Surviving the chavs in Barry!

Off to Barry > a seaside town about 8km from here. It's an interesting place with good parts, and some horrible ones! Here's my guide to enjoyment... and survival on your day trip!

 

It's divided into three parts: The Town, which is run down & chav infested, and characterized by vile, aggressive, baggy, ill-fitting tracksuits & faded Burberry baseball caps. They're often drunk - and frequently cause problems, vandalism, fights, etc. Hideous, and smelly too. All the shops - those that remain open - have bars and shutters protecting their windows, and at night, it's a place very definitely to avoid - especially if you're not an obvious chav.

 


Barry Island is much more pleasant - with lots of walks, fantastic beaches and very much what you'd expect in a small seaside town. sadly, there are those awful places called 'amusements', where nothing even vaguely amusing has ever been known to happen. They should be closed IMMEDIATELY under the terms of the Trades Descriptions Act!

There ARE chavs here too, but there's usually so many other people around that even if you look a bit 'alternative', you're fairly safe, especially if you keep a low profile. The ones in the picture smelt of a strange mix of Lynx Africa, Special Brew, stale tobacco & dried urine. Interesting...

You can still get lunches for £2.99 & cups of tea for 50p, though I did once get full scale food poisoning after risking a cheap Sunday roast. Mistake.

 

Then, there are the properly nice places - The Knapp, an isolated cove used by surfers & windsurfers, often when the sea is quite wild. It can actually get quite packed when the wind's up, and the sea is rough - and there are several rescues each year. There are no chavs by day, but they are rumored to gather in cars at night. Watch out for pecking swans: they sit on the lake and can be FEROCIOUS.


There's a headland, rather like Sand Point over in Weston-s-Mare (England) and lots of parks, suitable for families & small children. Romilly Park is probably the best. There are cliffs for the more energetic, and an ice cream van which also sells hot dogs!

Time to fire up the Skoda.. I'm off!