So my last trip was a quick break in Sweden to visit my cousin who is living there. He’s living in a small town called Växjö, which I had to fly into Copenhagen to reach. I thought I was very clever buying my train ticket from a machine at the airport, and then realised that I had no idea which train I needed to get, so I had to line up in the ticket office queue. And just missed a train. Eventually got on the right train where some nice Swedish people gave me some biscuits (and I started on the Toblerone I’d bought for my cousin in Duty Free, it was good) and helped me move to another part of the train when they changed the carriages going to Växjö. So after some phone issues (I couldn’t text my cousin) I arrived, was met by my cousin (always a bonus when you’re arriving somewhere you’ve never been) and headed to his place.

The next day I made my cousin get up early and we headed into town, first stop was a hot chocolate and some kind of Swedish biscuit thing covered in chocolate and filled with chocolatey butter. From there we headed to the Småland Museum, where we saw some amazing glass sculptures (some of them you could even touch!) as well as some archaeological stuff and an exhibition on Swedes who emigrated to the US, which was quite interesting. After that we had a walk around the lake, which was lovely with all the autumn colours, and then it was time for lunch, pizza, which is apparently quite Swedish. It was pretty nice anyway! That night we went to the movies and saw Tintin. In English and everything (which was pretty helpful to me), and we also got free yogurt.

The next day my cousin had to work so I went for a wander around the town. Surprisingly the sky was nice and blue so I took advantage of the good weather to get my camera out and take some photos of the gorgeous colours. I think I ended up in Sweden at the right time of the year as all the leaves were beautiful yellows, reds and browns, contrasting the the bright greens of the mosses on the rocks and tree stumps. There were also lots of lovely reflections from the trees in the lakes, and little birds flying around. Once my cousin had finished work we hung around for a bit before heading to the place where he worked, a bar/restaurant, which was pretty packed. I got free drinks, which is always a bonus (, and beer spilled on me, which is not so much (hand wash only top as well!).

So the following day we had an early start to get to Lund. My cousin’s alarm went off before mine, but when I checked my phone it said 6am instead of 7am. Daylight savings had ended and I could go back to sleep for an hour. My cousin just slept on the train. We got to Lund and saw the outside of the old church and then go some hot drinks and a second breakfast in a cafe while we waited for my cousins friends to recover from their hangovers from the night before and wake up. Eventually they did, so we caught up with them, went for pizza and then watched The King’s Speech and ate Swedish chocolate. Dinner was bizarrely in an English themed pub, but apparently there isn’t much open in Sweden on a Sunday, and the fish and chips were pretty good.

On the Monday we went through a walk through town again, past the lake and to the local castle, which is on another lake (there are a few of them around Växjö). I’m not convinced the castle is a real one, because it was built in the 70s and is actually a hotel and restaurant. But it’s very picturesque and has a lovely view over the lake, so I’m not going to complain too much. I had to keep reminding my cousin that I don’t speak Swedish, as he kept forgetting, which wasn’t helpful. That night my cousin was working again so I headed to the restaurant where he worked (which won Sweden’s Best Restaurant, or something like that, last year) and had dinner there. I was not disappointed, and kept eating long after the point where I should have stopped…and then they brought me a free dessert. It was a struggle, one which I did not win. After that I got to have a tour of the kitchens and the rest of the restaurant and then I headed back to bed to allow the copious amount of food I had eaten to digest.

The next day my cousin’s girlfriend had the day off (and she has a car) so we headed to the local forest. On the way we stopped at McDonald’s for some hot drinks and I was kind of unimpressed with the hot chocolate. Admittedly, it’s McDonald’s but getting a cup full of boiling water and a sachet of hot chocolate powder from a drive through seems somewhat impractical. I managed to not get burned though, and it was quite nice. Still on the way to the forest we saw one of my cousin’s girlfriend’s friends who had just missed the bus, so we turned around, gave her a lift to town, and then turned around again and went back towards the forest. We got there in the end. The forest was amazing, as well as the beautiful colours of all the leaves there were lots of little fungi clinging to rocks and tree branches. One, clinging to a tree, had the underside covered in rain drops, some coloured with sap, and looked as though it was covered in jewels. Everywhere you looked there was something else to be found. After the forest we went and stocked up on Swedish chocolates and sweets and then headed to a small village to a cafe…which was closed. Then went back into Växjö to get lunch, and found that lots of places there were also closed. We eventually found somewhere open, and it was quite nice. After all that walking we watched a movie, and then my cousin had to work again. Which meant the promised karate lesson never happened. I suspect I would have got my arse kicked, so probably not the end of the world. So my cousin’s girlfriend took me to a Thai restaurant. It was a bit strange, I think they wanted us to leave as soon as possible because they asked us to pay before we ate. However, the food was pretty good.

It was an early start the next day to head back to the airport, but airports are boring so I’ll finish it here.

So I’m currently in between jobs (once again), and decided to have a weekend in Cardiff with another vet from my last day. We were lucky enough to get some fantastic weather (27-28*C, sunny…just delightful) which made the whole weekend extra good.

I arrived in Cardiff before Liz so had a bit of a wander along the animal wall and through Bute Park to watch the sun setting. Really amazing with all the autumn colours starting to come out!

The next day we were going to do a walking tour, but we got confused and it turned out it wasn’t at 10am, but at 2pm. So we went to the National Museum, but we were too early, so we had to sit in the sun and watch a squirrel running round. It was pretty cute. Eventually the museum opened, and we felt like we were the only ones in there, until a family with a crying kid came into the same area we were in. That seemed to shatter the illusion. It was a really interesting museum, had some great natural history sections as well as how the land of Wales has changed over the millennia. It was fascinating to see how at one point it was located in the Southern Hemisphere. We also looked at some of the artwork, particularly the impressionist works, and then decided we’d had enough culture and left to have a picnic lunch in Bute Park, which was lovely. After lunch we finally got to our walking tour, which covered most of the areas we’d walked around, but gave us a lot more information on what had happened in the area. In the evening we counted bucks and hens nights (got up to 13), and ended up missing out on Cardiff’s night life to see a movie.

The next day we went to St Fagans, the National History Museum in Wales, a huge parkland with lots of historic buildings which have been moved and reconstructed on the site. It was delightful walking through the woodlands on such a sunny day, with the occasional bit of culture as we went into the old buildings. Such a variety, I think my favourite was the reconstructed Celtic village with it’s thatched roofs and fire filling the roof with smoke. We also visited the castle and finished the day with a Sunday roast. I ate too much and then my belly hurt.

And then it was back to London. So glad I booked a seat because the train was overflowing!

From Split I joined another tour the next day (which means I only had an evening in Split, guess that will get added to my list of places to revisit!) and we headed out of Croatia and into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our first stop was Mostar, where we had a walking tour. It was really interesting having a local guide who has experienced the war first hand, and some of his stories were incredible. The town itself was also lovely with an amazing old bridge, and we also had some Börek, which is a traditional filled pastry. It was also a good way to get rid of our left over Croatian money. We had some free time before going back on the bus, so a couple of us went into an art shop, but by the time they’d wrapped our purchases up we were running a little late. Ooops! At least we weren’t the last on the bus. From Mostar we had a bit of a drive to Sarajevo. Because I was running late in Mostar I hadn’t managed to get to an ATM so we went hunting for one near our hotel in Sarajevo. Easier said than done anyway. Our guide had said ‘There are some down there.’. When we’d walked for a bit and couldn’t find one we went into a tourist office and got the directions ‘I think it’s left and then right. But it could also be right and then left.’. That was helpful. The next tourist information office said ‘There are loads in the street parallel to this one.’. I wouldn’t have said loads, but eventually we found one. Even better, it worked. Then we headed out to a restaurant where Bill Clinton had eaten once (there was a picture and everything).

The next day we had a walking tour around Sarajevo with a delightful guide. She had some wonderful semi-English phrases like ‘hospitalitiski’ and ‘belovers’ and took us around some of the older (remaining) areas of Sarajevo, as well as some areas which had been affected in the war. It was amazing how much the city seems to have recovered and rebuilt though. We also visited the Sarajevo tunnel which had been built under the airport and supplied Sarajevo for several years when the city was under siege in the Bosnian War. It’s amazing the volume of supplies and people that passed through the tunnels throughout the siege. Then it was lunch where I had a local ‘burger’. Which turned to be a slab of some kind of meat on a plate next to a pile of raw onions and some pitta bread. I may have left some of it. Most of it even. But then we explored the old quarter and the shops, which was fun. I hardly bought anything. Honest. After dinner (must have been exciting, because I can’t remember a thing about it), I ended up running into a couple of people from my last tour, so I gave them my money. Well, the Bosnian currency anyway, which wasn’t going to be much use to me after that. I’m sure the good karma will come around…or perhaps it already has.

After Sarajevo we travelled to Belgrade. It was a fair journey with one of those random restaurants where we had to pre-order on the way. I think it was another meal which may have been chicken. We weren’t planning on asking too many questions. Then it was on to Belgrade where we were staying in a rather interesting hotel. It was built in the 70s as the hotel for the national airline and must have been built as an example of communist success. And then it was left to slowly decay, but is clearly genuine vintage. We had a walking tour around Belgrade, but I kept taking photos as we were walking around and getting up to the local guide as he was finishing his spiel at that point. So I don’t know a lot about Belgrade to be honest. But I’ve got some lovely photos (well, I hope so, I haven’t got round to the Belgrade photos yet). We spent much of our dinner time glaring at according players who kept trying to bother us and then failed to find the local bar street, known as Silicon Alley. Not for the computers.

After Belgrade we headed into Bulgaria, first stop Sophia. We had a walk around with our tour guide, who had to pretend he wasn’t giving us a tour. We had instructions that if anyone official started sniffing round, we had to start singing Happy Birthday. We didn’t get to that point. There are some lovely buildings in Sofia, and once again we had a hotel which was full of faded 70s grandeur. It had a breakfast room, a cafe, a restaurant and a snack room, as well as a pool, a piano bar, and apparently some kind of pole dancing bar (which was closed the night we were there). For dinner we went to a Gypsy night, which was lots of fun and had an enormous amount of meat on a platter to eat. We had Belly Dancers and male dancers dressed in Michael Jacksonesque outfits, and most of us ended up getting up to dance (including me, I got dragged up as well!). Once we were done at the Gypsy night we headed back to the piano bar, where things got broken. But not by me.

We had an explore of Sofia the next morning. There is one souvenir shop. It sells strange and slightly creepy statues of dogs. And a couple of different types of postcards. Don’t go to Sofia for the souvenirs. From Sofia we headed to Plovdiv where it was jolly warm. Because we had such a big group some of us got shifted to another hotel (apparently one of the best hotels in Plovdiv according to some random local. Actually it was pretty nice. It had a red phone in the bathroom. I’m still wondering if that was to call Batman. I’m sure that was a red phone? Maybe the red phone is some kind of presidential thing. Clearly I don’t actually know). We had a bit of a walk around Plovdiv, although all the historical sites seemed to be under construction. Which seems strange for historical sites, surely they were constructed some time ago? So instead of seeing old ruins we went into shops. That night we went into a restaurant which was built into the back of a hill and was a former nuclear bunker. When you went to the toilet you had to go through about four serious looking doors to get there. Then it was onto a bar. I got confused and thought it was the club we were supposed to be going to, until I got told we were leaving in half an hour and then it was onto a club. This club had been built up throughout the whole trip as being a bit gimmicky. We were told that the girls in the group would get a soft toy (which was as promised) and the boys would get to see tits on fire. They didn’t. But they did get very cheap alcohol. So I got to order non-alcoholic drinks (I ALWAYS have to repeat my order!) and watch other people drink a little too much. Perhaps a lot too much, there was some vomiting on the bus the next day. A few of us left early, walked back and arrived back at the same time as everyone else who had got a taxi. Although we left them to get what was advertised as ‘the worst hot dog in the world’ and went to bed. I think some people were blaming the hot dogs for their feelings of nausea the following day.

So the next day it was on to Istanbul and the last night of the tour. To be honest, we spent most of the day driving, with a not so brief stop at passport control. Apart from that we went to the Grand Bazaar with all it’s shiny things.

Our first full day in Istanbul a few of us went to some of the Turkish baths (which made us feel clean, but kind of naked) and then wandered around a bit more. So a nice relaxing day after our long tour. In the evening a group of us headed down to the Golden Horn (a body of water) and took some photos. I stepped in a rather wet gutter in my sandals. I really didn’t want to think about that one too much because it was quite close to some fish markets. Yep, ewww! But we had a big group dinner under the Galata Bridge after taking our time picking a restaurant (we were trying to get the best deal) and they’ve promised to put a photo of our group and their little chef (I think he was about 10 years old and rather shy) on a wall. Not quite sure if they’ll follow that one up!

The next day some of us headed to the Basilica Cisterna which is an ancient water storage area and it was incredible inside. They had amazing reflections of the columns, enormous fish and some wonderful Gorgon heads. We’d heard conflicting stories about how worthwhile the Cisterna was, and once we were done we realised that there are two in Istanbul. And one of them is apparently disappointing. So if you go, ensure you visit the Basilica Cisterna, and not the other one. After that five of us went on a boat trip. We were very quick and grabbed the middle deck for ourselves and spread ourselves over the table before having a tasty lunch. Then we did some swimming in the Black Sea, which was refreshing. Clearly the sight of four girls in bikinis and one guy sent out some signals and we soon had a group of American guys (oops, revealed the nationality again) joining us on our table. The pick up line they were using seemed to be showing us a pack of Turkish cigarettes with a cartoon of an unhappy couple in bed on the back and asking what we thought it meant. Associating yourself with impotence is not really a great strategy, and so when they asked if I had wifi on my phone I used the excuse that I was out of credit (ignoring the fact that I could get free wifi at the hostel), and another girl said her battery was flat. So we didn’t catch up with them that night. We did however go to Taksim Square and Beyoglu, the hip areas of Istanbul (who else cringed reading that phrase?), went to quite a nice restaurant and then several bars. The second one may have been a gay bar. It might not have been. The apple juice wasn’t very nice, particularly for £4, but that’s got nothing to do with what type of bar it was. The second bar had blankets and a lovely view of the Galata Tower, and the hot chocolate was yummy, so that was a bit nicer.

On my last full day in Istanbul a few of us went to Topkapi Palace (which I hadn’t visited last time) which was interesting, but pretty full of people, and then (as we had one guy from our tour staying at the Hilton) we crashed the Hilton Pool. That was nice, until my towel and sunglasses went missing. Which was odd, as my camera and kindle were still by the pool. Turned out they hadn’t been stolen, but had blown off my lounger. Which was a relief. Dinner was back in Beyoglu, only I’d had a dodgy kebab for lunch, so I was miserable. But no hospital this time. Yay!

And then it was back to the UK, and then end of my holiday.

So after my Cornwall trip I took the next logical step and headed to Athens. As you do. So I managed to navigate myself to the hostel and then ended up meeting someone from my next tour in my room, and then some other people in the hostel bar. So that was nice. Getting mauled by bedbugs overnight (including bites on my face) wasn’t so nice.

The next day went on a walking tour around Athens. There were only four of us on it, and we were apparently an awesome group. I think that meant that we ended up back at the meeting points before we were due to. We did start off the tour near the hostel and seemed to be getting lots of instructions of ‘Don’t go there after 9pm’ ‘Just don’t go in there.’. Well, as the only girl on the tour most of those instructions seemed to be for me. But it was very interesting walking around all the ruins and we managed to reach the Acropolis before the cruise groups so didn’t have to wait for too long. Although it seemed like Greece was conforming the EU regulations of having scaffolding on a certain number of historical sites. We also ended up an an secret spot for the changing of the guard (ok, so it was outside the Presidential Palace but don’t tell anyone because there was no one else there) and got a fantastic view and some photos with some of the guards. The outfits they wear are incredible, and it was such a hot day as well! That evening we went to the flea markets, bought some souvenirs. and then ended up having a big group dinner with a load of people from our tour group.

The next day it was an early start to join the tour. Slightly bizarre at the hotel we were meeting at as there were a load of backpackers, as well as a load of pilgrims and nuns all mingling around. There were 37 people on our tour, and by the end of it I think I probably learned about 10 names. But anyway, we then spent the rest of the day on the bus. Eventually arrived in Corfu and then went out for a traditional Greek dinner and a toga party. Apparently just dressing people in togas doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to go crazy. They might just sit around talking, in togas.

The next day was seriously hot, but I made an effort and walked to the top of the old fort in Corfu, and it really did have a fantastic view. And then I had an excuse to eat an ice-cream. Admittedly I probably would have had the ice-cream anyway. But once we’d done our sightseeing for the day we basically hung around the pool for the afternoon (we were staying at a surprisingly nice hotel, the only weird bit was the fact that the bathroom doors were just frosted glass and we were in mixed rooms). I ended up having a conversation with a woman by the pool (nationality will remain anonymous because I have some American readers. Oops!). She was asking where I was from and we were having a bit of a chat about Melbourne and the weather, it seemed to be quite a surprise to her that seasons were reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Ok, fair enough. But then she seemed to be amazed that it could take more than eight hours to fly anywhere. I explained that I hadn’t actually travelled that far because I was currently living in the UK. Then she asked where the UK was. At that point I decided I needed to leave. That night we headed back into town and we were lucky enough to have an organiser in our group (no it wasn’t me, I’m much more likely to go ‘I don’t mind’ when it comes to plans, which I know is annoying) who found somewhere for us to eat and managed to get us all a free drink. Some of us decided that rather than hitting the bars afterwards we’d get some ice-cream and then walk home. The people who went into bars ended up catching the bus back and beating us home. Apart from a group of guys who headed across Corfu to get more drunk.

So, we didn’t hear the guy who was in our room coming back in the night but the alarm on his phone went off for about fifteen minutes the next day and didn’t wake him up. The other girl in our room and I couldn’t see his phone, and we weren’t going to go looking for it. Eventually the girl in our room prodded him to wake him up. He swore a little and made us turn around when he realised he was naked. At least he had a sheet on. So then it was back on the bus, with a group of still drunk guys who entertained us?? (alright, annoyed) with inappropriate chants which then got stuck in our heads. From Greece it was on to Albania, where the roads deteriorated. We got to get up close to an old bunker, but also had a random lunch (apparently chicken? I’m still not sure). We ended up at our ‘beach resort’ which was apparently a former military compound, and had a bit of a swim (I kept to the pool) and went to the shops. The directions were ‘Walk along the beach, turn right at the pile of rubbish, go past the fake McDonald’s and then you’ll find a shop. They’ll take any currency’. The pile of rubbish was why I kept to swimming in the pool. Our dinner was included in the trip, but it gave me flashbacks to the food they gave us when I was living in college. And then I got kept awake by a mosquito buzzing around my head all night. Apparently Albania is going to be a very different place in 10 years. Perhaps wait a little while until you make your visit.

And then the next morning we were back on the bus again. It took us two hours stuck in traffic to get to the border. That was painful. So we got to Budva in Montenegro a bit late, had a swim in the sea (much cleaner but seriously crowded!) and then had an awesome barbecue at the hostel. They asked us to give them a song list, and it was cheesy music the whole way! Only then they played two of our songs, and then some random techno stuff. Not impressed. Then they made us all go to bed.

Guess what we did the next day? We got back on the bus! But then we visited Kotor, a lovely city in Montenegro with a fantastic old town where we got to stretch our legs and explore. Next it was on to Croatia. We stopped in Dubrovnik for lunch, but by the time we had eaten we only had twenty minutes to get back to the bus, so I think Croatia might be somewhere I need to get back to. I guess we picked the wrong place to eat, but it might also be that famous Mediterranean service. Driving through Croatia we had to pass through ten kilometers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Again the queue at passport control was insane, but this time our driver headed down the wrong side of the road, pushing into the lane of traffic every time we came across a vehicle coming the other way. It was insane, but rather awesome and we saved about two hours time. Plus, we weren’t exactly pushing in as once we got to the front we could joint the bus lane, which was empty. That night I had a brief stop in Split, which I also feel I need to see more of, and finished my first Eastern European tour.

So after my weekend in London, I left town (good timing, the riots really took off on the Monday) and headed in the direction of Cornwall. First stop was Stonehenge, which was really amazing, and we were lucky enough to have a bit of sunshine, and good timing, as the crowds were far worse as we were leaving than at the start of our visit. It’s incredible that people could have moved such large stones onto each other so long ago, and also that the structures have survived as long as they have. Our next stop was Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest spire in Britain and some really interesting artwork inside. Next it was on to Glastonbury Tor, which was so windy! I got blown back towards the edge of the hill at one point. Luckily I was about three meters from the edge! Then we had a fantastic drive through Cheddar Gorge, which is Britain’s biggest gorge. We saw climbers and goats, but unfortunately no climbing goats. That would have been cool. Finished the day in Cheddar and in celebration had something with cheese in it for dinner.

Our first stop the next day was Canonteigh Falls, the highest waterfalls in England, and they were created in 1890 when the 3rd Lady Exmouth decided to employ some redundant miners to build the falls. I’m not sure how altruistic her motives really were, I suspect she just wanted a waterfall in her grounds. But it was pretty impressive, particularly the view from the top (which did mean we had a bit of a hike to get there). After lunch we saw Hay Tor in Dartmoor which looks like a giant’s foot sticking out of the ground. Normally I don’t really like feet that much, but that one was ok. It wasn’t hairy or anything. Then it was on to the Clapper Bridge at Postbridge. A clapper bridge is one formed by big stone slabs for ponies to cross. Although I’m not quite sure how easily they would have climbed the steps to get onto the bridge. And then it was on to Newquay. It was noisy.

The following day we visited the amazing Minack Theatre, an open air amphitheatre on a cliffside overlooking the sea. It would be fantastic to see a show there! Then it was on to Land’s End, the most westerly point of mainland England, and we had a bit of a walk along the coast to Sennon Cove. Even saw a shipwreck on the way! It was more amazing sites after that with St Michael’s Mount, an island where a giant once lived (apparently), with a fantastic castle on it. Ok, so we didn’t actually go onto the island, but the view from the coast was pretty spectacular. We did get quite a nice stop in St Ive’s, a lovely coastal town, which we explored and had lunch in. It was lovely and sunny as well, although we just watched other people swimming – it wasn’t quite that warm. On the way back to Newquay we stopped at a cider farm, where I had some ice-cream and saw a mummy pig head-butting her piglets and a highland cow (I thought I’d seen all of those when I was in Scotland). And then back to Newquay for another restful night’s sleep. Or not.

My last morning in Newquay was a real treat because I got to go surfing! I’m not sure why I had to leave Australia and go to the UK to go surfing for the first time, but it was so much fun. We got to wear wetsuits as well, so I really wasn’t that cold. And I pretty much managed to stand up…and then fall off the board. But I wasn’t as bad as I feared. My last wave was pretty awesome too. As I caught the wave another board came over my head, but I managed to stay on, although no longer going straight, so then I hit someone else’s board, kept going and managed to stop myself just before hitting someone else. It was carnage and I got a high five from the surfing instructor. Gnarly dude! Yeah, I don’t think I can quite get away with using surfing slang. Give me another lesson and maybe I’ll even get a dolphin tattoo. After our surfing we didn’t have time for bacon and eggs (that would have been wonderful), so instead we visited Tintagel Castle, which is said to be the birthplace of King Arthur. Although I probably have to mention that there is no evidence for that. As we were in Cornwall we decided to go for some Cornish Pasties as well. We must have picked the right shop because by the time we got out pasties the line went round the block. Too big to eat the whole thing though! Final stop for the day was Bath where our tour guide drank lots of Pimm’s and then woke up one of the girls who’d gone home early because she thought she was missing out.

In the morning in Bath a few of us went to the Bath Spa and relaxed in the minerally water and the flavoured steam rooms which was quite nice after travelling for a couple of weeks. We then went on to a charming little village called Lacock, the setting for a number of period movies, and then went and saw the enormous stone circles of Avebury. Amazing that there are houses and streets within the stone circles. That evening I caught up with a few people from my Wales tour and we saw ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ in London, which had some fantastic music, and for £10 our seats really weren’t that bad.

Taken from a tall, tall tower

The day after we climbed Donas Bran we were back on the bus. First we had a quick stop at ‘The Ugly House’, which apparently dates back to a period in Wales where they had a rule that if you could build a house between dusk and dawn and have a fire in it by the next day, you could have the house and the land it was on. I really didn’t think it was all that ugly! Then we went to Conwy Castle, which was a proper fairytale castle, with lots of towers and turrets, and the expectation of a fire breathing dragon! I climbed to the top of the tallest castle, and then had to climb all the way down the winding stairs. Then I had a walk along the old town walls, which gave a lovely view of the castle and the estuary with all the boats (it also had narrow staircases though) and went into the smallest house in Great Britain, which apparently an old couple had lived in, and a six foot sailor (at separate times). It was very, very small. But quite delightful. Our next stop was
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch, which has the third longest place name in the world, which translates as ‘The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave’, and we really only visited to take some photos of signs (I’m such a tourist!). Then we were off to Pen y Pass at the base of Mount Snowdon, and took the miners track part way up the mountain. It was a lovely walk, and we even saw some sheep. Then we learned the legend of the dog Gelert and saw his grave. Finally we finished the day in Caenarfon, where we saw another castle. We were going to do a ghost tour, and we got there in time, but after waiting past the start time, we realised we must have been in the wrong place. I’m still not sure where the right place was. But I got some nice ‘castle at night’ photographs, which is always a bonus.

The next day we visited the towns of Dolgellau and Machylleth, an ancient capital of Wales, learning some Welsh history along the way (if you’re interested, look it up, I can’t remember the details anymore), and then visited Devil’s Bridge. The legend there goes that an old woman had a cow and was looking for a place to cross the river (even at this point my cynicism is coming through, surely if the old woman was local she would know where to cross the river), when the Devil appeared and offered to build a bridge (must have been a quiet day in Hell), for the price of the first soul to cross the bridge. The old woman (not sure how her age is relevant to the story) thought about it and eventually agreed, particularly after the Devil said ‘But wait, there’s more! If you agree now, I’ll build, not one, but three bridges’ (seriously, shouldn’t he be off planning ironic punishments in Hell?). So anyway, the Devil built the three bridges and stood there smugly (as only Devil’s can) waiting for the woman to cross the bridge. She picked up a stick and threw it across and her dog ran across to get the stick becoming the first soul to cross. I imagine the Devil was a little pissed. You also have to imagine this story being told in the various accents of our tour guide. But the bridge/s are pretty cool, even in the rain. After Devil’s Bridge it was on to Cardiff, where we ended up being really lazy and instead of going out, watched Torchwood (which is kind of Cardiff related).

We had the following morning in Cardiff, and I had a walk along the River Taff to the Millenium Centre and then back into town, and to Cardiff Castle. The inside of the castle was amazing, covered in Victorian era, medieval style interiors, full of crests, murals and sculptures in bright colours. I also visited the wartime tunnels in the castle, which had more sound effects than substance, and Cardiff market. The final stop in Wales was Caerleon, an old Roman town with some lovely Roman baths as well as the ruins of an amphitheater. Than night in London I saw Billy Elliot, which was lots of fun!

I had the weekend in London and on the Saturday morning I did a tour of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Quite a similar style to Cardiff Castle with Victorian neo-gothic interiors (but I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside). The level of intricacy and opulence throughout was incredible, although the Lords Chamber was much more richly decorated than the Commons. After I’d finished I crossed the road to Westminster Abbey, which was completely different from what I’d expected. After visiting other churches I was expecting a kind of grand, consistent design, but it was a warren of different chapels, crowded with tombs, memorials and tourists, so quite an interesting place to wander around. Apart from the unnecessary emphasis on the word ‘theory’ in the phrase ‘Darwin’s theory of evolution’, the audio guide was good…until it stopped working. At that point the only guide around was a rather elderly lady, who gave me the impression she wasn’t overly confident with technology. But she found me another guide, and I managed to get that working. Then it was a rest before I went out to see Shrek the musical, which was very funny (particularly Lord Farquaad) and had some amazing props. The only issues I had were the American accents (I have no problem with accents that are relevant to the story, but when it’s set in a fantasy land, surely the actors can use their own accents?), and the fact that there was only one song from the movie. I love the movie music, I even bought the CD (actually bought, not just burned off someone else).

On the Sunday I went to Greenwich which is a really lovely area, and a bit more chilled than other parts of London. I went to the Royal Observatory and stood on the Meridian Line, as well as saw all the amazing clocks and telescopes they had there. At the Astronomical Museum I saw a show in a planetarium (I’ve never been to a planetarium before, so I’m not too old for it!) about comets and asteroids. If you are going to a planetarium the best seats seem to be at the back…I sat at the front. Then it was onto the Maritime Museum where I had a tour from a guy with his fly undone (I should have said something) and then I escaped from the rain in the Queen’s Palace. It was still raining when I was going to leave so I did a survey. My second of the weekend. I always get asked to do stuff like that. Maybe I need to glare more and smile less. Then I went to Greenwich market, where I bought the wrong food, and then left my umbrella on the tube. It was raining quite a lot (hiding from the rain by doing the survey turned out to be pointless). After hiding under London Bridge for a bit I battled my way through the unpleasant weather and eventually bought a London umbrella, as I left the shop the rain had stopped and I still haven’t used the umbrella (I’ve now had it for three weeks, this email is a bit delayed). I met up with a friend after that and we saw a couple of free musicals at the scoop (taking my musical quota for the weekend to four). We saw ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ which was lots of fun, and ‘The Mother’ a much darker, revolutionary play, but very interesting. Many of the same actors appeared in both plays, very versatile. The only problem was that as it was outside, in London, it was freeeezing by the time it finished!

Alright, I’ll end it there for the moment, and fill you in on the rest of my adventures during August a little later…there are many more to come!

The next day we headed into Wales, first stop was Chepstow where my mum and dad used to live, so that was quite cool. We had some photos with one foot in England and one in Wales, and then went to Tintern Abbey, a lovely old ruined church and had a picnic lunch. After that we went into a coal mine. Because of the dangers of methane gas (luckily my dad wasn’t on the tour) we had to surrender anything with batteries before starting, so that was farewell to my camera temporarily *sob*, and we also had to strap special battery packs weighing five kilograms on for torches. It would have been ok the weight was around my hips, but they decided that it would be much better to tie the waist strap rather tightly around kidney height, which was a little painful by the end of the tour. It was very interesting having a tour from a former miner around an old mine, but there were some pretty terrible working conditions there long ago. I don’t think I’m considering a career change to become a miner. Following the mine, we had to have something to balance the slightly claustrophobic conditions, so we had a walk to the top of the Bloringe (one of the few words which rhymes with orange) and we saw some horses. Or maybe sheep. It’s been a while since I did it, and I don’t have my journal with me. But everything else is pretty accurate (apart from spellings).

The following day our first stop was in Hay-on-Wye, a lovely town famed for its large number of book shops. I only bought four which is quite restrained for me. I loved the Honesty Book shops with shelves of books outside, slowly being grown over my ivy and cobwebs, as the books themselves suffered from mildew and bending. After that we saw a big mural in Builth Wells and then walked over the Pontcysylte aqueduct, which is partially made of bulls blood and sugar. Although you can’t tell by looking at it (that fact is actually true, you can even look it up if you like!). Next we went to Llangollen and climbed up to the castle Dinas Bran, which was on the top of a steep hill and only used for about twenty years, so it’s a bit of a ruin. I imagine the people who lugged the rocks to the top of the hill to build the castle were pretty disappointed that it fell into disuse so quickly. But it does have a lovely view once you make it allllll the way to the top.

The next day I went to Hever Castle to see some jousting. The castle is where Anne Boyelyn (can’t be bothered checking how that’s spelled right now), and we also got lost in a maze, did some archery and then watched knights hit each other in various ways. Lots of fun sitting in the sunshine, watching some violence. Our team won, a great part of which was due to our hilarious squire, encouraging us all to cheer. It was obviously well rehearsed, but some of the stunts were pretty impressive as they flipped each other, fell off horses, speared heads on the end of lances, and hooked hoops on the end of their lances. After Hever castle I caught up with Jolene, who I travelled with through Turkey with last year, and we went to Albert Hall to see the BBC Proms. It’s such an incredible venue and the musicians were amazingly skilled. After that we tried to get to China Town for dinner but we got lost. Another great quote was from a drunken Irish guy who was saying ‘I’m going to punch him in the fecking head’, then saw us and said ‘Evening darlings.’. So after getting lost, we called it a night, and someone gave me a gang sign on the tube. Alright, it may not have been a gang sign, but I’m not too familiar with them.

A lovely town with lots and lots of books, one of my favourites things. In the end I managed to restrain myself and only bought four.

Just a brief update today. Currently in London and up until the point where an ATM are my card I was having a lovely time. So far I’ve seen a show at the Globe, a performance at the Royal Albert Hall, some jousting and done a walk on deaths in London. More details will come later. Still poised off about the card thing though!