wales

It’s been a couple of days since our friend departed for Sweden, albeit four hours later than scheduled, and we’ve been trying to equilibrate back to steady-state. It has been 2 weeks of sightseeing, pub quizzes, late nights, and sleeping in (not for me though, as I tried to have fresh-from-the-oven baked goods on the breakfast table). On Wednesday -- the day after our friend left -- our morning routine was not as sharp and synchronized as before and we almost missed our respective trains. My legs were still on holiday mode but this feeling perhaps could be due to the after-effects of water aerobics from the night before.

My mind is also still on vacation time because writing this entry has never been such a daunting task. I’ve never been much of a procrastinator, as I’m definitely a let’s-get-going-type-of-gal! There are so many fun stories to tell but typing these words has never been so difficult. To make this task less intimidating, I'll focus the past week in ladylike bites -- over a few days -- unlike the ravenous bites our guest devoured my baking and cooking ;)

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

After a day in Derby to clean up and to find a flowered-cover for our flyless-friend, we headed northwest towards Wales based on a semi-positive forecast [Aside: From the weather we’ve been having, light rain as opposed to heavy rain is significantly positive!] Despite the early start we had, we didn't get to the base of Snowdon Mountain until nearly noon.

Despite being mid week, the trail to the summit was busy. Families, groups of school kids were hiking up the highest mountain in Wales. There's one thing about mountain weather: it's less predictable than the 5-day forecast. Although we had brief glimpses of the summit and the lower lake, when we got to the peak, we only had an arm's-length-view due to the thick clouds.


By the end of our tenure in the UK, we're going to lose our hard-camping-edge we developed from backpacking in BC. I think our edge is starting to rub off, as we're definitely getting used to camping in farm fields with running water facilities and going to a nearby pub to grab dinner and beers after a day hike. There's no need to filter drinking water anymore.

We played supporting characters in a Fawlty Towers skit when we had dinner at The Vaynol Arms. We nearly had to order everything on the menu before selecting something that was available in the kitchen. They even had an entertaining string jazz quartet. See, the edge is rubbing off by the second...

The next day we did a short tour of northern Wales. First, onto Isle of Anglesey, where our friend insisted that he had to swim in the other ocean of the UK.


Then a stop in Caernarfon and Conwy before heading home to the out-of-tune sounds of show/pop/folk tunes in the car.