On Wales and horses

Friends,

I owe you many comments. But first. Alison, your post on CR is amazing. You climbed a volcano! You took public transport! You saw monkies! I also highly doubt that Shelly will ever get to her post. Is she even alive? Please say yes. On an ADD note, I had a dream that she had cut her hair in a bob and was now engaged to a man that looked like Vic Jao (Zhoa?!&) fro F4. It was kind of amazing. She also had him meet me and basically asked if I approved of him, which I did. Seconldy, congrats to Jeff's sister!

Ok. Wales...Is really pretty. As Ali has been there, I will just refresh her memory. It is far more wild than England. There are far more tress than in England. Anyway, it has a wild sort of look and feel, as if it hasn't been tamed by their eastern neighbors.

We left London early in the morning on Saturday and took a bus. Apparently we passed pretty countryside but I passed out on the bus as I was exausted. We arrived in Cheapstow at about 11 am. This is the first village in Wales and has an old castle and not much else. The castle is from around 1067 and was built right after the Conquest by whoever William 1 put in charge. I would have had to pay like 6 GBP to go it, and I was like...um, no. So Sarah Holcome from Gtown and my friend Anita and I walked around with a few other people and explored the town, which is like two streets. We then went to the local pub and had lunch. Now this is very important. IT TAKES AN HOUR TO GET FOOD IN WELSH PUBS. EVEN IF THERE IS NO ONE IN THEM. So as we were waiting for our food, Sarah and I ran out and went over to their very old church. It was rather different from the other churches i have seen in GB, I happen to have a thing for churches...I think it is the catholic guilt. Anyway, this one had side aisles and had unusually tall ceilings and a wooden roof. This, i feel was a giant fire hazard, but apparently there had been no fires, in like 800 years. Awkward.

We then went pack to the pub, where our food had still not arrived. As we were supposed to be leaving at 1pm, we were getting a little upset as it was 12:55 and still no food. Finally at 12:57, we got our food, eat it in 10 minutes and ran out. If you go to Wales, but a sandwich from a grocery store and walk around unless you have hours to spend. So we left Wales and headed to Tinturn Abbey...

We arrived and the weather had turned rainy slightly. The abbey is, like the poems indicate, in ruins and is very pretty. Again, we would have had to pay admission, and it looks the same inside, so we decided against it and instead climbed a large hill near it to go look at this other church which is in ruins from a fire that was performed during a Black Mass here during the 70s. Aside from that spooky connection, the church even in ruins is quite pretty. The bell tower is still intact but inside there is grass growing through the floor tiles and vines climb up the walls and through the latice work of the windows. We then walked down the hill and got some icecream, which was freaking amazing. It was creamy and very good. Yum yum yum. I also bought a mug with a welsh dragon on it. This is the only souvenir that i have bought by the way.

We then went to Hay upon Wye which is my favorite town ever. Why. Because they have 42 bookstores. I bought a book called 'Zoli' which was about a Romi girl and the importance of song and oral history. I liked it a great deal because I am a nerd.

After this we left and drove for freaking ever to get to your hotel in Bristol, because apparenly there are no hotels in Wales. this is not true, but our tour company probably got a good rate. and as we didn't end up in the 'wilderness hostel' (i think this means barn) that we were supposed to be in but rather a holiday inn express, I was like, ok whatevs.

We ordered Chinese food for dinner and watched rugby on TV in the lobby. Apparently there was free wine from a box that came will our food. I thought I would go blind if I had some, so I refrained and instead had a coke that I had bought at the grocery store on a expadition during which we also purchased carrots to give to the horses the next day.

Early the next morning, we awoke eat as much of the free buffet breakfast as possible and boarded the bus and headed for Breakon Beakons, Wales' really big pretty park. We dropped off half the group to go riding and then we went to a local pub and had lunch, I believe there was lamb served. It was good, also, coliflower (which is not spelled that way) with cheese, yum.

Then we went riding. I got a surly big horse named oberon. He pulled himself together, or sorted himself out as we say across the pond, and was fine for most of our 2 hour ride. Most of the ride was more of a walk through fields and near a lake and it was cold as hell. I had tights and jeans and a coat on and gloves and it was more than nippy. The we wound our way to the base of a freaking mountain and then slowly ascended on our horses. The trail got freightenly narrow at points. You all know that I am freaked out by heights right. So imagine how happy I was when I was on a trail maybe a foot wide running along the side of a hill with a good 500 foot steep slope. NOT COOL. There was however an amazing view from the mountain and ruined houses along this random trail just stainding out in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and there was a sheep, just chilling there eating some grass not paying any attention to the 20 horses that walked by him/her. Our ride concluded, we returnd to the pub where we had lunch, picked up the rest of the group and headed back to london. My fingers are tired. More later....