Wales: One More Adventure...Day 1

Today is Monday, which means last night I returned home from Wales. Wales was a nice break from London and the other cities that Alan and I have visited so far. There were green hills, full grown trees, grass, and sheep. Lots of sheep. In fact, Wales reminded me a lot of Central PA, if you replace all the cows with sheep. And maybe add twice as many.

We left London pretty early after stopping to pick up some kids from other study abroad programs. On the motorway, we stopped at a reststop, which pretty much killed every American reststop. We got really tasty breakfast sandwiches there and some food for Lunch. Then we got back on the bus and drove towards Caerphilly. Once there, we ate lunch and then got a tour of the castle and some time to explore. It was a pretty cool castle, and fairly intact, despite spending much of its time not in use. Our tourguide was friendly and knowledgeable and told some interesting stories about the place and the people who had stayed there. The weather was beautiful, and we were all pretty sad to get back on the bus.

We didn't have nearly enough time to explore as I would have liked, and the happened pretty much everywhere we went on the trip. We spent far too long on a bus, and the weather was pretty enough to make me really want to be walking outside. But we did get to see a lot of different places that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. In the gift shop at Caerphilly, I bought an air freshener made from sheep poo paper. Its pretty sweet!

Anyway, after Caerphilly, we went to an outdoor museum of Welsh life. It was kind of like Williamsburg or a tour of the Amish community or something similar, as houses and business from ancient to modern Wales had been transported there. All the houses were decorated appropriately and had people working in them to explain things. There was also a sheep farm and because its spring there were lots of baby lambs! We got to watch one stand up for the first time and they were adorable!!

After our trip to the museum, we headed to Cardiff, the capitol city of Wales. This was the only place where we had a sufficient amount of time to explore. We walked around the city a bit before finding a place to eat. We ate in a nice little pub called the Goatmajor, and it had pictures of goats on the wall and stuff, which I find appropriate considering the number of sheep in the country. The people who worked there were really nice and the food was very cheap and delicious. There, Brittany ordered a half pint of Brains, the Welsh beer that everyone there drinks. She let me try a sip, and it reminded me of the Paulner beer from Munich, but I wasn't a big fan. Instead, Alan and I got, on her recommendation, half pints of Strongbow, a cider that is actually really good. We sat there and talked for a while, watching a bit of the Rugby on TV.

The rugby was cool. The Welsh are really big into it and their team had played and won a game earlier in the day. So, the whole city was out celebrating in Rugby shirts or costumes or drag...yeah, I dunno. But the city was pretty wild with excitement, and we watched some of the Irish-Scottish game. I don't really understand the rules, but it was fun to watch.

After dinner, we walked around some more down to Cardiff's main stadium, and then we headed back to the hotel, where Brittany and Alan tought me to play rummy. We played one game and I won!! Yay, beginners luck! It was pretty exciting. I should mention the hotel though. It was an interesting place. I shared a room with Brittany and the room had bunk beds. But they weren't normal bunk beds. The bottom bed was a double bed, and the top bunk was turned the opposite direction, sideways above the double. Brittany offered to sleep on the top, so I got the double bed, which to my surprise was far too big. I've become so used to sleeping in tiny little hostel beds or my twin bed here that a bed that size was just too much. It was also hard. It was a foam mattress, like one that you leave an indent in after you have sat in one spot for a while, but at first didn't give at all. I layed down without realizing and it was like laying on the floor.

The toilet was also weird because it was in a closet. A teeny-tiny little closet that I bumped my elbows on everytime I tried to move. And the light reminded me of a spotlight on stage. It was awkward. Not as much so as the shower though, which I didn't use. The shower was attached to the main room, not separate. It had a frosted glass swinging door, so you could kind of see in from like the beds or sink or stuff. It wasn't a big deal, it was just unusual.

So, we went to bed and that was the first part of my journey in the beautiful country of Wales. I have class soon, so I'll give you the info on day 2 a bit later.