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Published: February 4th 2009
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St. Mary's Church
The Church in Wrexham Hello Again Intrepid Readers,
It's been forever since I've updated this, but I did return home for Christmas and the real me is so much better than the electronic tales. However, mom asked that I updated, so here I am, updating.
Exams are over for me. I finished them last Tuesday and then continued to putz around all week, being generally unproductive. Exams are actually three weeks long and don't end until this Saturday (the 7th). Second Semester starts on the 9th. I can't wait. I don't mind having a could days off, but this is getting ridiculous. I didn't leave my room much Wednesday to Friday of last week and I was getting cabin fever.
I went out Friday night with Sam and her flatmates to celebrate Sam's end of exams. We went to a pub in the union and then a dance club called Space. It was a great time. Saturday, we went into the city center. Sheffield had a freeze in the middle of the peace gardens (a freeze is when a group of people randomly freeze for an allotted time in a public place. They've done them at Grand Central and the pit in
grave
Eliugh Yale's grave! UNC).
&feature=related there were tons of people there.
Sunday we went tramping. We just got on a bus near our house and road it out into the Peaks District. We got off at this place that just had a pub in the middle of no where. It turned out to be Longview, one of the first national parks in England. It was beautiful. It was slightly snowing, but it wasn't too cold and that just meant the mud was frozen solid. We spent about four hours tramping around the woods and surrounding hill side. We didn't get where we wanted to go though (we got a bit lost. British maps are a bit wanting) but we did see some amazing sites and Signe got to see her sheep. There was also a really pretty Chapel and the ruins of the older Chapel that had fallen down. It had beautiful views of the Longview valley, because there were hills all around. However, we didn't always stick to the path. There was quite a lot of crazy tramping through hills and over gullys instead of on the nice, wide, provided paths. Needless to say, I was completely wiped out, but very
Eulogy
The coolest eulogy ever. happy. When I got back to Sheffield, it had started really snowing and people were out in the village throwing snow balls at one another. I decided to take a warm bath instead.
On Monday, we headed off for Wales. Someone had warned us about trying to go to Wales in winter, but we were intrepid young warriors and would not be swayed. Justine and Signe wanted to go tramping and Sam and I were excited about Welsh pubs... er museums. We took the train to Wrexham, which is very central in Wales and a rather large city. When we got there, it was freezing cold and snowing heavily. We tramped to the info point, only to discover that the hostel in Wrexham and most of the surrounding cities were closed for the winter. The lady helped us find a hostel in Betws-y-Coed and told us the next train times.
We spent about three hours in Wrexham. We went to the Church there, St. Mary's Church, and saw the grave of Eliugh Yale, the founder of Yale. I didn't know it was there, but I got very excited when I found it. I've already tried to make Bobby
Conwy
View of Conwy and Conwy castle from Llandudno. feel jealous. The Church itself is beautiful and it is surrounded by the cemetery. Literally, on all four sides. The paths are made up of half slate stones and half actual headstones just placed in the ground. I kept freaking out, trying not to step on the gravestones and trying not to slip in the snow. There isn't much else to do in Wrexham except tramp and sit in cafes. I bought a teddy wearing a Wales hoodie and named him Eliugh Wrex, after the city. We sat in a nice little one off a side street for awhile and it was much too cold and snowy to tramp. A nice old man helped us get to the train station. There are two in Wrexham, and we couldn't remember which one. He told us to go to the bigger one. We did. It had all of four (gasp!) platforms. I didn't get to see the smaller one, and I'm kind of intrigued of how small it would have to be to be the "smaller" Wrexham station.
We took the train from Wrexham to Llandudno. We were supposed to change trains at Llandudno, only to discover that the train for
Conwy Castle
Signe and I with Conwy Castle Betws-y-Coed had left long ago. There was going to be a bus in about an hour after we arrived. We were planning on waiting for it, but then the snow started to really come down. As we walked to the bus station, we saw a Hotel/Pub, right across the street. We decided to stay there for the night. It had warm food and cheap prices and we were very, very, very tired. We jokingly called it our savior.
The next morning, we asked the staff if there was anything to do in Llandudno, and they told us it was about a mile walk to Conwy and that there was a castle there. Conwy and Llandudno are separated by a small inlet to the sea. At low tide, you could probably walk between the two cities, but there is a bridge that has been built to span between the two cities. The view from Llandudno is beautiful, you can see the Conwy Castle perched on the edge of the city.
Conwy also has old stone walls that circle the entire city. The castle is partly in ruins, but it is lovely to climb up and down. The outer walls
Wall
Justine and Sam at Conwy Castle. are almost entirely intact and you can still climb the spiral staircases to the tops of the towers. We spent hours in there, just going to all of the places we could. I made them stop and read every placard with me. Signe was surprised by the state of disrepair. Apparently, most of the castles in Denmark are fully functionally, either being used by the royal family or being kept up by the state.
The town of Conwy is also very nice. You can walk along the walls and see the whole city, but it was too windy and it began to snow mid-afternoon. The bay is lovely though, and in the summer I imagine people are walking up and down the whole wharf. Right on the inlet is The Smallest House in Britain. It was sadly closed until Easter, but we all took our pictures with it. It seems like a silly thing to be known for, but I'm kind of interested to go back.
Signe and Justine wanted to walk all along the edge of Llandudno to the sea. Apparently Llandudno has one of the few remaining piers in Wales. Sam and I decided to go
Tower Top
View from the top of the tower into the castle into a warm pub and have a pint instead.
We headed home to Sheffield after Signe and Justine got back. They actually had more snow here than we got in Wales. There are about three inches of snow on the ground and we're supposed to get at least ten more inches by the weekend. I chose to come to England during the most snowfall in 18 years. At least I'm not missing out on all the wintry weather in Charlotte and Chapel Hill!
I'm mostly just going to be around the dorm for the next couple of days, doing laundry and getting things ready for school next week. Love you! Ta for now!
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