Moar travelz
So, again, holiday stuff. Many days. Sorry for delay, if anyone's actually interested. Also, zomg. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET INTARWEBZ WHEN TRAVELLING? EVERYWHERE ADVERTISES IT BUT IT'S ALWAYS BROKEN OR ONLY AVAILABLE DOWN IN THE LOUNGE OR DODGY OR WON'T LET ME UPLOAD PHOTOS OR SOMETHING CRAP.
(Bath -- Newport -- Hay-on-Wye -- Craig-y-Nos)
TUESDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER -- BATH
Got up early (a running theme, apparently. What's with that!?) and trekked (RLY, backpack and all) along Russell Square to the car rental place, then drove straight out of London, which wasn't as deeply terrifying as I'd spent half the night worrying that it would be, thankfully. English weather once again didn't fail to disappoint (gah, why am I too cool to wear a raincoat!!1!), but made it to Stonehenge, after a fashion, which was still cool, and Avebury, which was also cool, though with more sheep, as well as a couple of other little villages on the way. English weather didn't fail to disappoint, and I was pretty much frozen solid by the time I made it to Bath (which, incidentally, is the single most terrifying city to try to drive in, particularly at peak hour. Ugh.) Pretty, though. Stayed at the YMCA, which was less fun than I'd been led to believe :P
WEDNESDAY 1ST OCTOBER -- NEWPORT
Spent the morning wandering around Bath and did the obligatory touristy things, like seeing the Abbey and the Baths, and that was all well and good, but they were just so touristy (in fact, the whole of Bath was pretty damn touristy), so it all felt a bit... inauthentic? I don't know - I mean, there's a good reason lots of people want to go see them, and they are cool for all of that, but it's like a bit of a production line or something. Oh yes, I'm totally liek so non-mainstream zomg. *shrug* :) Alas, didn't make it to the costume museum, despite ”adonai_hure”'s recommendation, so I didn't get to see all the pretty corsets... but I did have a nice lunch outside in the sunshine (!) *gasp* and discovered the awesomeness of WH Smith, which I had been led to believe was some kind of newsagent, but which turns out to be a cross between a newsagent and a Borders. Alas, they didn't have RTD's book. TRAGIC, because I wants it. :-/
Anyhoo, headed out of town on the confusingly wiggly highway system (not helped by a really not-well-marked map) to Bradford-upon-Avon, which I had been led to believe (thanks, wikitravel!) had a really pretty bridge. Alas, after driving around for a good half hour (which is quite a lot, when the town is as tiny as this one), I couldn't find the bridge. I did find a different bridge, though, and made a point of both photographing it AND walking over it, just out of spite for the other bridge. Even though it wasn't very pretty in itself. Bah. Nice view of the river, though. And srsly, this whole town is so ridiculously posh that I kind of just wanted to leave!
And then and then and then... headed off towards Wales (hooray!) across the UNBELIEVABLY WINDY AND HIGH AND LONG AND SCARY-THAT-HAS-NOTHING-TO-DO-WITH-MY-FEAR-OF-BRIDGES Severn Bridge into Wales, where all the signs are totally in Welsh and English, which is awesome *loves Welsh*, and ducked up to Tintern Abbey, where my camera battery totally ran out, leaving me to take photos on my dodgy-as-hell mobile phone, which was TERRIBLE because I'd so been looking forward to seeing Tintern Abbey, because yay, Wordsworth :D But yes. Remarkably cool to see, and OMG, Welsh accents are awesome. *drools* I may or may not have bought a book on how to speak Welsh. *fetish not entirely Torchwood-related*
Headed off to Newport, stopping on the way at Caerleon, where there are supposedly some Roman ruins, but where I couldn't find anything whatsoevar except for lots of sheep and the remains of a single wall. So didn't stay very long. Newport was kind of cool, very obvious 'working-class' heritage, and rows of awesome little houses and absolutely no parking. Hooray! But the B&B was in one of those little houses, which was awesome, because it was adorable inside, too, and there was a very authentic local pub just down the street which had delicious foods. OM NOM NOM.
THURSDAY 2ND OCTOBER -- HAY-ON-WYE
Spent the morning trying to navigate a particularly dodgy area of Newport without any sort of usable map to find the house my father's grandfather lived in, as he wanted to see it. Alas, the street is no longer a street, but a 'walk', and may or may not be the same one as before, and all the houses were 'replaced' in the early 80s with these kind of ugly stock housing things. Bah.
But yes. On the offchance that I might have been able to catch some Torchwood filming (there had been much in the way of Jack and Ianto filming the day before (WAH, WHY CAN'T I EVER SEE *THAT*?!), headed into Cardiff, where I spent a lovely morning wandering around Bute Park and The Friary and North Road, looking for signs of the Base, or of filming itself, and seeing nothing. But there were a remarkable number of familiar sights, and every second moment I was like “omg, they totally used that in Torchwood!” or “OMG THAT'S THE BAR WHERE CAPTAIN JACK AND CAPTAIN JOHN SNOGGED AND THEN BASHED THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER EVEN THOUGH THEY USED A DIFFERENT NIGHTCLUB FOR THE OUTSIDE AND DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW THESE THINGS I JUST DO”. So, like, in conclusion, SQUEE!!!1! But naturally, the best part was driving down around the end of Bute St (along the streets where they followed the Blowfish, squee... *cough*) and turning a corner, and liek, straight there was Torchwood Tower and the Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plas and omg, it's totally straight out of Torchwood. Bah. Let me have my fun. I know it's just a tv show, but I like it!!1! :) And, naturally, they had RTD's book (not that they'd have a choice - imagine his reaction if they didn't!), so I bought that, despite the utterly ludicrous price tag (and weight - OMG, that thing is heavy!!1!)
Anyway, drove out of Cardiff, past Castle Coch and Merthyr Tydfill, where I was tempted to go location-hunting again, but couldn't quite be bothered, then headed through the Brecon Beacons (Torchwood squee moment #673) to Hay-on-Wye, a little town on the English border where every second shop is a book shop. Which is kind of totally awesome.
Stayed at a 16th century coaching inn (where Cromwell supposedly stayed, uh, like everywhere else in THE ENTIRE UK, OMG) and had one of their supposedly award winning meals, which were quite delicious, actually. Hooray. I thought it was probably appropriate to have the Beef Wellington, though I couldn't really get through that much steak. Oh well. But yes. Books. Awesome. In the hour between arriving in town and the bookshops closing, I'd managed to pick my way through four different ones, including one entirely dedicated to crime novels, and decorated (awesomely, I might add - shut up, it's totally a word) with life-sized film-noir comic cutouts and crime scene paraphernalia, without being tacky. Hooray!
FRIDAY 3RD OCTOBER - CRAIG-Y-NOS
Spent the morning wandering around Hay-on-Wye, and bought myself a “few” books (unnecessary quotation marks FTW!), including (but not limited to!) a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Welsh. Which will, um, totally come in handy with my likely-to-be-fulfilled plan to learn Welsh. Which, I'm sure, will not seem anywhere near as interesting when I am no longer around Welsh people. But yes. So. Many. Books. Guh. Though it should be said that it really is a case of quantity over quality...
But the people... the town is filled with these slightly older, really really pretentious literary types who are just the biggest jerks I've come across in a long time. The looks they gave us at breakfast, as though we should stay somewhere more appropriate for our social class. Bah. Whatevar. I'm sorry - I'll get my tweed jacket and cravat out ready for next time, shall I? Jerks. Bah.
So, drove out of town, through Three Cocks (lol... *is twelve years old, apparently*) and had lunch in Brecon, which is nowhere near as cool as I thought it would be, but which has awesome countryside surrounding it, which is probably why it's so popular, then headed back to the Brecon Beacons (with a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding the filming location for Countrycide, thank you internet and your dodgy directions) and Craig-y-Nos castle, aka Torchwood House (Bah. Shut up. I only heard about it that way, it's totally not the only reason I'm staying there! ... though, that said, squee!) It's supposed to be haunted, too, which was awesomely comforting when they stuck us out in the Nurse's Block, which is a srsly long way from anything, and was entirely empty (except for us) until about 1am, and the tap kept turning on ALL BY ITSELF, OMG... Ooooh. But yes. Cold as all hell, as well, which was brilliant. Yay, British weather. Well, at least they have seasons, other than just “tolerable” and “UNBEARABLY HOT ZOMG” like we do. Brrrrr.
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map
(Bath -- Newport -- Hay-on-Wye -- Craig-y-Nos)
TUESDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER -- BATH
Got up early (a running theme, apparently. What's with that!?) and trekked (RLY, backpack and all) along Russell Square to the car rental place, then drove straight out of London, which wasn't as deeply terrifying as I'd spent half the night worrying that it would be, thankfully. English weather once again didn't fail to disappoint (gah, why am I too cool to wear a raincoat!!1!), but made it to Stonehenge, after a fashion, which was still cool, and Avebury, which was also cool, though with more sheep, as well as a couple of other little villages on the way. English weather didn't fail to disappoint, and I was pretty much frozen solid by the time I made it to Bath (which, incidentally, is the single most terrifying city to try to drive in, particularly at peak hour. Ugh.) Pretty, though. Stayed at the YMCA, which was less fun than I'd been led to believe :P
WEDNESDAY 1ST OCTOBER -- NEWPORT
Spent the morning wandering around Bath and did the obligatory touristy things, like seeing the Abbey and the Baths, and that was all well and good, but they were just so touristy (in fact, the whole of Bath was pretty damn touristy), so it all felt a bit... inauthentic? I don't know - I mean, there's a good reason lots of people want to go see them, and they are cool for all of that, but it's like a bit of a production line or something. Oh yes, I'm totally liek so non-mainstream zomg. *shrug* :) Alas, didn't make it to the costume museum, despite ”adonai_hure”'s recommendation, so I didn't get to see all the pretty corsets... but I did have a nice lunch outside in the sunshine (!) *gasp* and discovered the awesomeness of WH Smith, which I had been led to believe was some kind of newsagent, but which turns out to be a cross between a newsagent and a Borders. Alas, they didn't have RTD's book. TRAGIC, because I wants it. :-/
Anyhoo, headed out of town on the confusingly wiggly highway system (not helped by a really not-well-marked map) to Bradford-upon-Avon, which I had been led to believe (thanks, wikitravel!) had a really pretty bridge. Alas, after driving around for a good half hour (which is quite a lot, when the town is as tiny as this one), I couldn't find the bridge. I did find a different bridge, though, and made a point of both photographing it AND walking over it, just out of spite for the other bridge. Even though it wasn't very pretty in itself. Bah. Nice view of the river, though. And srsly, this whole town is so ridiculously posh that I kind of just wanted to leave!
And then and then and then... headed off towards Wales (hooray!) across the UNBELIEVABLY WINDY AND HIGH AND LONG AND SCARY-THAT-HAS-NOTHING-TO-DO-WITH-MY-FEAR-OF-BRIDGES Severn Bridge into Wales, where all the signs are totally in Welsh and English, which is awesome *loves Welsh*, and ducked up to Tintern Abbey, where my camera battery totally ran out, leaving me to take photos on my dodgy-as-hell mobile phone, which was TERRIBLE because I'd so been looking forward to seeing Tintern Abbey, because yay, Wordsworth :D But yes. Remarkably cool to see, and OMG, Welsh accents are awesome. *drools* I may or may not have bought a book on how to speak Welsh. *fetish not entirely Torchwood-related*
Headed off to Newport, stopping on the way at Caerleon, where there are supposedly some Roman ruins, but where I couldn't find anything whatsoevar except for lots of sheep and the remains of a single wall. So didn't stay very long. Newport was kind of cool, very obvious 'working-class' heritage, and rows of awesome little houses and absolutely no parking. Hooray! But the B&B was in one of those little houses, which was awesome, because it was adorable inside, too, and there was a very authentic local pub just down the street which had delicious foods. OM NOM NOM.
THURSDAY 2ND OCTOBER -- HAY-ON-WYE
Spent the morning trying to navigate a particularly dodgy area of Newport without any sort of usable map to find the house my father's grandfather lived in, as he wanted to see it. Alas, the street is no longer a street, but a 'walk', and may or may not be the same one as before, and all the houses were 'replaced' in the early 80s with these kind of ugly stock housing things. Bah.
But yes. On the offchance that I might have been able to catch some Torchwood filming (there had been much in the way of Jack and Ianto filming the day before (WAH, WHY CAN'T I EVER SEE *THAT*?!), headed into Cardiff, where I spent a lovely morning wandering around Bute Park and The Friary and North Road, looking for signs of the Base, or of filming itself, and seeing nothing. But there were a remarkable number of familiar sights, and every second moment I was like “omg, they totally used that in Torchwood!” or “OMG THAT'S THE BAR WHERE CAPTAIN JACK AND CAPTAIN JOHN SNOGGED AND THEN BASHED THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER EVEN THOUGH THEY USED A DIFFERENT NIGHTCLUB FOR THE OUTSIDE AND DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW THESE THINGS I JUST DO”. So, like, in conclusion, SQUEE!!!1! But naturally, the best part was driving down around the end of Bute St (along the streets where they followed the Blowfish, squee... *cough*) and turning a corner, and liek, straight there was Torchwood Tower and the Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plas and omg, it's totally straight out of Torchwood. Bah. Let me have my fun. I know it's just a tv show, but I like it!!1! :) And, naturally, they had RTD's book (not that they'd have a choice - imagine his reaction if they didn't!), so I bought that, despite the utterly ludicrous price tag (and weight - OMG, that thing is heavy!!1!)
Anyway, drove out of Cardiff, past Castle Coch and Merthyr Tydfill, where I was tempted to go location-hunting again, but couldn't quite be bothered, then headed through the Brecon Beacons (Torchwood squee moment #673) to Hay-on-Wye, a little town on the English border where every second shop is a book shop. Which is kind of totally awesome.
Stayed at a 16th century coaching inn (where Cromwell supposedly stayed, uh, like everywhere else in THE ENTIRE UK, OMG) and had one of their supposedly award winning meals, which were quite delicious, actually. Hooray. I thought it was probably appropriate to have the Beef Wellington, though I couldn't really get through that much steak. Oh well. But yes. Books. Awesome. In the hour between arriving in town and the bookshops closing, I'd managed to pick my way through four different ones, including one entirely dedicated to crime novels, and decorated (awesomely, I might add - shut up, it's totally a word) with life-sized film-noir comic cutouts and crime scene paraphernalia, without being tacky. Hooray!
FRIDAY 3RD OCTOBER - CRAIG-Y-NOS
Spent the morning wandering around Hay-on-Wye, and bought myself a “few” books (unnecessary quotation marks FTW!), including (but not limited to!) a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Welsh. Which will, um, totally come in handy with my likely-to-be-fulfilled plan to learn Welsh. Which, I'm sure, will not seem anywhere near as interesting when I am no longer around Welsh people. But yes. So. Many. Books. Guh. Though it should be said that it really is a case of quantity over quality...
But the people... the town is filled with these slightly older, really really pretentious literary types who are just the biggest jerks I've come across in a long time. The looks they gave us at breakfast, as though we should stay somewhere more appropriate for our social class. Bah. Whatevar. I'm sorry - I'll get my tweed jacket and cravat out ready for next time, shall I? Jerks. Bah.
So, drove out of town, through Three Cocks (lol... *is twelve years old, apparently*) and had lunch in Brecon, which is nowhere near as cool as I thought it would be, but which has awesome countryside surrounding it, which is probably why it's so popular, then headed back to the Brecon Beacons (with a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding the filming location for Countrycide, thank you internet and your dodgy directions) and Craig-y-Nos castle, aka Torchwood House (Bah. Shut up. I only heard about it that way, it's totally not the only reason I'm staying there! ... though, that said, squee!) It's supposed to be haunted, too, which was awesomely comforting when they stuck us out in the Nurse's Block, which is a srsly long way from anything, and was entirely empty (except for us) until about 1am, and the tap kept turning on ALL BY ITSELF, OMG... Ooooh. But yes. Cold as all hell, as well, which was brilliant. Yay, British weather. Well, at least they have seasons, other than just “tolerable” and “UNBEARABLY HOT ZOMG” like we do. Brrrrr.
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map