Croeso i Gymru, Welcome to Wales

Wales this weekend reaffirmed my belief that Europe is truly the greatest place on Earth. Not only that, but the UK in general is the closest thing to Heaven I can get to right now. Wales is incredible. But when our train pulled into Paddington station this afternoon, I got off the train and took a deep breath – I was home again. In London.

Our weekend started very early Friday morning. We took the fast train straight to Cardiff, but when we hit the Bristol train station, I couldn’t help but hear Hagrid saying how “Harry fell asleep just over Bristol,” or something along those lines. I just need to face it. I can relate anything to Harry Potter something.

We stayed at a very cute hostel just outside the Millennium Stadium, the first home of Welsh rugby. Our first day we explored Cardiff Castle (which dates back to 75 AD when it was a Roman fort) and took a bus tour around the city that ended at the Inner Harbour. It was there at the docklands where we had an amazing Italian meal, met a woman from near Elon, and saw a beautiful carousel, ferris wheel, the Wales Millenium Centre (home to Welsh National Opera) and other sights set to the backdrop of a sunset we can’t always see in London. There was a marvelous waterfall coming straight down an enormous metal pole, with smaller poles surrounding it that lit up and changed colors once it was dark enough. It was a beautiful first night in Wales.

We woke Saturday to a glorious breakfast of nutella toast and cereal. Oh, how I’ve missed nutella. My favorite part of Wales, by far, was Swansea and the Gower Peninsula in the south. We started in Mumbles, drove out to Rhossili and then back around and home to Cardiff – all over the Gower Peninsula. We walked along the coastal path from Langland Bay to Caswell Bay and saw breathtaking views of sailboats and water smashing against the rocks below. It was a long walk, but completely worth it. The sun was so bright and hot, and we were all dressed for cooler weather, but when we finally reached the beach and got to play in the sand, it made everything cool down again – especially when I saw a giant 99 Flake and got to hug it.

That night, a couple of us sat in the common room of our hostel to watch “Friends” and “Sex and the City.” I’m not a huge fan of the latter, but when three guys came in to join us, just the fact that they were being such good sports made everything so much more entertaining. One guy, a bit older, is from Crete. Another guy came in and he’s from Germany. I told him that I would be visiting some friends and family in Aachen and Murrhardt, and he recognized Aachen, but I had to explain that Stuttgart is where my family lives closest to because Murrhardt is too small a town for him to know where it is. Our final new friend told us he went to William and Mary and was just about to start a Ph.D. program in Ireland. He will be there for three years! How brave is that!?

And today consisted of a trip to Raglan Castle and Tintern Abbey. After the abbey, we had a marvelous lunch that consisted of a bacon and cheese baguette, and a potato and leek soup. SO good. I also ordered Welsh Cakes for dessert – a new favorite. And before catching our train home, our tour guide gave us two more packs of Welsh Cakes for the ride home. God bless him.

While it was wonderful to visit the countryside for a weekend, it does feel good to be back in London. And I can’t wait for my internship again tomorrow.