Aww
So. Like, I'm srsly slack with the posting thing, so, like, moar bloggingz. Don't worry, I won't judge you if you don't read it. :P
TUESDAY 14TH OCTOBER -- BETWS-Y-COED
Luckily I'd remembered to pack the night before, so I just had to get up and grab a taxi down to the docks. Turns out there were a grand total of, like, two foot passengers on the whole ferry (and a total-total of like fifty people) and so I ended up chatting to this middle-aged couple from Perth who were very friendly, and read the rest of The Graveyard Book (which, as much as it pains me to say, actually isn't his best book evar, and is nowhere near as good as American Gods).
Got another car without incident (this time actually the one I'd booked, and not some upgraded enormous breeder-mobile (heh, thanks Manda), and drove out in the pouring rain along the north Wales coast (which is pretty damn cool, actually) to Conwy, where they, like, totally have a castle. Or, y'know, ruins of a castle. But it's actually pretty cool. Y'know. For a castle. :P
Had some yummy (warm) soup for lunch (did I mention it was RAINING and the castle doesn't actually, like, have a roof?) then drove through these cool big long tunnels in the cliffs along the coast and down into the Snowdonia National Park, which is one of those places that I really wanted to take photos through the windscreen as I drove, but which has scary little winding roads along the side of these spectacular red and gold mountains (which, frankly, is kind of distracting when you're trying to concentrate on the road, because, srsly, awesome) and it's pouring with rain and everyone still wants to go 80mph (like, 140km/h) and it's OMGSCARY. So I was a good, law-abiding driver, and totally didn't take random photos through the windows.
Finally managed to make it to Betws-y-Coed, which is totally the tourist-iest town in Snowdonia, but it's pretty obvious why, as it's actually utterly adorable with beautiful countryside (and billions of shops that actually sell good stuff). Had booked a good hotel for tonight, as I felt like something as far as possible from the hostel vibe, so I ended up in this coaching inn on the edge of town that was absolutely brilliant, with a four-poster bed and lots of pillows, and this totally awesome authentic little restaurant.
Very sad to be leaving Wales tomorrow. Woe. :(
WEDNESDAY 15TH OCTOBER - CHESTER
Thought it was probably de rigeur to do at least one walk in a national park in Wales, so I headed down to the Fairy Glen walk. Very, very pretty and all that, and I made it about 3/4 of the way before I realised that the bit at the bottom was totally flooded and the rest of it was actually really dangerously slippery (and there was like this ridiculously flooded, fast, scary river at the bottom that I would have slipped into), so I had to turn back. But still... what I saw was really, really nice. Yay, countryside! :)
So naturally I had to spend the rest of the morning shopping, so I wandered around all the little shops in the town, which was fun. Especially when there was totally a random, unexpected goth shop on the top floor of one of the other shops, and I seriously came very close to buying myself a replacement pair of TUK kitty shoes, but then I did the whole currency-conversion thing and realised it's ridiculously expensive. Bah.
Grabbed some lunch, then headed off to Chester, where I had no accommodation booked and no idea where I was going. Randomly decided to stay at the Travelodge (gah, I know), because it was pretty cheap and really central, and they said they had internet. Alas, they didn't mean free internet, so I couldn't quite bring myself to pay 5 pounds for an hour. Wandered around the town for a bit, until some random teenagers decided that it would be cool to point out loudly and insistently that I was totally a goth, and kept yelling it out for the whole length of the street, omg when I didn't respond. So that was fun, and I decided Chester didn't really have the best vibe for wandering around on my own in the evening, so I grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel. Yay for bad British TV.
THURSDAY 16TH OCTOBER - STRATFORD UPON AVON
Wandered around Chester for a few hours, did some shopping and actually managed to find a few nice tops to wear this weekend, which was good. Especially after weeks of looking like some sort of dero backpacker type. Ugh. But yes. Saw some of the monuments and stuff and had a wander through the roman gardens and all that (which had these adorable groups of school children on an excursion who had all been dressed up in fake armour like roman soldiers... aww.) and the roman ampitheatre and the city walls and that. Which was pretty cool, though I thought the town itself was kind of cooler, because of the double-layered shops and elizabethan architecture and that.
Anyway, headed off for Stratford-upon-Avon at lunchtime, because I wanted to see some of it before the play that I was going to (omg, David Tennant, srsly), but my map skillz are apparently lacking and I ended up first in Liverpool (uh, wrong direction, baaaad traffic), then Manchester (baaaad traffic), then Birmingham (baaaaaaaaaaaad traffic), and all-in-all, I was stuck on the M6 (major, major motorway) for a good 5 hours. Which was awesome, and which meant that by the time I made it to Stratford and actually found the b&b place I was staying, I had like half an hour until the show started. So the awesome man who ran the b&b totally drove me down to the theatre and I didn't miss it at all. Hooray!
So, like, I'd been pretty unimpressed that I'd missed out on seeing DT in Hamlet, especially as the alternative (Love's Labours Lost) is, shall we say, NOT my favourite Shakespeare play, but it's amazing how much a good performance (and, naturally RSC is like the best performance) can make it actually entertaining, and, like, good. Also, did I mention David Tennant? Phwoar. :D)
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map
TUESDAY 14TH OCTOBER -- BETWS-Y-COED
Luckily I'd remembered to pack the night before, so I just had to get up and grab a taxi down to the docks. Turns out there were a grand total of, like, two foot passengers on the whole ferry (and a total-total of like fifty people) and so I ended up chatting to this middle-aged couple from Perth who were very friendly, and read the rest of The Graveyard Book (which, as much as it pains me to say, actually isn't his best book evar, and is nowhere near as good as American Gods).
Got another car without incident (this time actually the one I'd booked, and not some upgraded enormous breeder-mobile (heh, thanks Manda), and drove out in the pouring rain along the north Wales coast (which is pretty damn cool, actually) to Conwy, where they, like, totally have a castle. Or, y'know, ruins of a castle. But it's actually pretty cool. Y'know. For a castle. :P
Had some yummy (warm) soup for lunch (did I mention it was RAINING and the castle doesn't actually, like, have a roof?) then drove through these cool big long tunnels in the cliffs along the coast and down into the Snowdonia National Park, which is one of those places that I really wanted to take photos through the windscreen as I drove, but which has scary little winding roads along the side of these spectacular red and gold mountains (which, frankly, is kind of distracting when you're trying to concentrate on the road, because, srsly, awesome) and it's pouring with rain and everyone still wants to go 80mph (like, 140km/h) and it's OMGSCARY. So I was a good, law-abiding driver, and totally didn't take random photos through the windows.
Finally managed to make it to Betws-y-Coed, which is totally the tourist-iest town in Snowdonia, but it's pretty obvious why, as it's actually utterly adorable with beautiful countryside (and billions of shops that actually sell good stuff). Had booked a good hotel for tonight, as I felt like something as far as possible from the hostel vibe, so I ended up in this coaching inn on the edge of town that was absolutely brilliant, with a four-poster bed and lots of pillows, and this totally awesome authentic little restaurant.
Very sad to be leaving Wales tomorrow. Woe. :(
WEDNESDAY 15TH OCTOBER - CHESTER
Thought it was probably de rigeur to do at least one walk in a national park in Wales, so I headed down to the Fairy Glen walk. Very, very pretty and all that, and I made it about 3/4 of the way before I realised that the bit at the bottom was totally flooded and the rest of it was actually really dangerously slippery (and there was like this ridiculously flooded, fast, scary river at the bottom that I would have slipped into), so I had to turn back. But still... what I saw was really, really nice. Yay, countryside! :)
So naturally I had to spend the rest of the morning shopping, so I wandered around all the little shops in the town, which was fun. Especially when there was totally a random, unexpected goth shop on the top floor of one of the other shops, and I seriously came very close to buying myself a replacement pair of TUK kitty shoes, but then I did the whole currency-conversion thing and realised it's ridiculously expensive. Bah.
Grabbed some lunch, then headed off to Chester, where I had no accommodation booked and no idea where I was going. Randomly decided to stay at the Travelodge (gah, I know), because it was pretty cheap and really central, and they said they had internet. Alas, they didn't mean free internet, so I couldn't quite bring myself to pay 5 pounds for an hour. Wandered around the town for a bit, until some random teenagers decided that it would be cool to point out loudly and insistently that I was totally a goth, and kept yelling it out for the whole length of the street, omg when I didn't respond. So that was fun, and I decided Chester didn't really have the best vibe for wandering around on my own in the evening, so I grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel. Yay for bad British TV.
THURSDAY 16TH OCTOBER - STRATFORD UPON AVON
Wandered around Chester for a few hours, did some shopping and actually managed to find a few nice tops to wear this weekend, which was good. Especially after weeks of looking like some sort of dero backpacker type. Ugh. But yes. Saw some of the monuments and stuff and had a wander through the roman gardens and all that (which had these adorable groups of school children on an excursion who had all been dressed up in fake armour like roman soldiers... aww.) and the roman ampitheatre and the city walls and that. Which was pretty cool, though I thought the town itself was kind of cooler, because of the double-layered shops and elizabethan architecture and that.
Anyway, headed off for Stratford-upon-Avon at lunchtime, because I wanted to see some of it before the play that I was going to (omg, David Tennant, srsly), but my map skillz are apparently lacking and I ended up first in Liverpool (uh, wrong direction, baaaad traffic), then Manchester (baaaad traffic), then Birmingham (baaaaaaaaaaaad traffic), and all-in-all, I was stuck on the M6 (major, major motorway) for a good 5 hours. Which was awesome, and which meant that by the time I made it to Stratford and actually found the b&b place I was staying, I had like half an hour until the show started. So the awesome man who ran the b&b totally drove me down to the theatre and I didn't miss it at all. Hooray!
So, like, I'd been pretty unimpressed that I'd missed out on seeing DT in Hamlet, especially as the alternative (Love's Labours Lost) is, shall we say, NOT my favourite Shakespeare play, but it's amazing how much a good performance (and, naturally RSC is like the best performance) can make it actually entertaining, and, like, good. Also, did I mention David Tennant? Phwoar. :D)
Travel Blag : Twitter : Flickr : Google Map