Anglesey

Saturday, our group explored the Isle of Anglesey, a large island across from Bangor on the other side of the Menai Strait. I really enjoyed this trip, and we visited lots of different places around the island

Our first stop was the town with the longest place name in the UK. In the 1800's this tiny town renamed itself Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch (Llanfair PG for short) to try to attract more tourists. This means "St. Mary's Church in the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave." The name change was a success for numerous tourists now come to get their picture under the railway station's sign.


Next, we saw Puffin Island and Penmon Priory. Puffin Island is another island just off of Anglesey named because of the large puffin population it once had. However, in the 1800's rats were accidentally brought to the island, severely decreasing the population. These days, the rats are being eliminated and the puffin population is slowly growing again. We were lucky to have a sunny, beautiful day; and the view was gorgeous.


The older parts of Penmon Priory date back to around the 6th century and was established by St. Seiriol. Vikings destroyed a lot of the Celtic pieces but some such as two Celtic crosses remain (one pictured right). Even though they were a very weathered, it was cool to see in person something that was over a thousand years old. They are quite tall and very beautiful. They originally stood outside to mark a consecrated ground, but were moved inside to be preserved. After viewing the old monastery and a nearby dovecot, we walked along a little path to St. Seiriol's holy well. This well is hidden from the road and much different from St. Winifrede's. A little hut covered the actual well, and it has yet to be turned into a real tourist attraction. I don't know much about St. Seiriol; but the well is suppose to have healing ability, especially for the eyes.



We then spent a few hours in the little town Beaumaris. This town's main attraction is the Beaumaris Castle, King Edward's largest castle in Wales. This and Llanddwyn Island were my favorite stops of the day. Beaumaris is one of the most fortified castles. There are 14 elements of the castle the enemy must overcome to get to the main area, including an outer wall with 16 towers and murder holes at the gates. This castle even had a moat around it, but it didn't look too intimidating because it was only a foot deep when we saw it. While we were there, we walked on top the outer wall, found many dead ends in the passage ways, and saw a lovely chapel room with creamy-white walls and carefully crafted arches. It was a beautiful place and we spent most of our time in Beaumaris there.

A few of us got ice cream and ate lunch on the pier. Then we all loaded onto the bus and headed to the Marquis Tower. Marquis Tower is a tall column with a statue of the first Marquis of Anglesey standing on top. Henry William Paget (first Marquis of Anglesey) gained his fame by being a general in the Napoleon War and found in the Battle of Waterloo. The statue was added to honor him after his death. We climbed a spiral staircase inside the column up to the top. It was very narrow stairs and not very well lit. Someone counted 115 steps; and to be honest, the descent was a little terrifying.

The last stop of the day was amazing. We went to the beach and Llandwyn Island. I have been looking at the ocean from a distance this whole semester so far, so I was thrilled to finally get to touch it. We walked along and admired the views for a while until we reached Llandwyn Island. The tide was low enough when we were there that is was more like a peninsula so we just walked right onto it. This place had some of the coolest views; there were beautiful cliffs and huge waves crashing against the rocks, wild ponies, two lighthouses, and ruins of St. Dwynwen's chapel, the Welsh saint of lovers. It was a great place to end a beautiful day, and I hope to go back later during a warmer time of the year.

Liverpool

We went on our fourth field trip this past weekend to the English city Liverpool. Here we visited two cathedrals and the Beatles Story. It is also called the City of Pop and the Capital of Northern Wales (because they established the city), and Liverpool is known for the Beatles, the dockland area, and its history as a major slave trade port.

The bus let us off at the Anglican Cathedral. This is the largest cathedral in the UK and fifth in the world. It was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott at age 22 (same man who designed the famous red telephone booths) and took 74 years to build, complete only since 1978. It has survived two world wars; and needless to say, I was impressed. It is ginormous! I loved the tall ceilings and the beautiful wood work. The alter was covered with intricate carvings of biblical scenes and there was even a bridge in the middle of the building for choirs to sing from. We would have gone up to the bell tower too, which I have heard is amazing, but we couldn't because they were putting in a new lift (elevator) or something.

Our next stop was to the Metropolitan (or Roman Catholic) Cathedral. It is much different from the Anglican Cathedral, for it is completely modern. The benches inside are placed all around the circle with the center being the alter area; and there are little side spaces along the outside of the circle for smaller services, baptisms, etc. The stain-glass in the middle of the ceiling was gorgeous; otherwise, I could not feel the same astonishment as for the Anglican Cathedral.

Next, we journeyed past the docks and to the Beatles Story. Being that Liverpool is where the Beatles got started, there is a lot of information about them here. The museum actually had two sites to it but we only visited the first building. We had an audio tour again both here and at the Anglican Cathedral, but this time they were much better and easier to follow. Though I like a lot of their songs, I'm not a crazy Beatles fan. But I still found it fun to see how they all met and how at the beginning, nobody wanted to sign with them. I learned many random and interesting facts such as Ringo's real name is Richard Starkey and that the Beatles were actually in Bangor when they found out their manager Brian Epstein had passed away. After the museum, we were free to wonder around Liverpool for a little over an hour. By the time we ate and looked through some shops, we didn't have much time to explore. We quickly saw the River Mersey and walked through a business area and docks before heading back to the bus. It was a fun day and I enjoyed seeing another side of the UK.

London

So this past weekend, a group of us decided to go to London for a couple days. I left Bangor with seven other students Friday night and we took a train to London. Before I came to Wales, my experience with public transportation was the school bus so I was excited to try it. We only had one change and it all went very smoothly. During the day, a train to London from Bangor would only take three hours but our night train was closer to five. I wouldn't have minded so much except I forgot my mp3 player and only had a deck of cards to entertain me the whole way down. Immediately when we got to London, I faced my next adventure with public transportation: the Tube. I was glad to be with a group of people otherwise I would never have tried the subway system on my own. Fortunately, one of the girls in our group had been in London before and knew what we needed to do. By the end of the weekend I was a little more comfortable with the Tube, but I still wouldn't take it by myself. One thing I'll never be comfortable with is the electrified third rail. I stayed as far away from it as possible and tensed up every time someone walked dangerously close to the edge of the platform.

This weekend we stayed in a hostel called the Hyde Park Inn. It looked really nice on the outside, but the rooms were another story. Our group was divided amongst a few rooms and I with three others had a room of 16 "beds." These "beds" looked more like giant cubbies stacked three high with curtains, and I swear the room was about the size of our kitchen at home. I knew hostels weren't the nicest accommodations, but I guess I had envisioned the rooms to look more like the ones from camp or something. Though I was exhausted from all the trains it took me a while to get to sleep. The bed was uncomfortable and some people came in late at night and made lots of noise. But it was only for two nights and was cheap so I managed.

Saturday was awesome though. We walked around and visited Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square where we met up with some more students who had came a day earlier. Then we saw the outside of Westminster Abbey and broke back up into two groups. One group went to Wicked the musical and my group walked around some more. We saw Big Ben and Parliament and crossed over the Thames to get tickets for the London Eye. We ended up getting a package deal for the Eye and the Sea Life Aquarium. The Eye was amazing! It is 443 ft tall and one revolution takes 30 minutes. At the top you can see for miles and it has a great view of Big Ben and Parliament right on the other side of the river. It is a little awkward getting on and off because the wheel doesn't stop, so you have to get about 15 people into a glass capsule while it is still moving. However, it was a spectacular experience and one of my favorite moments in London.

After that we decided to walk over to the London Tower Bridge. It was getting dark by this time and everything was lit up pretty. Along the way we ran into lots of random cool things such as a the HMS Belfast (a Royal Navy cruiser from WWII) resting in the river and people making impressive sand sculptures. Reaching the Tower Bridge was satisfaction of itself just because it was really cold all day, and the walk was over an hour and a half. But the bridge was beautiful too. The bright blue beams stood out in the night and the top walkways connecting the towers were covered in pink lights. It was fun just to be at one of the most recognizable symbols of London and was the perfect place to end our first day in London.

Some of our group left early Sunday morning so there were only six of us that day. We took it easy compared to Saturday. We visited Abbey Road and tried to copy the Beatles famous picture. Then we did some shopping at the markets in Camden Town where we met up with a friend of ours studying at Central's London Program. We finished our time in London by visiting Platform 9 3/4 which was honestly a little bit of a let down to the Harry Potter fans of our group. You can't actually go on platforms 9 and 10 unless you are boarding a train at King's Cross Station so the "platform" is a five foot long section of a wall with shiny brick wallpaper that says "Platform 9 3/4" and has part of a luggage cart sticking out of it. Despite the mild disappointment, we still took pictures of us fake pushing the cart through the wall and headed back to Bangor mid afternoon.

I am so glad I went, and there is still so much I didn't see: inside of Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, any museums... But I know I'll get to go again sometime this semester and I can't wait!