Well I have not posted in a long, long time, but that is only because I have not been doing anything exciting, and the goings on of my every day life are less than entertaining. Oh, except I went to Brighton the other weekend...that was ok, not fantastic.
However, this weekend I got out of London and went to Wales for the long Easter weekend...irritatingly called the 'Bank Holiday' weekend, so that I was like "oooh, there is another long weekend after the Easter long weekend!!!"...wrong.
Anyway, I went with my friend Shauna, on a 'Haggis' bus tour, which is a part of the conglomerate that runs Contiki...well, let me just say that I don't think I am the hostel kind of girl. I don't mean to be a princes...but sharing a room with snoring idiot males that I don't know, and therefore cannot assault, was no fun at all. Also, I have issues with the wearing thongs in the shower thing, although I am sure I would have more serious issues with tinea.
On the first day, we were in South Wales, which I really do not recommend at all. The scenery wasn't very nice, kind of barren and bleak. In the North however, the scenery was beautiful, especially on the coast and in the Snowdonia national park.
We went to Caerphilly castle on the first day. Apparently Caerphilly has the highest rate of teenage mums in the UK...and they were all smoking fags out the front of the pubs with their prams. Ah, picturesque south wales. We also went to Tintern Abbey and the Brecon Beacons national park, but neither were fantastic.
Second day improved, with more castles and a night in a coastal town called Caernarfon (pronounced like our Australian Canarvon gorge), with dinner on a floating restaurant at sunset.
The final day had the best stuff, a drive through Snowdonia, and a walk up a hill (read: massive mountain) to the ruins of castle Dinas Bran in Llangollen (pronounced nothing like it is spelt...the double L sounds a lot like trying to hock up spit).
We also went to this stupid town, which has nothing in it, except it's name is really long and ridiculous...they made it long and ridiculous on purpose as a marketing ploy to draw people to their town...and it has obviously worked as probably every tour bus goes there! ridiculous. But here is the name for you anyway... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I got out and took a photo of the sign, but refused to spend any money. on principle.
I didn't really spend much money anyway. Wales has not much to offer for the consumer. I spent money on food and that is all, and there wasn't even much 'Welsh' food to be had. I think the only welsh thing I had were these things called Welsh cakes which are a cross between a pikelet and a scone, with sultana's in them. In typical Tracy style I have bought way too many, and am now sick of them.
They also have a lot of lamb coming from Wales. Since it was spring, there were a zillion little baby lambs all over the place. (Wales has 11 million sheep apparently, and only 2.9 million people). So there were heaps of cute lambs to look at (the sheep look bizarre because they all have their tails on). But I have eaten British lamb, and it is crap and fatty and pumped full of, what I hope, is water. It is a shame that all those cute little lambs are going to die come November, to produce something so crap.
Now I only have a three day week, and I will be back on holidays, this time to Turkey. Hooray!
(photos to come)
