So many sights to see so wake up like an early birdie

I'm back from Wales! :D it was an AMAZING trip and i had sooo much fun! It was filled with castles, sunshine, muddy pants, cute Welsh boys (i decided that Wales has the cutest boys, must be somethin in the water...i'm planning on moving here ;), and lots of laughter :) I'll be putting up pictures soon on Facebook (i took a lotttt) so check them out!

Well we left veryy early Saturday morning, when it was still dark and stores were just getting ready to open. We took the bus to the train station and got on the 7:20 train going to Bristol. After about a 40 minute ride (which felt like 10 minutes) we had to get off and switch trains really quick. The next one took us about an hour to the city of Cardiff, Wales. Since we were staying in a hostel and we couldn't check in until around 2 in the afternoon, we had to walk the whole morning with our backpacks and everything on. That was sorta a pain because they were pretty heavy and awkward but it wasn't too bad. We had a group of 10 total, some from Messiah and some from other colleges, so it was great to have this trip to meet new people :) Danielle was named "Mama Bear" because she planned basically the whole trip, having written down all the times and prices of everything and she always kept a close watch to see if we were all behind her. I know that we would have had a lot of trouble if it weren't for her, so that was really great. So after we got off the train, we went and got day passes for the bus, so that we could just use that instead of having to pay each time. It wasn't a lot of money so that worked out really well. We then took the bus to this beautiful cathedral that was pretty close to where we were. I honestly can't remember the name of it, but it was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was shining so we walked all around it and got some amazing pictures inside and out. It was huge so I don't even think i saw the whole thing. After spending some time there, we were all pretty hungry so we stopped into this adorable little tea shop in town and got sandwiches for lunch. It was really nice to come inside from the cold and finally take off our backpacks! Then we took the bus again to the town centre (i hate spelling it like that, but thats how they do it here!) and found this historical marketplace that has been running since the 1890's. It sorta reminded me of a flea market because it was filled with cheap useless stuff that no one really wants, except for these amazing pastry vendors. I got a veryy sugary donut that i never ended up finishing because it was so sweet and a traditional Welsh cake. It was sorta like a really really dry version of a silver-dollar pancake with raisins but it was pretty good. Then we took the bus to Cardiff Bay, which was right on the water, and it was soooo beautiful! The sun was really warm (i felt like i could have gotten a tan!) and made for some great pictures. I probably could have spent hours there taking pictures and basking in the sunshine :) There were sailboats in the water and lots of historical sites so it was definitely one of my favorite places we went. After that, we were getting pretty tired of carrying our backpacks so we went to check in at the hostel. It was not sketchy at all (as my mom was worried about) and was pretty much like a hotel because it was really clean. It had a full kitchen, tv room with wireless internet, a game room, and a bar-like area. We had booked two rooms, one for 6 people and the other with 4. Luckily, our group never had to share a room with people we didnt know so that was a blessing :) I was in the room of 6 people, with Suzie, Bethany, Steph, Greg, & Kelly and we pretty much spent the whole time together laughing. The room was really plain, with 3 bunkbeds, and the bathrooms were across the hall. We had to share the bathrooms with other people down the hall (we think they were french), but it was never a problem or anything. After checking in, we just relaxed and rested our tired feet for a bit, and then went off into the town centre for some shopping and dinner. It was really nice to not wear our backpacks for the rest of the night! After we found something to eat and shopped for a little bit, we went back to the hostel and played some card games and just hung out. Around 9pm, we were bored and didnt really want to go to bed that early, so we ventured out to find a pub. This one street that had tons of clubs and bars was i guess the cool place to be because it was soo busy with tons of people all dressed up (we felt really out of place with our sweatshirts and sneakers, and just really looking like tourists). We decided we didn't want to be there so we went a little further and found a pretty nice pub where we stayed for awhile and hung out. After that, we went back to our rooms and showered & relaxed and all fell asleep around midnight.

The next day, we woke up around 8:30 because the hostel provided a free breakfast of toast, cereal & tea (exciting i know!) and that ended at 9. Then we got ready and checked out at 10. Unfortunately we had to carry our backpacks again, but we got pretty used to it. The plan for today was to go to the National Museam and the Caerphilly Castle, which we could get to by bus. But, we somehow confused the bus schedule and closing time of the museam, so we only made it to the castle, which was totally fine with me. We actually had to take the train there, but it was really inexpensive and got us there a lot faster. And it was soo worth it because the castle was beautiful!!! It was surrounded by a huge moat and green grass and had this amazing historical essence about it. I probably could have taken thousands of pictures! We paid the little bit of money so that we could go in it, and it was awesome because we got to just wander around the grounds wherever we wanted to go. There were catapults and bridges that have withheld destruction and time and are still usable, which is so cool. Inside were tons of little rooms and hallways with spiral staircases made of stone so i definitely could have gotten lost in there (and i probably would have been fine with that ;) Probably my favorite room was this Great Hall that was probably used for big feasts because it had really tall ceilings, a big fireplace, and a really long wooden table. We took a "family" portrait there with the whole group & i cant wait to see how it came out :) Oh! so if you could use a laugh, you're in luck because i did something really embarrassing today (i know, its not really surprising right?) Well, everyone was looking at this deep cave-like thing with walls of rocks and i stayed at the top of the hill to take pictures of them. I was wearing my super-cool new sunglasses (if u saw them, you would think they were super-cool too) and snapping pictures & not really looking where i was going. So i was climbing up the small hill to get to the path when, in my head i was thinking about how the sunglasses made my perception really wierd, right then i fell flat on my face in the mud. Of course, some people from my group were able to see this act of grace and were nice enough to laugh at me. Okay, i was laughing pretty hard too. When i got up, my hands were totally covered in mud, as were my jeans and coat. Also, to add to the moment, my hair was everywhere so before i realized how much mud was on my hands, i proceeded to push my hair out of my face...and getting mud all over my forehead. Yup. I'm just that coordinated. It was a pretty funny moment except when i realized that i had to walk around for the rest of the day with mud all over my pants. I think it just added to the hip backpacker look ;) Anyway...after spending a lot of time at the castle, we left and got lunch/dinner at a pub in town and it was delicious. Then we caught the train right before it was about to leave, which meant that there were no seats, so we had to awkwardly stand in front of the bathrooms and doors, right where people needed to get to. It was an interesting trip back but some of us were able to find seats so that was really good :) We made it back to Cheltenham and after stopping at Wetherspoons for their amazing chocolate cake, i'm now cozy in my dorm, changed out of my muddy jeans and looking forward to climbing in my bed.

I know this was super long and i hope people actually made it to the end (congratulations!) but it was an amazing trip and it was really hard to write everything down. If you wanna know more details or other funny stories, just skype me! :) goodnight everyone! <3