SHEEP EVERYWHERE

by mikka


So last weekend I took a three day whirlwind bus tour of Wales, which turned out to be lots of fun; here are more photos of Wales, in roughly chronological order, than you probably thought you'd want to look at, but oh well:


Caerphilly Castle (yes, that tower is actually crooked)



This ruined church overlooks the more-celebrated ruins of Tintern Abbey; it was hollowed out by fire in the 1970s, which means it doesn't quite have the history or the ridiculously-long-when-you-have-pages-and-pages-of-Romantic-literature-reading-to-do (sorry, I mean "famous and terribly significant") poem associated with it, but I liked it almost more just the same; the stones are all overgrown with ivy (and swarming with hungry insects but I'm almost used to that by now) and it's really quite beautiful.


sheep in the mist









Books for sale at Hay-On-Wye, the "Town of Books" which is - apparently, not Wales, but rather it's own Kingdom, according to the bookstore map I consulted. These ones were 35p each.




Mount Snowdon (pictured here, directly above, and in the first Wales entry I posted) ws my favorite place in all of Wales, and it was so so frustrating to be on a bus tour at that point and be hustled away from it instead of getting to hike around an explore more. Also it has a stone quarry that looks sort of like Mordor, if you're a nerd like me, and the bus driver blasted Sigur Ross as we wound our way up the mountain, both of which were pretty awesome.


I walked across this aqueduct and did not fall off. Awesome.

I had been a bit apprehensive about doing bus tour since I've gotten pretty used to traveling under my own schedule and was worried I wouldn't have anyone to talk to, but it turned out to be pretty fun and a nice change of pace; also I made it to a pub for the first time (which sounds sort of pathetic but come on, pubs are no fun alone) since our hostel was right below one, where we played a pub quiz and I won a free pint of Brains beer (best! name! ever!) for knowing the answer to "What girl's name did J.M. Barrie invent?" Thanks, Mom!