Weekend in Wales

My first venture out of Britain began on Saturday as Jeana, Elena, Ashlin, Alyssa and I headed to Wales! We had to get up sort of early as our coach departed at 8:30 from what is called the International Student House. We booked our trip through ISH so we simply had to show up and they got to do all of the hard work planning the whole trip. It was quite nice not having to worry about anything throughout the entire trip as Jeana and I have learned that a lot of work goes into planning a trip, no matter how long or short it is! It put our minds at ease knowing we just had to tag along for the journey.

It took us a little over two hours to reach our first stop, Chepstow, which is the home of Chepstow Castle. At our first stop we had our very first traditional English breakfast. I decided to be brave and go without the vegetarian option, though I quickly regretted it. I did try the sausage and bacon but it was nothing like the sausage and bacon I am used to from home. For the most part the other girls liked it so it was just me being my picky self about meat. A traditional english breakfast includes bacon, sausage, eggs, baked beans, cooked tomato, and toast, so I still had plenty of food to fill me up! After we ate lunch we explored the town a little bit and then headed for the castle to check it out before we had to leave. The views from the castle were absolutely gorgeous. We quickly learned that Wales has some of the most amazing country side! Once we had rushed through the castle (since it was almost time to leave) Jeana and I booked it to the bridge where you can be on the border of London and Wales, in two places at once! We love doing all those cheesy things :)

Then it was time to get on the bus and head to our next destination. At the next stop we went got to see Tintern Abbey. It is the ruins of an old abbey. You could walk through it but we figured it was just a cool walking around it since you could see the whole thing clearly so we didn't go in. We spent the rest of our time there at the Old Mill they have and then walked along the road to an Antique store and an old book store. We didn't end up having enough time to do the final thing we wanted to but were happy with all the things we did get to do by the time we left. There was an old church up a path that you could walk to. Ashlin, Alyssa and Elena went and saw it so we got to check out there pictures. They said it was pretty neat but probably was not worth the walk so Jeana and I were happy that we didn't spend all of our time hiking up the hill to see it!

Our next stop of the day was to Hay-on-Wye which is famous for books. There were cute (and cheap!) little book stores all over the place. We probably went into at least five bookstores. I never did end up getting a book because I couldn't decide on any. If I was going to get one I wanted it to be unique to the UK or Wales and I couldn't really find any. I found a bunch of golf books but none of them had pictures in them so I didn't see the point in getting them. I was sort of disappointed with that because I can only imagine how beautiful the golf courses are in Wales. We did actually pass one course at one point though I didn't get to see all that much of it. It was fun going through all the old book shops though...something right up my alley that I wasn't expecting this weekend.

One of the bookstores was more well known. It was an outdoor bookstore called Hay Castle...there really was a small castle behind it. Here you simply took a book and put money in a bin. It was based on an honor system. You were only expected to give 50p for paperback books and one pound for hardbacks. Quite a deal. The books were just randomly arranged, though we did notice someone had arranged a few shelves by color, not that it helped you find anything you might be looking for. I though it was a pretty neat place overall!

From there we headed to the place we were spending the night. It was called Baskerville Hotel...place that Sherlock Holmes wrote about in one of his books and has stayed before! After we left we were told the place was haunted and its probably good they didn't tell us that before as everyone was a little bit creeped out by the place. It was a really nice hotel but they housed us in the very back in the large hostel style rooms. About 16 of us girls stayed in one room together so it was some close living quarters, but also a lot of fun because we got to meet a lot of new people who were in London basically for the same reasons we were. And we got to hang out with some fellow Americans so that was nice! We had to eat dinner at the hotel as we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Dinner was fantastic: chicken breast, peas and chips. After dinner we headed up to our room to take some time out to rest from the busy day as well as get cleaned up. Then I enjoyed some time to myself as I read my book that I brought.

Even though we were in the middle of nowhere, there was a disco located right behind the hotel. Now this is apparently the place to hang out on the weekends as it is the only club around. Our tour guide told us all that we should check it out if we wanted a good laugh, but not to go before 11:00 because it would be empty. We all decided we at least wanted to have a look at the place but it was still to early to go so went to the bar in the Hotel for a little while and waited as the time passed. Eventually it was 10:30 and we didn't want to wait any longer to go because we were getting tired. When we got there there were about 10 people in the entire place. It wasn't a large place but it was pretty empty. After only being there a few minutes it began to fill up. Another key thing to note is that the majority of the people there were in the age range of 16-18 so we were feeling a bit old. We sat down at one of the tables and had a grand time watching everyone dance and mingle all the while remembering how we used to act in high school. We had a really good time observing and were really glad we had decided to stay up and check it out purely because it was so entertaining!

The next morning the hotel cooked us all up a traditional English breakfast and this time I didn't even get the sausage and bacon since I didn't want to waste it. After breakfast we loaded ourselves up into the coach and set off for horseback riding. Since we were such a big group we had to split up and go to two different stables. This worked out very nicely for me because we were in the second group and got to sleep a little bit longer on the coach ride there! I had been so excited for horseback riding but as soon as I got there and they began instructing us on how we would have to control our horses my nerves got a hold of me. I've gone once before but this was a different experience because even though the horses are very well trained you still have to be the one in charge of them and I wasn't quite ready for that yet. I ended up telling the girl that I was a little bit nervous so that she would give me one of the nicer horses...yes I know I'm a wimp! I got paired with Chestnut. I think Chestnut could sense that I was a little bit nervous. They told us to make sure our horses knew that we were confident even if we weren't so I did my best letting Chestnut know I was confident. The way to let them know you are is to talk to them in a calm steady voice...sort of difficult to do when your freaking out but I did my best. Honestly I think Chestnut knew I was freaking out the entire time because when we were finally done horseback riding and I got off of him he put his head towards me as if to give me a hug and seemed as if he was telling me "don't worry I got you back safely and I'm not going to act up for you anymore." He really was a sweet horse but he sure had a mind of his own that I did not particularly appreciate.

Chestnuts biggest issue was that he liked to be at the front of the line. There were twenty five of us in the group, along with three guides. As soon as I even got on Chestnut he began to walk around, which he was not supposed to do...I found out later after I got to know him a bit better that he was heading for the gate so he would be at the front of the group. We had to get the horses in a circle to lead them out of the gate single file and he had no problem getting out of line so that he could get closer to the front of the group. I of course thought I just didn't no how to control him so my nerves were on edge before we even left the fenced in area! We took the horses along trails and all the way up to the top of one of the hills/mountains...not really sure what you call it but it was quite large. The scenery was incredible the entire way though I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably could have since I was so worried about Chestnut deciding he wanted to take off at any point.

I did get to trot for the first time and enjoyed that until Chestnut decided he would start to trot randomly throughout the rest of the journey to get closer to the front of the line. When he did this randomly I thought I was going to have a panic attack. There was one time when one of the leaders had to open up a gate so that we could continue to the very top of the hill. Well the horses were all really anxious to get out of the gate, but the leaders decided it was a good time to get off their horses and check up on all of us. The horses went crazy and I really thought we were going to have some problems. Mine did try to walk me underneath a tree but I was able to push myself under and away from it before it did any real harm to me. Quite a frightening time though as I was worried I was going to have to jump off of Chestnut in order not to be knocked out by the tree.

The thing that made this whole experience worth it was the incredible views we had the entire way. Looking out at the beautiful landscape calmed me down a lot. One other really cool aspect was that we got to walk through a decent sized creek. The horses stopped and drank some water and then we kept on going. Something you see in the movies but not something I ever thought I'd get to do! All in all I enjoyed the horseback riding, but I'm not sure its something I will ever do again, at least in the same way. Three hours on a horse is a really long time and I'm still recovering from it (physically and mentally)! I think I would have liked it a lot more if I had just been able to relax but still a great experience that I wouldn't want to take back!

After horseback riding we went to a local pub for lunch and had some amazing food. Jeana tried the fresh lamb, but I stuck with my vegetarian risotto. :) It took a while for us all to get done eating, but we finally were headed home at 4:30. On the way home we stopped at Oxford because the bus driver had to let the bus sit for 45 minutes. Not really sure why but we got to spend a little bit of time there, though we are actually going back tomorrow! We arrived home around 10:00 and then made it to our flats shortly before 10:30. Of course our internet was down when we got back because we all had our first assignment due the next day. I was mostly done with mine, just had some proofreading and editing to do but without the internet we couldn't submit it so that was a tad stressful! Eventually we got the internet to work for a few minutes so I submitted my paper and happily called it a night! I was exhausted from the weekend and very excited to be back in our flats!



Here is the description of the trip from the company just as an overview that I can look back on later!:

"Our adventure begins as we travel west over the border, crossing the River Severn estuary and into another country - Wales. The first stop is Chepstow with its impressive castle - the oldest stone fortress in the country. Here the beautiful River Wye merges with the Severn and flows out to the ocean. This ancient Welsh port provides us with an early lunch stop before we explore the Wye Valley and visit the ruins at Tintern, a 12th century Cistercian Abbey whose romantic delights inspired the poetry of Wordsworth and the paintings of Turner. As we continue our journey westwards we enter the dramatic hill country of South Wales and visit Hay-on-Wye, the famous town of books, which boasts a yearly festival that Bill Clinton once called 'the Woodstock of the mind'. Here, amongst the quiet, narrow streets there will be time for dinner and a chance to look around the many second hand bookstores before we head off to our accommodation.

Our second day involves a full day's horseback riding in the Brecon Beacons National Park, taking in remote bridleways and ancient tracks with views of the stunning mountains, an important feature of the Welsh countryside. A relaxing stop in a village pub for food and refreshment will also be given."