Well...I'm in Wales!

28 June 2012

Well like I said, leaving Ireland was really sad. It was just such a good experience, and I can’t imagine the rest of my trip living up to the expectations that Ireland has given me. But on to Wales I went.

We boarded a ferry in the morning (bus and all), and sailed the three hours to Wales. Once we had gotten off the ferry, we drove to Beaumaris Castle. Apparently, King Edward I had several castles built along the coast of Wales in order to control the people there. It was a really neat castle. I liked it better than the ones I saw in Ireland. And it was a lot of fun to explore!

After we left the castle, we went to a slate mine. Slate is really common in Wales, so they mine it like crazy. We got to ride in a cart down to some of the lower levels of the mine. Once we were down there, they had us walk through and listen to a recording that told the story of a boy who worked there. Honestly, I couldn’t understand the entire story because of the accent, but that’s okay.

Kylee, me, and Palmer in our hard hats!

 Once we finished there, we went to the lodge we would be staying at. We unpacked our stuff, and then the directors bought us all fish and chips from a market down the street for dinner. That was so nice of them! 

After dinner, we had a little bit of a slumber party and watched Shrek. It was so awesome! I kind of felt like I was at girls’ camp again. Haha. It was great!


29 June 2012

In the morning, we went to Caernarfon Castle, another castle built by Edward I. Well, in reality, it was a palace because Edward II was supposed to live there. That building has been my favorite! It was huge and ridiculously fun to wander through. I wish we would have had more time there because I didn’t get to check everything out, but that’s okay. Also, our guide was awesome. I loved his accent! It turns out that the Welsh roll their r’s. I think it’s because of the Welsh language. Eighty percent of the people speak it as a first language, and the r’s are rolled.

One of the rooms in the palace was a chapel, and the acoustics were incredible! One of our directors had suggested earlier that we all sing “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again” when we said goodbye to our bus driver, Declan. So being in this awesome ancient chapel, we decided to practice in there. It was so cool! We sounded a million times better than we would normally. It was so great that at the end of our tour, we invited Declan in, and we sang to him there. And it was amazing. Even more than the first time. The Spirit was really strong, and I just about cried. Someone said that it looked like Declan wiped a couple of tears himself afterward. :)

After visiting Caernarfon Castle, we stopped at a few towns just to look around. It was nice to get a feel for the towns in Wales, but it was raining the whole time (shocker, I know), so that made it slightly less pleasant.

Later, we arrived at our hostel in Bala, and we got to wander a bit. Some of the girls and I grabbed dinner and then walked down by the lake they have here. It was pretty, but again, the rain made it less than pleasant.

So far, I like Wales well enough, but it doesn’t compare to Ireland. I miss it there. I try not to compare the two countries to each other too much, but it’s really hard not to. Wales is a pretty place, but the people (in Northern Wales at least) haven’t been exactly friendly. They keep to themselves, like Americans do. And that makes a big difference. But hey, the fact that I’m in Wales at all is amazing and has to count for something, right?