Last Two Field Trips

We had our last two field trips this past couple weekends. Two Sundays ago we went to Conwy Castle (above) and the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay. Conwy is a neighboring town to Bangor and its traditional industry is the mussels industry. When we arrived at Conwy we walked the perimeter of the old town on top of medieval wall there. It was fun because we got a different view of the town and the castle. This wall is mostly intact, 3/4 of a mile long, and has 21 towers. It was built with the castle to act as part of the defence. The castle was another built by King Edward I in the late 1200s, and it is considered to be one of his most impressive. It was a little different than the others because there seemed to be more rooms and less open space in the center, and in the middle of the castle was a giant well. Though the dark winding staircases can get a little tiresome, my favorite part of the castle were the towers.

The zoo was fun. It was small but had some interesting animals. The main reason we went were to see the British species such as the red squirrels and mountain goats but we saw tigers, monkeys, penguins, and other animal too. My favorite part was watching the chimpanzees. They lived in what looked like a giant room with no ceiling and giant glass windows for us to see in. They seemed to have there own little gangs and personalities. While we were watching them, one ran right up to our window and threw itself at it a couple times while yelling. Fortunately, the glass was sturdy, making it awesome instead of terrifying. We also watched a bird show with owls, parrots, and a penguin parade at the end. We were told there is a huge zoo in Chester, so we now want to go there before the end of the semester.

Our last field trip was a little one to Penrhyn Castle, a country house built in the early 1800s. The Pennant family who lived there made their fortune from Wales' slate quarries and Jamaican sugar. It is estimated they bought it for 150,000 pounds which today would be 49,500,000 pounds or $79,200,000. The house is incredible; it has an amazing staircase with intricately carved stone railings, walls, and ceiling. There was a bed entirely made from slate and a Victorian kitchen full of giant copper pots. The family was friends with the royal family and on numerous occasions, they would come stay at Penrhyn, including Queen Victoria herself. There are so many rooms, one could easily get lost, and I decided it would be the ultimate place to play hide-and-seek. Penrhyn also had some beautiful gardens. We visited a walled in Victorian garden which was very beautiful despite the light rain. There was also a swamp garden. It looked like a mix between a swamp and a jungle. It had the ginormous plants with leaves that were 2-4ft big. It was a wonderful day and a perfect place for our last field trip.

Ireland

Part of the program is a 6 day trip to Ireland during the last week of our spring break. We spent the first half on the east coast in Dublin and the second half in the west coast in Galway. When our director said we were taking a ferry over I did not expect the giant ship we took with tables and a restaurant and a little theater section. I guess I didn't realize how many people travel between Ireland and Wales. Unlike Cardiff, there were few arranged tours in Dublin. However, our director gave us a couple walking tours, pointing out different parts such as the Liffey River; Oscar Wilde Memorial, a famous Victorian writer; and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Otherwise we were on our own. We checked out some museums and art galleries, and a group of us attended a Catholic service on Easter. Dublin was OK, it just kind of felt like another big city to me. The only time I really felt I was in Ireland there was when we listened to the Irish bands playing in the pubs. That is quite an experience itself. The pub is literally full of people and pretty much impossible to move around in, and the music varies from folk songs to classic rock.

After a couple of days in Dublin, we packed up and headed to Galway. This was a very different experience from Dublin. It is the fifth largest city in Ireland but still only 1/7 the population of Dublin. Galway is home to the Claddagh ring. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it is a ring with two hands holding a heart with a crown on top, representing friendship, love, and loyalty. Before I came here I didn't know that different positions for the ring meant different relationship statuses. When on the right ring finger, it means single if the heart points toward the fingertip and taken if pointed inward. When on the left hand it means engaged or married. Our director gave us short walking tour of Galway, too, and on this tour we visited the Galway Cathedral. This one doesn't have the same Gothic architecture like most of the others, the inside is mostly marble. What is interesting about this cathedral is that right next to a mosaic of Jesus Christ is a smaller one of John F Kennedy. He was the first US president to visit Ireland and first Irish Catholic president so the Irish have great respect for JFK.

During our time in Galway, we visited the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. We took a ferry, this one more like what I had expected the first time, to the largest of the Aran Islands and biked around it all day long. I haven't rode a bike in a ridiculously long time so I didn't like the biking at all. It took away from enjoying the amazing views because I was too busy trying not to accidentally swerve into on coming traffic. We did get off the bikes for a little bit though to see the cliffs (top left). They were incredible! You have to lay on your stomach for safety but you can go right up the edge and look over. They drop straight into the ocean. We had fun there taking pictures and looking over the edge. The Cliffs of Moher (right) which we saw the following day were even more impressive because they are twice as tall, the highest being about 700 ft. Most of the cliffs are fenced off because it is Ireland's most visited attraction, but a group of us took a little dirt path that lead to an open spot. We took more pictures of us on the edge and loaded the bus to head back to Galway. That night a group of us walked over to the bay and watched the sunset (bottom left), making a perfect last night to out trip in Ireland.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

After hearing all about J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh and all about Jane Austen in Bath, England, we next went to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we heard all about another famous writer William Shakespeare. Stratford is another quaint town in England and is also the birthplace to William Shakespeare. We got there Tuesday afternoon and checked into our hostel which was unfortunately 1.5 miles from the city's center. It was a different hostel from the others I have stayed at so far. It was an old house in a neighborhood on the outskirts of town. It wasn't as busy either, and most of the guests were families which was a first for my hostel experiences.

We didn't do much the first day but the second day we took a bus into town and started our day by visiting the graves of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway. I had expected it to be a typical gravestone in the cemetery, but his grave is actually inside the church, right in front of the alter. Molly and I then walked along the river and saw little baby ducks and Stratford's swans. We stopped in the RSC Theater (Royal Shakespeare Company), looked through the gift store, and took pictures of the Swan Theater where Shakespeare use to put on his plays. Molly and I then walked over to the house where Shakespeare was born. We could havegone in but decided to check out Anne Hathaway's cottage instead. It was just a little outside of the city's center but didn't take too long to get to. It was a cute thatched house with a flower garden and a path through the woods. We spent a couple hours there and learned the random interesting fact that carrots weren't orange until after the 1700s. We then went back into town; and not knowing what else to do, we decided to check how much a ticket for a play would cost. It turned out that if we had asked when we had visited that morning we could have gotten a student rush ticket or something that would have gave us prime seats for only 5 pounds. Instead, we had to now pay a little bit more for limited view seats. But we didn't know what else to do, so we decided to go for it. We ended up buying tickets for Macbeth in the RSC Theater.

We went back to the hostel, dressed up nice and came back into town for supper and the play. The play started off slow and I had a horrible time understanding the dialogue. Then in the middle of the first half, the fire alarm went off. At first, everybody thought it was part of the play because they had been using lots of loud noises and earlier even set off some "explosions." We eventually did figure it out though and had to wait outside for a few minutes while they confirmed that nothing was engulfed in flames. After that the play started to pick up momentum and make more sense. Also, during intermission, Molly discovered that the actor playing the vicar was the bad guy's announcer in A Knight's Tale. It wasn't a really big role or anything but still fun to see someone you can recognize from a movie. The play was kind of morbid (definitely a tragedy) but had poetic justice at the end which I liked. In the end, I was glad we went to it and thought it was a perfect way to end our trip in Shakespeare. The next day we made our way back to Bangor and recuperated before we set out again, this time to Ireland with the whole program.

Bath

Our second week of spring break was mostly spent in Bath and Stratford-Upon-Avon. Bath is a gorgeous city. It lies in the bottom of a very pretty valley. Most of Bath's buildings are made from sandstone and of either Roman or Georgian architecture. It was built by the Romans in AD 43 as a spa resort so it doesn't have the same feel as any of the other cities we have visited in the UK. It didn't really feel like we were in England, and the fact that is was warm and sunny the entire two days we were there only further helped the sensation.

The first day there we went on a Jane Austen tour, visited the Roman Baths, and went inside Bath Abbey. Jane Austen lived in Bath for a while, and a few of her books take place there. The tour was pretty much about what the city would have been like back in her day and where different events for Jane Austen and the characters occurred. Though I respect her as a writer, I have never read any of her books; so the tour was kind of confusing. By the end of the tour, I had no idea as to whether the places being pointed out to me were associated with real or fictional people.

The Roman Baths (above) were really cool. It is the only hot spring in Britain and the Romans used it to create a temple and bathing facility. Visiting the bathes were completely different than what we had been seeing and the way they set up the structure is interesting. They even had a sauna and everything. I enjoyed it. Bath Abbey is pretty much right next to the Roman Baths. It looks like all the other cathedrals: beautiful and detailed. We came on Palm Sunday and we happened to come at a time they had a 15 minute afternoon service so we joined in. It wasn't anything big at all but nice to recognize Palm Sunday in some way.

The next day, we walked up to Prior Park Landscape Gardens, a park on the edge of town. It was a bit of a walk, mostly up a steep hill; but we found it with little problem. Walking up the hill was worth it though. The park had an amazing view of the city. We spent the morning there just soaking in the sun and fresh air and taking pictures of the view. When back in town walked around the shops a little and saw the King's Circus and the Royal Crescent. They are two of Bath's most known building complexes (Georgian architecture) built in the 1700s. What is cool about these structures is that one forms a perfect circle and the other forms a perfect half-circle. The next morning, we got back on yet another train and headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

London Again

Our second stop during spring break was London. We have a friend from Central studying there this semester so we stayed with her for three days. We started out the first day by touring the inside of Westminster Abbey. It is so beautiful! The abbey has detailed stone work and numerous sculptures. Much of the British Royalty's tombs are there as well including Edward I (conquered Wales), Elizabeth I, and her rival Mary Queen of Scots. The abbey also is the resting place for Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Chaucer, and other historical individuals. Unfortunately, Westminster was one of the many places we visited were no photograohy was allowed.

Our other main stop for that day was the Tower of London. The Tower of London reminded me of Edinburgh Castle because they are both huge castles set up with miniature museums inside. It was interesting though. A fortress has been there since 1066; and over the years numerous famous prisoners were kept there including William Wallace, Henry VIII's sencond wife Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth I during her sister's reign. We saw knight's armor and England's crown jewels. The Tower of London also has a royal mystery linked with it for Edward IV's two sons disappeared there in 1483 and their uncle took reign after Edward's death. Their skeletons were found in 1674 under a staircase, and a few theories exsist as to what happened.

Our second day was a busy day. We started out at the British Library, where we got to see original papers from Da Vinci, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Jane Austin and more. We even got to see the Magna Carta. We spent longer than we had thought we would in there so the end of the day felt a little rushed but we still got everything in. Next, we checked out Bourogh Market, a place with so many food stalls, one can actually get full just trying all the different samples. It was packed and hard to move around in, and the stalls seemed to never end. We didn't buy much there but it was fun to see what a market in London is like.

After lunch we walked along the Thames and saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Millenium Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We would have gone in some of the places but we didn't have much time and we didn't budget for ithem. We then took the Tube (which I can confidently find the right platforms now) to Hyde Park, one of the largest parks in London. It was a little cloudy but still a beautiful day. We walked a little ways along the Serpentine, and though I wanted to see the Gardens there too, we didn't have time to explore much farther than that. So we made our way out of the park and headed to the National Gallery.

On the way to the gallery we walked through Piccadilly Circus and saw the giant electronic screens. We didn't stay there long though, we just walked past it on our way to the National Gallery. In front of the gallery in Trafalgar Square, they put up a clock with two faces counting down until the summer olympics in London. Apparently, the clock broke down right after they put it up though because the one side said there is 469 days and the other side was still in the 500s. We then spent a few hours in the National Gallery which is awesome! We saw Da Vinci's cartoon, a few of Rembrandt's self portraits, and Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait. Most of our time was spent in these time periods, but when we were getting hungry we decided to skip a few years to the Impressionist period. There, we saw some of Van Gogh's work including his sunflower painting and some more of Monet's smaller waterlilly pieces. We then got pizza and called it a night. We had been walking all day, but with the craziness of London I didn't notice how much my feet were hurting until we walked out of the gallery. After that day, I'm surprised my feet still function.

Our last day, we didn't really spend in London. We took a day tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. Unlike the Highland tour, this one was not cheap by any means and our tour guide was not quite as easy going. However, he was still pretty nice and the trip was well worth the cost. In the beginning, our tour guide mentioned English was not his first language and decided to speak his native tongue to see if anyone could guess. Molly and I knew it right away; it was Welsh. Turns out, he is from Conwy, a town right next to Bangor. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Our first stop was Windsor, the Queen's home away from Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, she was not there. We got to see some of the rooms on display; they were so grand and full of paintings and elegant furniture. It might have been the coolest stop of the day if we had had more time. Unfortunately, we had to rush through the rooms and didn't get to see any of the rest of the castle. If I ever get a chance to go back to England, I'd like to go there again and take my time.

Our second stop was Stonehenge, the reason I took this tour. Stonehenge isn't complete anymore; only 30% of the stones remain. The others were either knocked down by the Romans long ago or sold off as material/souvenirs when the site was still privately owned. We were forewarned that it isn't as big as people expect it to be so we weren't surprised by its size when we got there. The stones are big and massive, just not as big as pictures lead you to believe. It is still very impressive though. The largest stone weighs 45 tons and takes 100s of people to move. The stones are also buried 8 feet deep to keep them stable so what you see from the top is only 2/3 the actual stone. What I found most impressive is that these stones weren't from around the area. The smaller ones were brought in from Wales by boat, and the larger ones were taken somehow from some hills in England. We couldn't get to close to the stones but it was still nice to walk around them and wonder how the workers created it with such simple tools.

Our last stop was Oxford. A lot of the builidings tourists aren't allowed to enter because it would distract the students, but they do allow us into Christchurch College where a scene from Harry Potter was filmed. It is a scene from the first movie where they come to Hogwarts for the first time and are greeted by the main lady professor. I honestly am not sure what scene this is, but I guess I can at least say I was there. We also got to see a dining hall that was part of the inspiration for the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies. It did look similar but was smaller and had no enchanted ceiling of course. We walked around some other parts Christchurch College but didn't see much more. We headed back to London and called it a night. Overall, our trip had been wonderful. Our next stop was Bath.

Scotland

The first five days of our three-week spring break, Molly and I traveled to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Edinburgh is a unique city full of history and thought to be one of the most haunted in Europe. We first headed to the Royal Mile, a road that stretches from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (the royal family's house in Scotland). The road is actually a Scottish mile long, 1.07 miles, which is a measurement thought to be created by the Scottish simply to annoy the English. The Royal Mile has tons of souvenir shops selling exactly the same thing and has bagpipe music playing everywhere.

The day we arrived, we took a free three-hour walking tour and learned about everything from the infamous murderers Burke and Hare to how J.K. Rowling used parts of Edinburgh while writing the Harry Potter books. During the 1700s, the medical school in Edinburgh needed cadavers so many people dug up fresh graves and sold the corpses to the school. Burke and Hare decided instead of waiting for people to die, they would just kill homeless people. They killed 17 victims before they were caught. Burke was viciously executed and his body donated to Edinburgh Medical School where it is still used for classes today. We also learned lots about J.K. Rowling. We went to the cafe where she wrote the first two Harry Potter books and the school that inspired Hogwarts. We also went to Greyfriar's cemetery where she used various names from gravestones such as Tom Riddle Jr. and Sr, Moodie, and McGonagall for character names in her books. Since Edinburgh is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in Europe, we also took a ghost tour that night. It was more historical than frightening which I preferred, and we learned a lot about the hundreds of people who died during the witch trials here, a royal cannibal, and the ghosts that haunt Arthur's Seat.

The second day we did an extremely large amount of walking. First we climbed up part of Arthur's Seat, an inactive volcano in the middle of the city. All the tourist attractions are in one compact area so you don't realize how big the city really is until you see it from Arthur's Seat. We sat and enjoyed the amazing view for a while before we made our descent and headed to Calton Hill. This hill is much smaller but still an beautiful view. On top of it is Scotland's National Monument which is also referred to as the National Disgrace. The monument had been intended to resemble the Parthenon however, they ran out of money after only building half the columns. Refusing to accept money from a neighboring town, the monument has remained unfinished for years now. After lunch we headed to the Botanical Gardens. This was quite frustrating for the gardens were off of our main map and the brochure's map was inaccurate so it took three times longer to find it than it should have. By the time we got there, our feet felt like they were going to fall off. The gardens were lovely and we walked around a little bit before we calling it a day.

The next day was by far my favorite day in Scotland. We went on a Hairy Coo Tour, a free tour that takes you around the Highlands. At 8 in the morning we were greeted by a young man complete with kilt and a think Scottish accent and loaded a small orange bus. We first visited William Wallace's monument and learned about how completely inaccurate the movie Braveheart is. William Wallace is actually a 6 foot tall psychopath who killed his enemies quite maliciously, and the term Braveheart actually historically refers to the Scottish King Robert the Bruce. After a few other little stops, we made our way into the highlands. We stopped at a few lochs and enjoyed the serenity of them, got some amazing views of the lower highlands, and even saw a full rainbow. It was so pretty (despite the fact that the weather was being extremely bipolar). Next we pulled the bus over at a pasture to feed some hairy coos (above). The tour comes here so often the hairy coos recognize it and come racing to the fence line when they see it coming. We finished the tour with The Forth Bridge, an engineering marvel when it was built, and some Highland Toffee. The Highlands are beautiful, and I hope to someday visit northern Scotland where it looks more like the fjords.

The fourth day we visited the National Museum of Scotland and Scotland's National Gallery. The museum was huge! It has 7 levels and goes from the beginning of the Earth to the recent decades of Scotland's history. We saw some interesting things though like a Viking crypt; a 7 ft tall sword the highlanders used; and a the now stuffed Dolly, the first cloned sheep. The National Gallery of Scotland was much smaller. It had a few famous artist but I didn't recognize any of the pieces.

We didn't do much our last day in Scotland. The main thing was visiting Edinburgh Castle (right). Like Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat, the castle has an amazing view. It is numerous buildings now used as miniature museums. We didn't go through them all but we saw Scotland's Crown Jewels, Prisoners of War exhibit, and a giant cannon from medieval period that I could have easily fit in to. Our other big event that day was trying haggis, a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs all ground up together. Molly and I had decided we would order haggis and another meal to split so we would have a back up if the haggis was disgusting. What we hadn't expected was that the haggis would be spicy which was not good because our backup was an enchilada which was also spicy. Our mild taste buds struggled but we both managed to finish our halves. My cheeks were literally hot to the touch the rest of the night and I don't intend on ordering either dish ever again.

Cardiff

We had our three day trip to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, this past weekend. We loaded the bus Friday morning and made two stops before reaching Cardiff. Our first stop was Hereford where we visited a cathedral and had our lunch break. The cathedral now standing there was built in 1079. It was beautiful as all the others but what made this one unique was the Mappa Mundi. The Mappa Mundi is a 13th century map of when Jerusalem acted as the center of the world. It is greatly distorted and of course much of the world had not yet been discovered, but had about 500 drawings marking towns, biblical events, people, etc. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures.


Our next stop was Tintern Abbey (pictured above). This current structure dates back to the late 13th century and lies next to the Wye River in a beautiful valley. It was as large as the massive Anglican cathedral in Liverpool but built centuries earlier. King Henry VIII dissolved Tintern Abbey in 1536 during his quest for control over the church in Wales, and now only some of the walls and columns remain. The day was gorgeous and Tintern Abbey was beautiful. I could have stayed there longer and wandered around but we had to continue on to Cardiff.

We arrived in Cardiff around supper time. This hostel was so much nicer than the one we had in London. Here we had rooms with only 4-6 people and actual bunk beds. Also it sat right across from Millennium Stadium. We walked around the center of Cardiff for a while, ate at an Italian restaurant and called it a night.


Saturday was a very busy day. We first walked to Cardiff Castle, and it was amazing. Unlike the other castles we had seen so far, this one had rooms set up similar to how they were for the family who last lived in them. It is a combination of an old Roman fort from first century DC, a Norman "motte and bailey" (above), and a gothic-Victorian living space. The Bute family lived in Cardiff Castle around the Victorian Era; the second marquis of Bute made all his money from the coal industry and his son was born the richest baby in the Europe. The third marquis hired architect William Burges to design the interior into the amazing yet kind of crazy space it is now. The lady's drawing room, though the smallest in the house, was the most expensive because the ceiling was painting with GOLD. The dining room (above) can now be rented out for 500 pounds an hour, and the original bedding in the master's bedroom cannot be displayed for its fringe is made from 24 karat gold. Another room had rubies and emeralds embedded into the woodworking and a table made so a grave vine could be inserted into the middle for guest to eat grapes right from the vine. The third marquis is impressive too. He could read and write 21 languages, including ancient languages such as Egyptian and Runic (Viking!). Needless to say, I was amazed by this castle.

Next we walked to the Millennium Stadium, actually built in 1999. This is the home to Wales National Rugby team. It is the second stadium in Europe to have a retractable roof and hosts numerous events from football games to concerts to monster truck rallies. The stadium was cool to see and something different, and our guide, a die-hard rugby fan, was quite entertaining. After our guided tour of that, we made our way to Cardiff Bay. The bay played a major role in exporting Wales' coal until World War II; it was however revitalized and transformed in 1999. Unfortunately, the restaurant we went to was not the fastest; and we didn't have time to visit explore the bay.

The last planned stop of the day was to St. Fagans, a museum of Welsh life. It reminded me of the outdoor division at Vesterheim for the museum consisted of older buildings representing life throughout Welsh history that were brought in from other location in Wales. It was fun to wander around the grounds and see thatched houses and a cockpit where they used to have illegal cock fights. My favorite part of the museum was the Victorian garden though. It was really pretty, and I could picture ladies in fancy dresses strolling around the terraces. After St. Fagans, we were free to do whatever for the night so a group of us got Chinese food and watched the Rugby game, Wales vs. France. I understand a little rugby (they can only throw to players behind them, have to touch the ball to the ground to score, ...) but not the whole thing; enough to follow the game. Sadly, Wales lost. They are usually an exceptional team but this has been an off year for them.


Sunday, we went to the National Museum of Wales. Here, we saw an evolution exhibit with an electronic mammoth that scared Molly good and some ancient sculptures from Dazu, China. My favorite part was their collection of Impressionist paintings. I got to see some of Monet's water lily paintings, Van Gogh's "Rain in Auver," and Renoir's "La Parisienne." It made me even more excited to see the National Art Gallery in London during spring break. We still had some free time before the bus left so we quickly walked back the Cardiff Castle to get some pictures of the Animal Wall (above), another creation of William Burges. It is a wall along the castle with 15 sculptures of different animals. It had cats, a seal, a bird, bear, monkey, all sorts of animals. We loaded the bus up in the early afternoon and spent the next five hours getting back to Bangor.

Harlech, Portmeirion, and Beddgelert

Sunday, our field trip was to Harlech Castle, Portmeirion, and Beddgelert. It was a beautiful, sunny day and perfect for sight-seeing. Harlech, like all the other castles, was amazing. It sits on a rocky hill with more incredible views of the mountains and sea. The sea 800 years ago came right up to the castle, but you would have never realized it now with all the land and buildings separating the two. Harlech Castle is another of King Edward's built in the 13th century by Master James of St. George. What makes this castle unique is the Celtic story The Two Kings from the Tales of Mabinogion. While visiting Harlech, the King of Ireland marries the sister of the King of the Island of the Mighty (Bendigeidfran) and they have a son, Gwern. Eventually Bendigeidfran's sister is mistreated and banished from the kingdom. She sends a message to her brother for help and a war begins between the two countries that leaves only seven survivors. Outside Harlech, there is now a sculpture of this story where Bendigeidfran is carrying on horse the body of his nephew Gwern who is murdered during the war.

Next, we went to a quite unusual place: Portmeirion. Architect Clough Williams-Ellis built this little village out of nothing just to prove that architecture didn't have to ruin the beauty of its natural surroundings. It is a little Italian looking town with Asian elements sitting along Wales' coastline. All the buildings were colorful; and scattered throughout the town were Asian statues and paintings of vases and flowers made to look real. I can't say Portmeirion is my idea of how a town can enhance the natural landscape but it was a fun place to look around. We followed some pretty walking trails and found a dog cemetery. The beach looked beautiful but we didn't walk on it because there are some patches of quicksand apparently. It was a really cool little place to visit and I'd like to see it when all the flowers are out.

Our last big stop was to Beddgelert, a peaceful village in Snowdonia. Beddgelert means "the grave of Gelert" and claims to be the location of a famous legend. The tale is that, one day, the Welsh prince Llewelyn went hunting and left his hound dog Gelert behind to watch over his infant son. When the prince returned, he found the dog covered in blood and the baby missing from his bed. The prince, concluding Gelert had killed his son, stabbed the dog. Moments after the dog died, a baby started to cry; Prince Llywelyn searched the house and found his son unharmed. Next to boy was the body of a wolf that Gelert had killed. Saddened by his mistake, the prince buried the dog under a tree and never smiled again. Beddgelert claims to be the grave to be here and tons of people will come to the village just to see Gelert's grave. However, no historical proof of this story and a similar tale can be found in other European countries so it is pretty much just a way to bring in tourists.

It was another fun day and the sun stayed out for most of it. Next weekend is our three day trip to Cardiff, Wales capital; and I'm so excited.

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!

Chester

Saturday was field trip number three! We went to Chester in England with stops first at Bodelwyddan Church and St. Winefrede's Well. Bodelwyddan looks kind of small on the outside but seems huge on the inside. It is also known as the Marble Church because there are at least 14 different types of marble used on the inside and the Wedding Cake Church because it is the classic structure of a church one sees on a wedding cake. Inside is gorgeous! Everything is carved in detail from the pulpit to the ceiling. It has beautiful, massive marble and stone columns; and the stain glass windows have extremely detailed pictures of biblical scenes. An interesting thing about the church is that there are Canadian troops buried in its churchyard. When I first saw this I was a little surprised to be at a church in Northern Wales and see rows of graves with small Canadian flags standing in front of them. However, during World War I, their camp was based just west of the church; and the Canadians buried at Bodelwyddan were soldiers who died from Spanish flu pandemic.

Our other stop before Chester was St. Winefrede's well. We were allowed to see the outside of the buildings but we could not actually see the well itself because of some work being done on the building protecting it. I was honestly a little disappointed because seeing the well is pretty much the point in going there, but the story of St. Winefrede was still interesting. I felt like I was listening to Greek mythology or something. It is said that Prince Caradoc wanted St. Beuno's niece Winefrede. She refused his advances and attempted to reach a church for sanctuary. Caradoc , however, caught up to her and cut off her head. It rolled down a hill and where it stopped this spring immediately emerged. St. Beuno attached her head back to her body and she miraculously survived. St. Winefrede can always be recognized by the scar around her neck, and the spot has been a place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics for centuries. Because the well is suppose to have healing abilities, it was not destroyed during the Reformation; now, this site is one of the few medieval shrines still around today.

We spent the rest of the day in Chester. We got to shop around the Row a little bit and then we went on an audio tour of the Chester Cathedral. This was the first time I have had an audio tour, and to be honest I did not like it. No one told me how it was suppose to work so I didn't realize until near the end that there were very small stations in a very large cathedral you had to walk near to get the speech about that section. So I missed a lot of information about the things I was looking at because nothing was coming to my headset. Once a section was done the audio tour also told you where to head next. This was a challenge because it would tell me to go east/north/south/west in a giant building with no clear windows to look through in a town I had only been at for an hour. This further frustrated me because I couldn't tell if passages led to more of the cathedral or to nowhere, and I didn't dare explore because I was afraid of losing what little of the group I could still see. I eventually gave up trying and just admired the architecture while sticking with the people I had found. It was a very impressive building. I don't know the best way to describe it besides massive and extraordinary.

We also had a guided tour of the town. The Romans founded this town, and there is a stone wall surrounding the older part of the city. The tour guide took us up the path on top and we walked the wall for some time. We started out on a shorter end of the wall so it wasn't that impressive at first. But the farther we walked the higher it got until it was about two stories high. Once the tour was over he dropped us off at the Row (pictured above) where we shopped around for a couple hours. The Row is a section of Chester full of little shops. It is really cool because there is an upper and lower level. The ground level has little shops that step down a little lower than the street and the upper level has even more little shops that sit on top of them with sidewalks being the lower shops roof. These shops were packed and sometimes hard to move around in and the streets were full of people. It was an interesting experience different from what we had seen in Wales so far. I loved the old churches and cathedrals and can't wait to see more. Our next trip is to Liverpool, but it isn't for another couple weeks. Classes start tomorrow (Monday) and I don't know what to expect at all. Wish me good luck!

Castles

Monday, we finally got to see some of the castles. I'll be honest, this is one of the main reasons I chose Wales to study in. I love castle's architecture and history, and Wales is full of them from ruins to livable structures. We toured Caernarfon, Cricieth, and Dolwyddelan Castle and the Slate Mines.

Caernarfon (top left) was our first stop. It was everything I had imagined a castle would be. The walls from the outside were 9 to 10 feet thick, the passages numerous and hard to navigate, and the towers tall. Edward I had this castle built in 1283 after the English conquered the Welsh mainly to symbolize England's control over Wales. That is why Caernarfon is so grand and massive but doesn't have defense systems as impressive as some other castles in Wales. Edward I's eldest son became the first English Prince of Wales, and the castle was also used for the ceremony when Prince Charles became the Prince of Wales. Being we came in January, we pretty much had the entire castle to ourselves. First, we watched a 20 minute video about Caernarfon staring a very over dramatic actor. Then we got to walk up a narrow, steep, spiral staircase to the tallest tower of the castle (Eagle Tower) where we saw the amazing view that I took the picture above from. Then Molly and I wandered around on our own, finding random rooms and following different passages trying to guess where they would lead. This castle is so enormous that we didn't even have time to explore it all before we had to leave.

Our next stop was Cricieth Castle (top center). This castle was much different than Caernarfon Castle. It was on top of a steep hill looking over the ocean and in ruins. Only the front wall stood mainly intact, but it was obvious it had been significantly smaller than Caernarfon. I believe it was built by the Welsh in 1230. Climbing up and down the hill was kind of scary because the concrete steps were slippery and slanted downwards. I don't believe I ever feared steps until I came here where my automatic reaction now is to grab the first railing I see. But like how many places we have went to so far, the view was spectacular. You could look down at the town on one side, the shore stretching for miles in another, and misty mountains hiding in the distance on the other.

Before we went to the last castle we toured the slate mines. Slate mines have been an important part of the economy here for a long time. Some of the towns were solely inhabited by mining families. Now, slate production has slowed here and some of the mines, like the ones we went to, have been turned into tourist attractions. If I remember correctly, our director told us that about only 40 people are employed to mine in this area we visited while over a 100 work in them strictly for tourism. We got to actually go down into the mines and follow lit paths while we were told of how mining worked in the olden days. I learned a lot here. I didn't know before that they had chapel areas and break huts under ground or that some teams use to work with only two candles in their whole cavern. I can't imagine what it must have been like to work down there in the 1800s.

After the mines, we made our last stop at the Dolwyddelan Castle (top right). We were suppose to have seen it the day before, but because of the rain it was postponed a day. We quickly figured out why when we arrived. Like Cricieth, it was on top of a huge hill, except this time in Snowdonia. The path was half mud and just as steep as every other place we had walked since we got here. Many of the castles today in Wales were built by the Normans or English, but Dolwyddelan belonged to one of the Welsh princes. Unlike many other cultures, 13th century kings in Wales divided up their possessions and land amongst all his sons, not just the oldest. Therefore, there were many kingdoms within Wales and brothers and cousins built castles such as this one to fight and protect their domains from each other. This one was more intact than Cricieth but perhaps just as small.

I enjoyed every single castle on this field trip. I have a feeling that I will be one of those people who will be excited to see every castle even if they all kind of look the same by the end of it.

Snowdonia

Yesterday we went on our first field trip of the semester. It was incredible! It rained the entire time but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights. We first stopped in a town called Llandudno. It is a tourist town along the coast between two peninsulas: Great Orme and Little Orme (Viking names!). We walked out on the pier and got to see some of the coolest views of the ocean and shoreline. After that we ate at the town Betws-Y-Coed and then started making our way to the mountains in Snowdonia National Park. Before we could go to the mountains, we stopped at this enormous waterfall and a little cottage called Ty Hyll (The Ugly House). Northern Wales has gotten an incredibly large amount of rain the last couple days so Swallow Falls was fast and powerful. There is a platform that goes right down to a "calmer" part of the falls. The river was so full that water would splash up over the platform and soak our feet. The Ugly House is an small house built the 15th century. I personally thought it was more cute than ugly so I'm not sure why it was named that. According to our director Tecwyn, this crude house is an example from the 15th and 16th century when a person could claim land by building a house under 24 hours so that smoke would rise out of the chimney. If they could do this, they were allowed whatever land was within range of throwing an axe.

In the afternoon we drove through beautiful Snowdonia. We passed gorgeous mountains that reminded me of the Blue Ridge Mountains and drove by Llyn Ogwen (Llyn means lake in Welsh) which is thought to be the resting place for Excalibur. The rain let up enough that we could walk up to Llyn Idwal (picture above). The path consisted of slippery, uneven stones, and it was hard to look around because we had to watch our step. But reaching the lake was worth it. The water was clean and calm and it sat at the bottom of a tall mountain. Many Welsh stories are associated with this lake. Another name for the area is the Devil's Kitchen because from the ocean, it appears as if dark clouds are rising out of this area. There is also supposedly a sea monster living in Llyn Idwal and that birds will never fly directly over this particular lake. The last story about this lake is how it got the name Llyn Idwal. During the 12th century, Prince Owain of Gwynedd gave Nefydd Hardd responsibility of taking care of his son, Idwal. Nefydd did not like Idwal because he was better than his own son Dunawd. Dunawd, one day, decides to push Idwal into this lake so he would drown, and Prince Owain was so furious he banished Nefydd from Gwynedd and named the lake after his son.

Unfortunately, we had to postpone seeing Dolwyddelan Castle until the next day because of the rain. I love history and folklore though so hearing about and seeing Llyn Idwal was awesome!

Getting to Bangor

I left from Des Moines Wednesday morning. I don't know if I was more nervous about going to Wales or for my first time flying. Fortunately, the flight from Des Moines to Chicago was smooth and on time. I wish I could say the same thing for the flight from Chicago to Manchester however. Instead, the plane arrived an hour late; and then once we loaded and where ready to leave we had to go back to the gate because a fuel light or something came on. We ended up sitting on the plane for two hours before they fixed it. I was so exhausted from the day that by the time we left all I wanted to do was eat and sleep.

My spirits lifted when we got there though. It was like a misty spring day in Iowa. The grass was green, and I was warm in just a t-shirt and my fleece. We arrived in Bangor early afternoon on Thursday and scoped the town out. Bangor is kind of in the mountains so the whole town is on the side of a large hill. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks are only a foot away from speeding cars. The town is broken up into Upper and Lower Bangor with our flats is Upper and most the shops in Lower. To get between the two sections one must walk a very steep path. We were forewarned of this road, but we did not realize how steep it truly was until we had to walk it ourselves. In less than the first 12 hours I had been in Bangor, my legs were already hurting.

Anyway, it has been a blast so far. We have pretty much just been buying supplies and phones, checking out the local restaurants, and wandering around town. Our first field trip is Sunday where I will get to visit one of many castles. I am so excited!