and where better to do this than at the home of the man himself?

3. The Queen's Vaults

And then, as we intend to get blind drunk, I think we should pay homage to our country's Royals, starting, obviously with the Queen herself. We should raid the vaults and wet the new Royal's head.

4. O'Neils

Moving swiftly to the Irish Quarter we'll show them what the Welsh are made of and finish our fourth drinks and walk out of there, heads held high, and arms linked in a River Dance.

5. The Prince of Wales

The second Royal to receive our blessing of the evening, the Prince of Wales, our Prince. He shall quench our thirsts and we shall move on.

6. The Great Western

Then we pay homage to the form of transport that carried most of us to this beautiful city. The Great Western, not only our main haunt, but the place we met.

7. Duke of Wellington

Now for the man who helped provide us our freedoms from Europe. A toast to Wellington, and his generals, one of which resided in Carmarthen (hence Monument Hill).

8. The Borough

Then we toast to the Borough we now call home. The great city of Cardiff!

9. The Owain Glyndwr

But let us not forget our past. We are Welsh, we are free, and Owain Glyndwr cemented himself as the icon of our Welsh identity.

10. The Rummer Tavern

A place to remember that we are an island nation, and a great one at that. We shall never forget that Britannia Rules the Waves! 

11. The Goat Major

Our Army's Mascot, the great welsh buck, Royal, Deadly, and Completely Welsh. A toast to that glorious beast.

12. Dempseys

And finally we finish in the oldest establishment in town. The talk of Cardiff since 1720. We finish on the very foundations of a city, and celebrate our triumph with a lot of music and dancing.

How's that for a slice of fried gold? (should that question mark be there?)

Carpe diem...