Enter: Wales

Yep. This past week we left England and experienced the wonderful country of Wales. For those who do not know, Wales is on the west side of England, and is a proud little country of their heritage and culture. Kind of like Texas. Except that Wales is a lot prettier than Texas. Anyway we took a very long coach ride to get there, and for some reason I was awake the whole time. But that was ok because I got reading for class done. Yes, I still do work here. We do have class. Anyway, in Wales on the first day we went to this place called St. Fagan's, which is a recreated Celtic village. It was so cool! There are people walking around dressed in period clothes and they talk about the stuff and explain things. It was so fun and I loved it. I love Celtic history and this made it so real! And there were a bunch of school groups there, so we took pictures with some Welsh kids! Getting to know the culture, you know.

Next on our list was a visit to Castell Coch, which is this little castle on the side of a hill close to the border. It was a little smaller than I expected a castle, but quite cozy because of it. And, I got one of the coolest things ever in the gift shop: the necklace that Robin uses in "Robin Hood," with Kevin Costner!! That's one of my favorite movies ever, and when I saw that necklace I just had to have it! I was so excited and it's way cool.

Then that night we stayed in Cardiff in this hostel. My first hostel experience. It actually wasn't that bad. It's just a bunch of rooms with a bunch of beds smashed together. And thankfully humanity is catching up to the hostel world and is requiring cleaner living conditions. So now when you go to your bed there's this little plastic sealed package full of bed that you rip open and make your bed with. Sounds perfect doesn't it? Things are coming along in the cleanliness department, but there's still a little ways to go... I felt ok about my bedding for the most part, there were just a few things stuck on my pillowcase that I didn't think should be there... and didn't know what they were... or wanted to know for that matter. But turning my pillowcase inside out solved that little problem! But a hostel isn't all bad! There was a TV room! The TV didn't work, but the room still existed! So that's a step in the right direction. We ate dinner and breakfst there as well. Not as bad as you'd think actually. Have I enticed you yet to stay at a hostel?

The next day we drove from the bottom of Wales to the very top to Beaumaris. The drive took quite awhile but is was so beautiful! I love Wales. In Beaumaris we saw the castle, which was massive! In the chapel area a bunch of people from our group sang hymns for awhile and it echoed through out the castle, giving it living breath again. It was so beautiful. That night we stayed in this hotel. Yes, an actual hotel that was completely clean and lovely in everyway! That was so great to stay in a hotel and it was right on the beach so the view was incredible. In the evening after settling in we walkled out onto the dock and enjoyed the sights. It was extremely cold, but worth it. Though the next day out coach driver told us that about a year before a bunch of tourists died there because of quick-mud on the beach. You know quick-sand? Yeah, quick-mud is a hundred times worse! I wish he'd warned us about that before we walked out there... So if you go to the Wales beach, don't walk on the mud!

On our last day we drove to Chester, which is actually in England. We were given free rein to explore the city. There were some ancient Roman ruins, a church, and a number of other things. One of our favorite things was the Wishing Steps. It's a bunch of stairs next to the river. You start at the bottom, make a wish, hold your breath, and run up and down the stairs twice without taking a breath. It's pretty intense. But hopefully your wish comes true! After Chester we stopped in Shrewsbury and saw the cathedral there. It has some of the original stones from 1083! Talk about preserved. It was really cool there. Then we drove on to Coventry to visit, you guessed it, another cathedral! But this one has a cool history. The original one was basically destroyed during WWII. But a lot of it is still there. But instead of rebuilding it, they decided to build a brand new one right next to it. But this new one is way different. It's really modern looking, with an oldtime cathedral feeling. It's very interesting to visit because it's like this clash between the very old and the new.

So my introduction to Wales was 3 days and it was awesome! I would love to go backpacking through Wales just because it's so beautiful. Amazing!