Saturday, May 1, 2010
Last Few Hours in the UK
I arrived at the airport at 6:45, and couldn't check in until 7:25. Then got through security with an hour and a half to kill before my gate even opened. What a long morning!! It's 9 am and I've been up and at'em for 4 hours now. and I will gain 6 hours today. Talk about longest day of my life!!
Excited to see family and friends! See you all soon!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Climbing Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa in Welsh)
Monday, April 26, 2010
A little place called Rhuthun
Over the half-term holiday, my friend Pete, who is also a teacher and had time off, and I decided to take a daytrip to a nearby town, called Rhuthun/Ruthin. It is a quant little town, but is full of history! We set out midmorning on the bus. We walked around the park, where Pete showed me some spots of his childhood memories, such as trying to hurdle a fence and face-planting...boys. Ha! We saw the old jail, some of the old church buildings, the town square, the old courthouse, the outside of the castle because it is privately owned now, etc. To see pictures from the day, check them out on Facebook (click on the link). Funny story to end the day in Rhuthun, as Pete and I are walking to the bus stop to go home the bus drives past the bus stop. Well, normally this wouldn't be too big of a deal except the bloody bus only comes once every 50 minutes. So we sit there patiently, chatting away, and then I start talking about hatchbacks (a type of car I would like), well they aren't familiar with that term here, so I was looking for one to point out to him...right as the bus drives by AGAIN and doesn't stop to pick us up because you have to hail the darn thing. I lost it; I was laughing so stinking hard, I couldn't control myself. So, I am about to update my Facebook status via my prepaid phone and the bus comes around again in 5 minutes (by fluke), this time luckily Pete was paying attention and hailed it. Needless to say, I may still be sitting in Rhuthun had Pete not been with me. Good times.
Random trips around Wales
I am very lucky to have a friend that 1) has a car 2) is actually enjoys my company and 3) is willing to take me around to some places in North Wales so I can fully experience this area. So, thank you Dafydd.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Dublin Round 2
Daf and I boarded the ferry in Holyhead to head for Dublin on Thursday; we were both really excited for a holiday. We arrived in Dublin Port and got on a bus to head into the city centre, only the bus didn't take us as far as we thought it would, and in an area I wasn't familiar with. We started wandering aimlessly using the tourist map the bus driver gave us. We found Connolly Street, and then I knew where to go. After about an hour and a half of carrying our luggage and walking the streets of Dublin we found Janet's house! I was excited that I could remember the way. We dropped our things, had a glass of water, and headed out to find food. We went to The Bleeding Horse Pub, one of the originals in Dublin for a late lunch. We then headed towards St. Stephen's Green. We wandered around the park, and I was taking too many pictures of ducks (as usual). End of the day Janet came home and wasn't feeling well. Everyone had an early night. Daf and I set out the next morning to see the West side of Dublin including Manning Bakery on Thomas St (ironic because my grandfather's name is Thomas Manning) took sandwiches from the bakery to have lunch in Phoenix Park, past the Guinness factory, Jameson Distillery, Smithfield (new village in Dublin), the oldest cobblestone road in Dublin, the old "Black Church" and then to the pub to watch the Heineken Cup (Rugby) and catch some traditional Irish folk music. Saturday we spent the morning in the National Museum (Daf's first time at a museum and he really enjoyed it!!!), and then went to the Bleeding Horse again for lunch and to watch more of the Heineken Cup and the Grand National (horse races, my first time to watch). The day before Daf and I had both picked random Horse's names (Hello Bud and Joe Lively) out of the paper and his got 5th and mine finish in the top 10…not bad. We also visited Dublin Castle and Grafton Street before calling it a day. Sunday was a lazy day. We headed out to Dundrum just outside the city, had a bit of a walk around, found an HMV and I found Princess Bride on DVD for really cheap, so I bought it! Bingo, cheap plans for the evening. We, and by we, I mean Daf cooked, I supervised, made a nice curry at Janet's (we really did a lot of cooking, you know young kids on a budget, gotta make it work) and watched The Princess Bride. Monday was our day to head back to Wales. So we cleaned up the house, played some cards, had some lunch and headed to the ferry. But this is the best part of the whole trip…or luckiest (Daf says it was a miracle). We set out for the ferry two and a half hours early for the ferry, giving us time to walk across town to the shuttle and have time to check in and what not. Well, we got to the shuttle stop and asked one of the bus drivers to ensure we would be getting on the right bus. He said to take any of the 53 busses. We get on the 53A bus and the driver says we should be on the 53B bus. Dangit! The driver is talking to Daf and apparently he says he will go a little out of his way to get us closer to the port. Already we are thinking, "this is fantastic!" Then Daf asks how we should make it the rest of the way, but the driver insists we will not make it if we walk and will get ripped off by a taxi driver. The bus driver takes us a mile and a half off his route and drops us at the front door of our ferry station!!!! It was absolutely mental!!! And to top it all off, he only charged us one bus fare instead of 2!!!! What a day! Well, we made it like an hour before our ferry departed and ended up sitting around playing cards and reminiscing about how crazy that experience was!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
a series of unfortunate events...ok only one
Monday, April 5, 2010
Week One as a "Backpacker"
The next morning I went on a walking tour of Bath, highly
recommended, and saw all the sights in Bath: the Abbey, Sally Lunn's house, the parades from the 18th c
entury, theaters, famous people's houses, the Queen's square, the Circus, the Crescent, and more things that I am forgetting.
Then in the afternoon Alysse and I met up to go on a bus tour of Stonehenge (absolutely magnificent) and Lacock, a small village that has been mostly preserved, and bonus, has 2 houses that have been used in Harry Potter films!! So we were stoked!
The next day I went to the Roman Baths, which was really cool, and I can't believe I almost didn't pay the £13 to get in, because it was totally worth it! Then made the hike up the hill to the Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms, built in the 18th century as the new center of the social scene in Bath. Later, went back down the hill to Queen's Square Park to eat my PB&J that I brought from home, and read my book for about an hour before heading for a walk down the Avon River and the Pulteney Bridge. I happened to stumble across the Postal Museum and an Art Gallery which
were interesting to walk around. I then had run out of things to do and my train wasn't for 4 more hours so I decided to go to the train station to get my itinerary (there were a few connections I had to make) and go find a pub to sit down in and get some food. On my way to the train station, it starts HAILING!! Out of no where, I'm walking down the street, it sunny, I have sunglasses on and shorts, and it starts hailing. I was tired and put off at this point, so I asked the man if there was any way I could get on an earlier train, he said there was one leaving in 35 minutes. So I hoofed it back to the hostel, grabbed my bags, and called my friend who was to be picking me up, to ask if I could please be picked up early. So I hopped on the train back to Denbigh, and felt satisfied and fulfilled.
Dublin on Thursday, and I think I'll try to hit up one of the medieval towns around here this week that I can catch a bus to, although, today (Monday) is a bank holiday, and everything is closed. Tonight, curry and film night with the gang, along with my apple cobbler/tart/crumble thing that I made from some of the excess food from the boarding house. It turned out really nice. Thanks and Gig'em.