Oh thank goodness, I hear you all sigh with relief, I am UPDATING! I know everyone has just been simply dying to hear about my fabulous weekend in Wales, so never fear, buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight because heeeere we go!!!

After a lovely day back in Londontown to get caught up, attend class, do an essential load of laundry, etc, Jenny and I were off on yet ANOTHER adventure, this time with the everlovely Annie to the everlovely WALES! (although I will say -- gorgggeeeous place, but really I will never, ever live there. Except, of course, when I am seventy and growing old with bestfriend, but by that time I plan to not really know what's going on. I can't WAIT for our future life on a Welsh sheep farm! I also wish I remembered how this idea came up, and why I agreed to it...)

We went with through a tour company so we had other fellow adventurers and a coach and a tour guide, which was lovely as that meant we didn't have to worry about anything except getting our tushies back in our seats. Our fellow adventurers were hysterical, mostly because 98% of the people were American female college students, so we were riiiiiight at home. Unfortunately many of them were from Maryland so I had to hiss and hold up garlic every time they approached me. OH and our tour guide? he was Santa. Down from the North Pole. Seriously, this man looked like Santa, and that is how he is now programmed in my cell phone, and I plan to keep him in there like that. 

Anyway, we rumble on over to Wales, land of the people who do NOT understand what a real language is. Seriously. Ten consonants in a row? HOW DO THEY HANDLE THAT?! I don't even understand how to SPEAK that!! CRAZY! We spent Saturday tooling around at various historical (hahaha, at first I wrote hysterical. they were funny I suppose) sights, including Chepstow Castle, right on the border, and Tintern Abbey. Chepstow was actually pretty cool -- very castley, to the point where I felt that I was in Monty Python and it was the last battle scene. Very historic. But it was a GORGEOUS day and people were picnicking on the grassy fields inside -- it was quite lovely. And they had hysterical mannequin-filled education displays, so we all know I was happy about that. We didn't go into Tintern Abbey, but we did venture to the hill above the town, where an old, burnt down, slightly creepy but really cool church lives! We only had half an hour but it was a really eerie sight, with an old graveyard, ivy growing over the walls (the roof was gone, but the walls still stood), all overlooking the beautiful Welsh countryside. 

After scampering around the countryside (and stopping in Hay-on-Wye, called "Woodstock of the mind" by some because of its literary festival and THIRTY FIVE independent bookstores in a town the size of Western Branch... I was in heaven...) we tuck in to our hotel, BASKERVILLE HALL HOTEL. I don't know my favorite part...

1) We were in a room with eighteen other girls, to the point that it looked EXACTLY like the newsies room and Jenny and I sang newsies to each other and I threatened to wake her up by crawling into her bed and saying, "Dat's my cigah!"

2) The manager? Owner? Guy at the desk? looked EXACTLY like Filch from HP. Jenny and I took a covert picture of him, if you wish to see. fabulous.

3) This hotel was literally in the middle of NOWHERE, nothing around us but sheep

4) We got there at six and there was nothing to do except eat dinner and chat, except...

5) the only nightclub for MILES, basically the only nightclub in Wales, was BEHIND OUR HOTEL, and we had FREE ACCESS

6) so yes, we went to a Welsh nightclub. I don't know how to describe it except absolutely surreal, and a little pathetic how much the Welsh teenagers loved it. Of course they were also VERY weird and a little rude. One gentleman suddenly whips around and says to my friends, "Are you a JEW?! Are you laughing at me?? Well, your mother's a LESBIAN!" and then walks away. V strange.

So we head back to the hotel and snuggle in with eighteen of our closest friends before adventuring over to BREACON BEACON nation park for three hours of horseback riding! There are no words. It was indescribably beautiful, awe-inspiring, a little chilly, but amazing to be on a horse picking out the path up a mountain, trotting through valleys, looking out over the vast countryside, running into sheep, crossing creeks... it was SO MUCH FUN! I forgot how much I love horseback riding.

Needless to say, after that we were completely knackered and napped on the bus for the four-five hours home, stopping only at the Rest Stop of Dreams outside Oxford. This puppy was like American rest stops on crack... I loved it. Plus I got KFC.

So, my friends, that is that. This week and weekend are pretty quiet, and next weekend I'll be heading up to Haworth, home of the Brontes! Must inspiration to be had, hopefully. Must pick up a copy of Jane Eyre whilst I am there...

I hope everyone is doing well and I love and miss you all!