Where 'n' Why in Wales

I knew it was near the top of my to do list in my advetures before I left home..
Go 'n' see Welsh, Irish & Scottish countryside.
They're nice easy to get to, rural places for me to tune out from the world for a while. Dunno how I'll go countryside stayin' in backpackers.. but try I shall.


Within the first few weeks of my journey, I met Wez.
After meeting me, without any knowledge of my UK travel intentions, Wez had a dream he was in a library.
In it, he saw 2 old books, one with the word CYMRU on the front.
Clear as day, he awoke from the dream and asked me to note down the word.

Days later, he mentioned his dream, and the unidentified word to a friend.
Turns out CYMRU is Welsh for Wales!
This same friend knows a couple who own a hotel in a town on the west coast of Wales.
In that town, amongst beach and castles, lives the National Library of Wales.
He also has a small cottage he uses as a holiday home in a tiny country town further south if we'd like to go and stay.

Accommodation, library, dream, travel intentions... right.
I hired a car and off we trot for a week.

First town,

hotel is on this water front.

View from hotel lobby..
The big distrant building on the hill is the Library.

View from the amazing accommodation.

Chilly but lovely view on a hill point in town ... + me ;)

Took the lil hill side train up to have a peek over the town.

BIG old library!
I'm not into museums and the like.. but this was cool. We even took a nerdy tour.
They have copy rights to every book ever published in the whole of UK. 100% reference library containing art, media, maps, books, etc. They process 10,000 items a WEEK!? :o
 I know this means diddly squat to 95% of you, but the libary girls back home would've loved it.
To the rest of you.. this place was fucking MASSIVE, full o' old books n bits.
Was ur typical 'shhh' library.
Needless to say, not my style!



Post library, we moved onto the next destination with the cottage.
Accommodation was lovely, as were the 2 local pubs.
We went from being complete strangers to long lost friends of the locals within 2 beers.
Their scrumpy cider was truly scrumptious indeed!

Owl marks the cottage front door..:)

Pub 1: It's nearly on the roof?!
WHY?!

Oi, Pub 2, There's a
forrest in ur loo.



Oh look.. it's more hill, beach, castle ruin 'n' rock.
Unlike my blog photos this week, the views didn't get repeatative.

Proof: there are proper beaches here!
I expected them to be shit on this island after experiencing rocky Brighton last year.

Ya ever heard of Dylan Thomas??
Famous poet from early 1900's... famous to the welsh at least :p
That's his house... Well it was, back in his day.

The rural roads.
High hedges, skinny dirt paths..
Whooooop!
Had a blast buzzin about :D


Come home time.. we decided to grab one last cheeky feed on the drive back.

First place we stumbled across...

Questionable hotel name, clear decider.

Food was splendid,
as was Wales
:)

No time to storytell . . .

Wales, beautiful place !
Just stopped by to share some happy snaps of pretty shit we've stumbled upon so far..

Aberystwth

Aberystwth Pier

err....  a leaf.

Llansteffan

WeZ!

iddy leftovers of an old castle

some lucky bastard's backyard !! :o

bye bye flat..

V and Sam are moving.. thus, I am moving on too.. 

gotta clean.. 

cleaning's overrated..

Off to pub to get pissy instead!..

:D

Finished with one last drunken sunday roast.
    

Toodles flat..

: )

mismelbehaviour..

After the occasional weekend out, the library girls would cop stories of my dodgy drunken adventures. There hasn't been much evidence of that on here to date, but me being me, there are always stories to be told ...




Weekend before last Sam was away for a bucks w/e so V invited her Aussie mates Tim & Kate over for a few drinks. I decided on vodka & OJ which flowed quite nicely!

Hours passed and we thought it best to make an appearance and V's mates b'day down the road. . I walked in first... a bunch of very Pom nerdy boys looked at me with vague expression as I greeted the room hello :/
30 mins later,  in strolled 3 newcomers including an Aussie chick, bunch of my sorta people.. phew, yay!

One thing led to another which led to us original 4 +  a handful of new comers trotting off  to party further at Vs flat.
From there on out I remember drinks, tunes, kitchen shuffling and giggling.




At roughly 5am I woke up on the floor in my room at Vs.
I slowly sat up and scanned the room...
Why am I not on the bed?
I'm alone..
Why is the light on?
I'm still in my shirt and jacket..
It smells funky in here..
Where are my pants?!
Argh! My head!!
Whoa, my body, the pain.

I quickly realised I had passed out on the bed at some point, felt sick and learned over to empty my beverage filled, traumatised stomach..
The bed sheets, wooden bed base, cream carpet and light brown chair aside the bed were all covered in the blackest chunkiest vomit I've even seen in my life. ...  >.<
oh.. Fuck a duck.
This is not ideal.

Too wrecked to function, I pulled myself up onto the bed and passed out in the smelly stench.

'bout 10am I reckon V popped her head in the room.. (uh oh!) Windows were opened, fan turned on and carpet cleaner was sprinkled over the carpet to absorb the vile upchuck.
I then felt like I was spinning in a washing machine full of powder and vomit.

Hours of unproductive sleep later, V and the vacuum cleaner appeared in the bedroom door way.. Alright, this is not her prob, I can do this!
Jeebus crickey it was so very hard to vacuum that mayhem without soiling the carpet all over again.
Why so chunky, why so black|!? There's noodles everywhere! !

Few hours of failed attempt at recuperation later, I scrubbed the war zone clean and a dragged my arse into a hot shower.
Sam needed the room for his mate that evening which meant I had to travel an hour west to alternative accommodation.
It's just 2 train rides, pep talk number 2, I can do this!
With an emergency plastic bag in my hand bag, I dragged my feet to the train station in the warm sun only to realise there were no trains running my required direction due to works. :(  = the longest bus ride of my entire life!
I made it without disturbing fellow bus passengers and didn't move for a good 24 hours following once I found a bed.


Boozing needs a rest ! .. that mentality lasted a day :p

aussie fix!

hai Carolyn !  : )

Shit photo but it's evidence that people can visit me!

Carolyn, James and I went out for the shittest pub meal ever last night..

London, it was embarrassingly crappy food! >.<

Drinks went down a dream as per usual..

Great to see them

I gettin' a top up tomorrow before they take off to tackle the rest of Europe

:)

HOORAY for visitors !

got beef?

happy easter V..

I have no great photos recently, but still alot happening..

I've done a bunch of all nighters with the Irish Folk.

Wez is a male version of me..

Drink and partys 'too much', and is a little nuts... 

It's danergous for all livers in a 10 meter radius !

 

Check out Pokey!

American roots music-ish.. makes ya wanna bop along.

I saw these guys at a local gig last week.

Pokey and his 3 fun lovin' music men seemed like they were genuinely pluked

from the 1920s and plonked on a merry stage before me.

T'was a sensational gig !

Then to the other end of the scale...

We went to a Primus gig at the Royal Albert Hall.

Insanely awesome venue,
3 hours of a band I didn't know..

It was AMAZING.

In other music yadda-bla-gig news:

I bought tickets to The Secret Garden Party festival and to Download festival.
They hit bout June/July..
Metalica, Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeros, Prodigy, NOFX, Black sabbath.. The line-ups are epic.
I'm very extrememly tickled pink pumped for UK summer! !

Also gonna hit up Besitval I think - Stevie Wonder is headlining.
The live music scene here is so mental.. it seems there isn't a band that are still alive, that aren't touring..?!

Aaaaaaand I'm also lined up to see Bruce Springsteen and Toto. Not at the same time..
I might die of over excitement if that were the case.

<3 Lovin' the tunes !