Yup, back.

Got to Aberystwyth at about 7:30 on Friday night - the trains were running only slightly late. My classmate R and I had been talking about my upcoming weekend, and were chatting about how he hadn't been to Wales since he was a kid. He said that all he really remembered was a bunch of sheep and really rainy weather. He was right. You crossed the border at Shrewsbury, and the weather got steadily greyer, and there were more and more and more sheep in the fields. Reminded me of Ireland, the sheer amount of sheep. I texted him to tell him he was right.

As mentioned, the trains were only slightly late. I was quite impressed afer some of the horror stories that L had been telling me about the route from Birmingham to Aberystwyth (refer to map in last post - Birmingham is ALMOST there, just on the right-hand side). L picked me up at the train station, and it was rather nice to finally meet her in person (she and I have only ever conversed via email). Her and her husbands' house is about a 20 minute drive out of Aberystwyth proper, a place called Fern Cottage. It used to be an inn back in the day and was built in about 1850. The place probably never saw a plumb line, has walls 1.5 feet thick, and is absolutely amazing! I fell in love. They have two cats, which was lovely - I miss having a furry creature to go home to.

By the time we ate dinner and chatted for a while, it was bed time. Woke up on Saturday and headed into town for a bit. Stopped in at a stationery store, where I found some stuff I've been looking for for a while (figures I'd have to go to Wales to get it...), and then into the Ceredigion museum, which is basically a small, general-interest museum about the area. It's in an old converted theatre, which was really nifty.

It has everything from pharmacy to agriculture to archaeology to fashion to music in a tiny little space, but it's free, which was totally awesome. And, as if to confirm Mr. S's suspicions that all seaside towns in England have a very late-Victorian/early Edwardian feel to them, I present to you folks the sea front at Aberystwyth: row upon row upon row of Victorian houses that are now protected by legislation so that the appearance doesn't change. L told me a story about how when, a few years ago, a few of these houses burnt down, they were rebuilt in exactly the same style in order to avoid having a 'scar' on the face of the seaside. There was mini golf, but unlike Filey the other week there was no amusement rides or mini donutes (although I'm sure there would have been fish and chips if I had looked hard enough).

Just ignore the cars, and the fact that it was raining, and feast your eyes on these two photos. How awesome are these, eh? I mean, really? The seaside in this country is never more than two and a bit hours away, really, it's amazing. I love it. You can't just pick up and wander to the ocean when you feel like it when you live in the middle of Canada in some land-locked province. But, anyway, we wandered up and down the promenade, and stopped at the War Memorial and Aberystwyth Castle (which is a ruin now, it was destroyed in the Civil War), then went back to L's place for lunch. Her in-laws were there, having just 'popped by' for an afternoon, so there was tea and conversation, after which it was another quick drive down the road to L's mom's house, to run some errands, and then we wandered out to Devil's bridge - actually three bridges, built one on top of the other. The first dates from the 11th century, the second from the 17th (I think) and the third from the nineteenth. The bridge is over a river and a series of waterfalls, and it's absolutely gorgeous. The vegetation is so lush it's like being in a rainforest, and the mist coming off the falls is something like you'd get at Jasper or the like. Legend has it that the devil built the bridge there to lure people across, as the first living thing that crossed the bridge would forfeit its soul. A woman was out walking with her dog, and the devil tempted her to cross, but, knowing what the devil was up to, she sent the dog across first, and the devil was foiled.

That evening we went to see the Da Vinci Code. Apart from horrible Latin (unless you're the one that's a dying nun, you usually commit HER soul into God's hands, not your own) and some dubious claims about witchcraft persecutions in Europe and the States, it wasn't too bad. Tom Hanks wasn't all that great, though, and he certainly didn't live up to my expectation of Robert Langdon.

The next day we were up bright and frickin' early. Why, you ask? To make the two hour drive to Snowdonia National Park. Where I climbed THIS beast. Audience, meet Snowdon. Or, as the Welsh actually call it in, well, Welsh, Wyddfa (which sounds like "withfa" and is in the region of Snowdonia/Eyryri, which literally means "haunt of Eagles", although I didn't see any eagles... I think that whoever put the stupid steam railway on the side of the mountain for lazy and unfit people to climb the thing scared them all off, and quite frankly, the only reason you should be taking the train up to the top of the mountain is if you have severe medical problems that totally prevent you from EVER climbing the damn thing on your own. If you're just lazy you don't deserve to get to the bloody top... right. Rant off). We took the 'easy' route up, which involved some bits that were basically just a hike, other bits that involved climbing up these rock stairs that occur quasi-naturally, and other bits that involved actually scrambling up pretty steep bits of rock. It was good fun, and although I do ache today, it was totally worth it. After chips with cheese at an eatery nearby, we went back to Aberystwyth and settled in for the evening with some Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I'd never seen the musical episode! Can you believe that?! So I finally watched it last night) and a movie called MacLean and Plunkett. I was very proud of the people who shot that movie - their attention to detail during the execution scenes was extraordinary. And that night... I got to take a bath. My room here at the uni doesn't have a bathtub, and I've missed just sitting in the warm water and soaking and letting my muscles relax. After some Anadin for the aching muscles, it was off to bed curled up around a cat. Seriously don't think it could have gone better.

The trip back to York was entertaining, though. The train from Aberystwyth was overbooked, to say the least, and this mother and her children couldn't find the seats they'd reserved. She was the LOUDEST, most OBNOXIOUS woman ever, and her kids were just about as bad. Not a big fan of children, and that's precisely why. When the mother couldn't find her seats, she accused the guy sitting in front of her of having removed the reservation tag from the seats and taking her spot. Turns out it was a fault with the booking, and the guy was totally innocent of any crime, but she didn't even apologize. Oy. The train was running a little late as well, and because it needed to turn around and go back, it stopped at Wolverhampton rather than Birmingham, where I was supposed to switch. I was switching trains at Wolverhampton at precisely the time I was supposed to be catching my connection from Birmingham to York. Thank God for flexible tickets, though, and I was on a train about half an hour later, and got back here at about 4:10 p.m. I've done nothing much since. It was a great weekend. I accomplished no school work, but, hey, it's all good. And now I think I may take some more Anadin, have a hot shower, and head to bed. It's another long school day tomorrow.

I Am Reading
Academically: No change.
For Fun: Dunno - finished Keeping Faith, now need to find something else.
Pile of Books on my Windowsill: 11. 3 read, 7 unread, 1 half-read