Blogs from Wales, United Kingdom, Europe - page 148

So, the first batch of pictures on this entry are from last Sunday (sorry for the delay!). First we took a walk through the mountains - mere hills for those of you who've hiked in the Rockies, but still quite beautiful. We stopped at two lakes which had very long Welsh names that I don't remember and basically just goofed around for awhile. I'm actually surprised we stayed there as long as we did because it was quite chilly and very windy. Then we visited another castle! Dolwyddelan Castle was quite different from the huge Norman castle we visited last week. Dolwyddelan was built by Welshmen who were slighty more modest in their architecture. Unfortunately, the castle has not been taken care of in the last few centuries and now sits mostly in ruins. Actually, it ... read more

In real life, living impetuously without any planning or forethought whatsoever is generally considered a bad idea. But must I remind you again that this is not real life? I wouldn't exactly call my state of existence for the past two weeks 'careless', just 'carefree'. I have these moments of complete euphoria when I'm walking home from AC Musical practice and look back at the castle against the plum-coloured smogless night sky, or when I'm running along the cliffs during morning assembly (they always send us the agenda for assemblies by email anyway, and hearing Nick Lush lecture us once again on how sneaking into the castle after 10:15 is not allowed vs. running for a good hour along the cliffs at sunrise has never really been a dilemma for me) and the sun rises over ... read more

Today we had our first field trip for the required class I'm taking, Introduction to Welsh Culture. First, we took a bus just 8 miles from Bangor to Caernarfon (pronounced cair-NAR-vun) Castle, the largest Norman castle in the world. It was still in really good shape, so we were able to go inside and walk through all the dark tunnels and dungeons and climb most of the towers. It was amazing and I took a ton of photos. Since we were so impressed with Caernarfon, we took a small detour to look at another castle on the way to our next stop. I don't remember the name of it... Our second stop was a tour of the slate mines in Blaenau Ffestiniog (no idea how to pronounce that!). Apparently mining slate was a big industry here ... read more

As a higher level music student, not only do I get two codes free every week to just compose and free voice lessons from a Welsh National Opera star, but I also get lessons on the Javanese gamelan every Sunday afternoon! Last Sunday I just stuck by the huge gong, but next week I'm hoping for the nong or maybe even the ka-nang...a unique skill, but not exactly one I could take to the streets of Dublin, where Sioned, Henrik and I hope to go for the long weekend in March. After discovering that all of us have Friday evening codes free (and, therefore, our weekend starts at 1:15 in the afternoon instead of 7), we planned a celebratory meal at the only really nice restaurant in Llantwit, only to discover that the only really nice ... read more

OK no more photos of Wendy!! For those of you who complained... Right, we have finally booked and the dates listed in the profile are accurate so far.... although we may change as we go along. We are off on Sunday 27th. ..........The next entry will hopefully be from Vietnam!... read more