Cymru

"Cymru" means "Wales" in Welsh. All the signs in Wales have everything written in Welsh and English. Their flag is quite new and they don't seem to make fun of the English as much as Scots do. This tour had quite a bit of people on it because it is part of the Social Programme that I signed up for through the University of Westminster. My tour guide's name is Susannah, but she obviously spells her name wrong. ;-) The place where everyone had to meet was right around the corner from my dorm, so it was really convenient for me! I sat on the coach (which had a really bad smell pumped into it- a mixture of coconut and vanilla. Totally nasty) and roomed with my Danish friend Lene. I actually met her the first week at orientation because we were put in the same group. I also met another Danish guy named Anders and a girl from Chicago named Kaitlin. I see Kaitlin at least twice a week because we have a couple of classes together and it turns out that she became friends with my flatmate Phil. But anyway, Lene is a sweet girl and I hadn't seen her in quite a while so it was nice to spend a lot of the weekend with her. Entering into Wales, we went over a new bridge over the River Severn which was unveiled in 1997 by Prince Charles. The older one wavered too much in a crosswind and if they had shut it, you would have to drive north 30 extra miles (or km, I don't remember which). Our first stop was at the Caerleon Roman Barracks and Amphitheatre. The barracks weren't amazingly impressive but the amphitheater was nice. The Romans used to have gladiators there and it could seat 6,000 people. They tried to get some vicious animals like bears and bulls, but sometimes they just had to use cows. Next we went to Caerphilly Castle built by Edward I (Longshanks) who lived mostly at the end of the 13th century. There was a moat (I LOVE MOATS!!!) around the castle and it had all sorts of geese, ducks, swans, and other birds. I was so excited to see them because since when has there been a swan in Arizona?! I also think I saw a great blue heron, which was super, super exciting! In the gift shop I bought paper made out of sheep poo! Since apparently sheep have lots of fiber in their droppings, it can be made into paper. Super exciting! In continuing with our long day, we went to St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life which had a large outdoor area with actual houses from different times in Wales. When it was dark, it was fun to go in them because the workers were in some of them with a fire going so it smelled really good. I love the smell and sounds of a crackling fire! Susannah had told us about Welsch cakes, so I bought some and they were too sweet and dry, but she gave us good ones today on the bus and they were amazing! I would like to find a recipe and try to make them for Christmas. i would also like to make Yorkshire pudding, which I have also fallen in love with. The weather, by the way, was amazing considering what it could have been. There was no rain on Saturday, except when we were in the coach (which I found to be a miracle) and it only rained a little bit today!
We arrived at our hotel, Ibis, in Swansea (it's around south central Wales) and then was taken to Wind Street by a coach. Some people elected to stay behind and go to bed early and eat dinner in the hotel, but Susannah had told us that Wind Street had lots of good pubs and bars, so I just had to go! There was a group of 12 of us (me, Sebastian from Germany, Sandra from Germany, Frederic from Germany, Deborah from Ohio, Lene from Denmark, Adrian from Mexico, a guy from Israel, Leslie from Phillie, and two other people that I didn't get to talk to) so it took us a while to decide where to eat, but we decided on Nando's which is a chain chicken restaurant and it was cheap and good (always a nice combo). After, we had a long debate then finally ended up walking to the beach. This took forever because our map was not very good and walked to a marina then had to find our way around it. But eventually we made it to the beach and the tide was really low. It was freezing cold but it was so amazing! The sand was really soft and the land was relatively flat- it actually looked a lot like our beach in Mexico, just waaaay colder. It made me miss Rocky Point a lot because one of my favorite things is to sit outside in the cold all bundled up with a fire and listening to the ocean. But I will soon be there in January with Destiny and I'm really excited!
After our epic walk to and from the beach, we made our way back to Wind Street and eventually found a pub. The difficult thing about being in a group is that there tends to be quite a lot of indecision and standing around, which annoys the crap outta me!! All of the girls were dressed up in tiny outfits while the guys just wore t-shirts. I was almost appalled because it was cold out! I did see one lady/girl who was kind of on the large side slip and fall in her heels because it was wet outside and a whole group of guys started yelling and heckling her! I found it quite rude, to be honest, but I guess they were just being men. In the pub, though, there was this creepy old man who had gotten a hold of Deborah and was talking to her forever. i had remember her saying that she didn't like to talk to creepy old guys in bars, so I eventually went over to her and asked if she wanted to be talking to him and she said, "NO!" She told us that he was saying rather inappropriate things to her saying that he's 62, has kids that are 35, and has only made love to one women...I think he also wanted to get drinks with her somewhere else. Super sketchy creepy old guy!! Actually, when I first saw him I thought he was a little weird because he was just sitting there silently with this massive cranky look on his face. He also didn't have a drink and nobody seemed to know him. Anyhoo, I left with Freddie, Sandra, Sebastian and the Israelite in a big taxi back to the hotel because my legs were killing me. I'm fine walking a lot, but we had to stand in the pub and my legs were starting to cramp up- I don't think that they temperature changes from the cold air outside to the hot pub inside helped, either. When I got back into the room around 11.30, Lene was still awake which was nice because I was afraid that I would wake her. BBC3 showed a couple of Family Guy episodes without commercials, which was totally amazing!!
This morning we had an early breakfast and drove to the Big Pit Museum. It is a coal mine museum with exhibits (which we didn't have time to see) but the best part is that you wear a hard hat with a light and a heavy belt and got an actual underground tour of the mine with a former Welsh coal miner! It was the most amazing part of the trip! We had give him all of our battery operated devices (cameras, watches, cell phones, iPods, etc) to him because if there is any methane gas, a tiny spark can create a huge explosion!! Thankfully that didn't happen. We got shown around and there was an area where they kept the horses. Some of the horses in the earlier years only lived in the mines and never got to see the light of day. Our guide started working in the mines when he was 16 and is father and grandfather worked in the coal mines as well. His grandfather had died at an early age of Black Lung (which they call "Dust") and his father had had a really bad accident where he was cut from his right shoulder across his back and to his left thigh. So needless to say his mother was not too happy when he said he was going to work in the mines. He had a very lovely Welsh accent, though! He also showed us a lantern that they use to see the amounts of gases there are somewhere. It was invented a long time ago, but he claims that is still works better than modern technology (which I would not disagree with). Some of the places we passed through were really short and there were at least 4 guys who were around 6 feet tall, so they had a little difficulty. At one point, he had us turn off our lights and it was pitch black dark. You literally can't see anything. The only other time I had ever been in a place that dark was when I got stuck on the Indian Jones ride with Sarah in Disneyland (such fond memories). Going in the coal mine was one of the coolest things I've ever done! I definitely recommend it if you ever happen to find yourself in Wales....
We left Big Pit and drove through Brecon Beacon National Park and everywhere was so pretty! The autumn colors were so amazing, just like Scotland. I took way too many pictures, mostly because I couldn't help myself! It is a "mountainess" area but obviously nothing like we're used to in America (think "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain"- which was based on a true story) but there were trees everywhere of all different colors! We ate lunch in a town called Monmouth at a pub named The Punch House. They had a "Carvery" for lunch which is basically a roast dinner so I had meat, lots of mashed potatoes (because Suz can't just eat a small amount of mashed potatoes), veggies, Yorkshire pudding (!!!) and lots of gravy. Gravy over everything is the key to a happy mouth and stomach!
Our last stop was Tintern Abbey, which was ruins of an abbey because it was destroyed by my favorite monarch, Henry VIII during the time he was on his rampage to destroy monasteries. Tintern was occupied by Cistern monks who followed the strict rules the Pope Benedict had written and they basically spent all their day praying. They ate one meal per day but were given a gallon of beer to drink per day, as well. I suppose that is what kept them warm. Perhaps they were really happy monks... I took lots of pictures there as well because it was so pretty! On Wednesday, I have a Blood and Tears walk in London which I suppose goes around to the place were Jack the Ripper used to hang out and then next weekend I'll be going to Amsterdam. Super exciting!!!