day 9

I spent this weekend in Wales with the Westminster group. Wales is a lovely country, all green and alive. And it actually has hills, which were very welcome after all this flatness. I feel like I should explain some things before I get started. Great Britain is made up of four separate parts: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. You can think of these places as states, but more fancy. They are each slightly independent, but mostly under control of the British Parliament. Scotland has its own Parliament and Wales has a Council, where they can make their own laws for their own country, but they all answer to London.

Wales used to be where pretty much all the coal for the British Empire was mined. It had huge mines where tons and tons of coal were mined to fuel ships and trains and factories. 1 in 10 Welsh citizens worked in coalmines, men, women, and children at times. But in the 1980s after a lot of labor strikes and unions, Margaret Thatcher’s government shut down all of the coalmines, making unemployment skyrocket. Wales is only now beginning to get over the huge unemployment slump.

Anyway, enough of that. I had to get up super early this morning to meet the buses at Madame Tussauds (something else I need to visit) to get on the coaches (buses). I was able to get a double seat near my friends, so the ride was looking good. Our coach’s guide was Eric, and if you ever want to know anything about the UK, he’s the one to go to. Over our long bus rides I learned more history from him than I dare to even try to put on here. I learned where the term “Keep you eyes peeled” came from (it was from Bobbies (policemen) when they were under a guy, I think named Peeler, who wanted them to be very vigilant about their duties) and “sleep tight” (when people slept on straw mattresses in wooded frames they would tighten ropes around the bed to keep the mattress from sagging). He also told us very long stories about the succession of kings throughout the history of England, which is a very, very long tale.

So we drove and drove all the way to Wales and we went to the Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre and Soldier barracks, which were very interesting. Though there was little left but the foundations of where the Roman soldiers stayed, Erik told us, again, a lot of information about Roman life in Britain. They had a very good sewer system that kept everything moving, unlike the moats around most castles were everything just sits and festers. It was all very planned out and effective.



The Amphitheatre was even better. It still had many of the stone walls that surrounded the main pit and had a lot of alcoves that we all enjoyed taking pictures in. I learned a few things about amphitheatres as well. In rural areas like where we were there were not the big gladiator battles and lion and bear death matches. It was probably fighting until first blood, as they didn’t want to be killing all their soldiers off and all the professional gladiators were off in cities where they could get money for their work. The men here probably would have fought wolves or wild bores instead of the big flashy animals.

We left the Roman stuff behind and moved into the medieval era. We drove onto Caerphilly Castle, a huge ancient castle, also mostly in ruins, but still beautiful and fascinating. But there was a lot of problems that came with this. We had to get lunch in the village next to the castle. Seeing as we’ve never been there before, we decided to eat at the supermarket, because they had a café and that would be a quick bite to eat then off to the castle. Just one problem: everyone had he exact same idea. And we were the last in line. So we stood in line at this supermarket for about 50 minutes, and we only had an hour until we met at the castle for our tour. So we finally got to order (I got sausage and mash) and sat down. Then we had to wait forever for the food to get there. Then the food was boiling hot, so I was trying to eat it as fast as I could and it was burning my mouth. My group was totally stressed and just wanted to leave and see the castle.

So we finally finished all our stupid food and we were 10 minutes late for the tour, so they said we should wait and Erik would come back and get us. I didn’t want to do that because that meant more standing around and less seeing the amazing ancient castle. So I went ahead inside and my group followed and we got on the tail end of Erik telling everyone about the castle. I was really disappointed because even though he talked a lot, he really knew his stuff and made it really relatable. Then we moved into the great hall and Erik talked some more about the history of the castle, which was very interesting, even though I can’t really remember it.



Then we only had 40 minutes to see the amazing castle. So I raced around and tried to see as many rooms as I could an took lots of pictures. And of course there were other students from the group all over the place, making the spiral staircases that I usually love nearly impossible to go up or down them. I had to use some ninja moves to get down some of them because there always seemed to be people coming up or down the other side.

But it was a really cool place despite all these things. I could have spent half a day there, walking around the rooms and staircases, finding all the little nooks and secret places. Something I’ve realized when you go to castles is that you start pretending you own them. You go into the great hall and can’t help but pretend you’re a king at a feast and all these people are here to see you. And don’t think it’s just me who does this! Everyone in my group said the same thing, so don’t think I’m on some ego trip.



Anyway, once our very short time at the castle was up we got back on the bus and made our way to St Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Life. For all of you who plan on traveling to Wales in you life, this is something you don’t need to feel bad about leaving out of the itinerary. It’s a big area they’ve used to recreate the buildings the Welsh used in the old days for farming and such. And guess what. Peasants in Wales live like peasants in England live like pilgrims in America: in tiny little houses with tiny fields and tiny barns. It was super boring. It really didn’t look any different from the recreation of the settler’s farm in Cherokee, except that it had a lot more trees and sheep. And we had some much time there! We should have spent that time at the awesome castle! The only cool think about it was there was a fancy manor house on a hill behind the farm area that had a beautiful garden. We walked around in there until it was time to leave. That’s when Erik found me and told me our Wicked tickets had been confirmed for Monday night! Huzzah!!

We then drove to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, to get to our hotel. Cardiff is a pretty small city, as in there are few very tall buildings, but it was fine just the same. We stayed at an Etap, which meant bunk beds. Fortunately, my roommate said he would take the top, which made sense because I was taller anyway. What was weird about our room was the shower. It had no handle, but a hole in the door to open it. I’m glad I wasn’t planning on taking a shower in there, because anyone passing by could totally see into it. I’m not saying my room was part of a parade route of people who wanted to looking into my shower door hole, but it was still there.

My friends and I decided we wanted to go to a pub for dinner because most of the people in my group wanted to watch the USA vs. Ghana football (soccer) game. I could care less, but pubs mean good food, so we went to the Prince of Wales. This was different from the Prince of Wales we went to in London, and was much, much bigger and much nicer. They also had a very cheap menu. I wanted a steak, but they were all out of steak, so I got a kind of pork streak that had pineapple on top that was very good with chips (fries). I split a fantastic and easy dessert with Allie for 2 pounds. It was a Belgium waffle with chocolate sauce on top, and three scopes of ice cream. It was amazing!

USA lost the football match, but I didn’t care to begin with. Then because it was still light out we went to what I thought was a bar but turned out to be a club. I mostly sat there while everyone else drank. What was interesting about this place was that there were about a dozen different “stag” and “hen” parties, which were bachelor and bachelorette parties. And all the different parties had people dressed up in really strange costumes, like nurses or princesses, all completely gaudy. The guys were even worse. One group was all dressed up like women in spandex leotards and big fake knockers. It was all really crazy.

My friends wanted to go downstairs and dance, so I went with them and bounced to the music I didn’t recognize. But then they played Bad Romance (Lady Gaga of course) and then I had a great time because I actually knew what was going on. But for the rest of the night it was just ok to me. I’ve really come to understand that fun for me does not mean going out to the club and getting drunk (which I of course have never done). Fun to me is going out to have a fancy or interesting dinner, or seeing a show (like Wicked!!!) or seeing a really funny movie. Those are the things I really get excited about doing and have the most fun at, and I’m fine with that. It’s not better or worse than other forms of fun, but there are a lot less creepy old men at my places.

After a while at that place Allie and I decided we were done and walked back to the hotel. I went right to sleep before my roommate even came back.

British word of the day: subway = a walkway that goes under the road for pedestrians, not a train. That's the underground or tube.