Monday 4/5

Bear with me on the sporadic-ness of trying to catch up on blogging...

Okay, so one of the last times that I wrote was April 9th, when I went to bed early to try to get some sleep before leaving for Wales with the Arch Soc. I had to get up at 2:30; unfortunately, Jackie had some sort of crisis that involved yelling and crying the entire night, so I didn't fall asleep until 1:30--plus my nerves wouldn't let my brain shut up either. Oddly, I didn't really nap on the bus, so I must have been on my second wind the entire day.

The walk to the bus was horrid. It was windy and rainy and nasty--so bad that I had to line my bag with garbage bags so my clothes wouldn't get soaked. Lovely, right? Anyway, because we left so early, we made it to Dublin in only two and a half hours and met up with the professor, Kieran, while grabbing breakfast at a convenience store. Since we apparently hired the bus and the driver for the whole week, he just drove us onto the ferry, which was crazy nice. I didn't take any Dramamine, so I spent the whole trip laying down with my eyes closed, but had I been alive I could have had my picture taken with some guy in a Curious George costume, or eaten breakfast, or played arcade games...

After that bit, we arrived in Holyhead, Wales, which is on the island of Anglesey. Just like Ireland, Wales has bilingual signs, half in English and half in Welsh. I really liked seeing that (although I certainly couldn't pronounce any of it) because it shows that they are proud of their heritage and it's a reminder that as a traveler, I don't have the right to assume that everyone speaks the same language as I do. The sites we visited over the week were primarily in Northern Wales, which is where most of the native speakers live, so we did hear a bit of it spoken. The language seems so exotic to me.

After some more driving in the bus, we stopped at Caernarfon to see the castle and to eat lunch in the town. Kelly, another American, and I had to find an ATM, then we just got a quick snack at a deli and bought some patches and stuff. The city streets are still set up much like they would have been when the town began during the castle's construction...a.k.a. narrow and mad confusing! Here's a view as we walked in and could see the castle at the end:
Can you read the Welsh? Yeah, didn't think so.
After two hours of free time, we met up at the castle, where the society used some of the money which we had deposited to buy us tickets which got us into all Welsh historical sites free and gives us half off on all other U.K. sites. I'm so game to keep using it if I keep visiting places! As on the earlier Castles trip, Kieran gave us a lecture about the castle and the history of that period, then let us explore on our own for about an hour. It was really windy and a bit cold up on the castle walls, but otherwise it was beautiful. I have written in my journal "can I live there??", so I guess I must have liked it! After seeing some other castles the rest of the week, though, I have to say that it's not my favorite...but still incredible!

They had employees walking around in period costumes, who also were teaching about various weapons down in the basement of one of the towers. Here's a guy talking to tourists.
The eagle tower is the one with the extra turrets, which originally had stone eagles on top (hence the name...). You can see how close the sea is--that's a feature in all of Edward I's castles in Wales. It certainly helped during sieges.
That's Kelly way down there, and this shows how narrow these battlements were. And don't even get me started on the tiny stairs...
I think I've mentioned before that Kieran is obsessed with toilets, so here's the first guarderobe of the week. Cheers.
Just a description of Eagle Tower.
Ohh, I could have stayed here with a cushion and book all day.
A reconstruction of what the doors might have looked like.
Creepy hallways--can't imagine them at night.
More costumed people.
One of the few pictures where I'm on this side of the camera.
After leaving Caernarfon, we drove to Chester, England to our hostel. On the way, we caught a glimpse of Snowdonia.
The license plates are so bright!
A random castle on our way. Look--there are sheep here too! Can't say I was surprised.
Once we got to the hostel, there was a slight room mix-up...basically, the six girls and six guys who weren't staying at the hotel were all stuck in one room at the hostel. Thankfully, it turned out there was another room upstairs for us females, so we ended up getting a lovely room with broken windows and a squeaky sign outside. By the end of the week, we all got along really well and even sharing the bathroom wasn't a problem. Besides Kelly and I, there was Christina, an American master's student; Linda and Sarah, her friends, who are Irish and also master's students; and Mary, an Irish undergraduate. There were also some older folk on the trip and a bunch of undergraduate and master's students, all Irish except for one German guy.

By the time we had all that figured out, it was past supper time, so we went for a walk downtown to find some food--and I learned a new cultural difference. Apparently, in England the term "subway" just means a sidewalk under a main intersection that pedestrians use to avoid traffic. I found this out after a group of us started going the stairs and nobody else was worried with me that they hadn't brought any coins and didn't know the train schedule. Good to know.

Kelly and I ended up splitting off to find pizza, but ultimately got KFC and bought a bottle of ketchup on the way back to the hostel to eat (I still have it...it's sitting on my desk watching me...I think I might get a snack soon to use it...). While at the convenience store, we bought pitas and peanut butter and jelly to have for lunch during the week, proving our utter American-ness. The store was called Sam's, and we went there at least once every day, but never figured out who was Sam. Not for lack of trying, however!

After we figured out how to turn on the water for the shower, which involved a switch outside of the bathroom, it was time for bed. I wrote a couple postcards and some notes in my journal, but, like every other day of the week, the six of us went to bed early so we could get up in time to catch the bus.

And that was basically the first day! I had the best of intentions to do more tonight, but I think I'm going to go study for my final. And then blog again for today. I hope this gives you a taste of what Wales and England are like!

Good night...for now.