Goodbye

Goodbyes saturday morning and friday night...it brought so many mixed emotions and I still can't believe it's real. I don't feel like I just spent 5 months in the beautiful country of Wales getting to know these people and being able to call them my friends, and I may never see them again. But I have already made a promise to come back as soon as I can. We said our final goodbyes at 4:45am, giving our last hugs and wishes before we left for our long journey home. It was so hard saying goodbye, though I tried to make my hugs last as long as they could. I'm going to miss everyone so much, more than they know. On the bus ride to the airport, I couldn't help but reflect on everything and everywhere I had been and seen during my time in Wales. I'm going to miss the beautiful countryside and especially running in all the different places I discovered. I think it's safe to say that Wales stole a piece of my heart that can only be cured if I make sure to visit again someday. I know I'll keep in touch with my flat and the guys because they have impacted my life so much the short time I was in Wales. It's not goodbye...it's see you later Wales=) Thanks for all the memories.

This is for you Nikki=)

When in Rome

Wednesday May 26 started off by catching a train to the Liverpool airport to spend the night there until our flight to Rome in the morning. When we got to Rome our real adventure began. We started off spending a good couple hours trying to find and make our way to our hostel, Peter Pan. That night we wandered around the city, eating our first real Italian pizza and getting lost within the crowds of people. The very next day we spent the day at the Vatican, roaming around the Vatican Museum and Basilica. Apparently you aren't suppose to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, so I was escorted out because of my behavior=/ oops! It rained for most of the day and we were bombarded my vendor after vendor to buy an umbrella from them. Saturday was much nicer weather, almost too warm and we saw the Colosseum and many other ruins around the area, including the Pantheon and Plazza Navona. At the Colosseum we got convinced to take our picture with 5 gladiators, who kept trying to impress us by flexing and posing. After we took our picture with them, they immediately demanded 5 euros from each of us. Most expensive picture Ive ever taken! We stopped to get gelato after a hot morning and made our way to the Pantheon. It was amazing to think that it was built way back in 27 BC and that it is the largest unsupported building in the World! As we walked toward a place to eat dinner we walked through a plazza, Plazza Navona, full of vendors selling their artwork as well as many street performers. It was a really neat place and we spent a lot of time walking around, taking it all in. We ate dinner at Pizzeria Da Baffetto, known for having the best pizza in Italy, and it was actually really good! After dinner we walked to a lookout at the Piazza del Popolo that overlooked the city and made our way back to the Colosseum to view it at night. Our last day in Rome we went to the Trevie fountain where there were people crowding everywhere, trying to get close to the fountain to throw in a coin for a wish. I eventually made it up to the fountain and made my wish, throwing the coin over my shoulder into the fountain. We then made our way to the Spanish Steps spending time sitting my the nearby fountain and enjoying the view. We left not much longer after that to catch the train to the airport to begin our adventure to Venice.

Venice was like nothing I had ever experience before. We stayed in town and took a bus both Monday and Tuesday to the center of Venice. We spent both days walking around, enjoying the beautiful canals, with every corner a new perspective. We ate lots of gelato and pizza and definitely got lost walking over multiple bridges, down alleys, and zig zag roads. We made our way to both San Marco and San Polo, experiencing both atmospheres. I really enjoyed Venice and loved the large bridges that crossed over the Grand Canal. On the Ponte dell' Accademia bridge there were locks attached to the bridges with couples initials engraved onto them. Those that did attach a lock to the bridge threw the key into the Grand Canal to symbolize eternal love. It was a really neat idea! I would love to go back to Venice some day because it was so hard to take in all its beauty in one trip. I had a great time in Italy with the girls and it was definitely one of my better trips this semester. I'd say I ended the semester pretty well;)

BBC Big Weekend

Saturday marked the start of the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend event in Bangor! Sarah and Ashley won tickets for Sunday and were bringing Molly and I to the concert with them. We left early to catch the 10am to the site and waited in line until noon when the gates finally opened. It was crazy inside, with people rushing to the stages to wait for the performances to begin. We walked to the Main Stage Tent and got pretty close to the stage to watch Paolo Nutini, the first performer. People began to fill the floor, pushing closer and closer to one another until it was almost hard to move. It wasn't long before we were all sweating from all the body heat. After Paolo they had to evacuate the floor due to technical difficulties. As people lined the tent waiting to go back in, with security guards guarding the entrance, we waited for them to let us back in. As soon as they let us go, everyone was running to the stage to get close. Before we knew it we were all running as fast as we could without tripping on one another or loosing our shoes. At one point i lost my shoe and we were getting pushed into people. It was scary but we finally got a good spot toward the front and caught our breathe. The next performance was Pixie Lott, with more people crowding closer and closer. She was good and right after was Jason Derulo. It was getting really hot in the stage area and many people were passing out, which was scary. We all made sure to stay hydrated to avoid that situation. We saw Nikki, Charlie, and Liz in the crowd standing a bit behind us! How ironic that we found them in a crowd of over 20,000 people. Right after Jason Derulo, Paramore performed. She was really good! And Sarah even got the guitar pic of the guitarist after he threw it into the crowd and it landed on her shirt. We got to watch Ke$ha, Biffy Clyro, and Rhianna perform on the main stage before leaving to go to the smaller stage to watch Vampire Weekend. We left at a good time since mosh pits were beginning to occur and people were getting a little crazy. Vampire Weekend was my favorite performance of the day and people were dancing around. At one point during the concert a person tried to body surf over us, but Molly and I were the only ones in the section and they fell on us. I couldn't help but laugh at how scary yet funny it was, but we made sure to stay out of the way. By the end of Vampire Weekend's performance it was 9:30pm and we had been standing for 11 hours, and after climbing Snowdon yesterday, and were hungry and tired. We got some tasty Chinese food to refuel us after a long day and headed back to the bus stop to go home and sleep. Ashley and I noticed that our ankles had swollen up from standing for so long and looked like cankles, I just laughed at how ridiculous it looked. Sunday was great fun!

Monday May 24, 2010-

Tonight we went out for a flat dinner before we all left to go our separate ways for the summer. It was sad to think that would be the last time we would all get to eat together, but I had fun spending time as a flat. I'm going to miss them all very much and I don't know if I'm ready to say goodbye yet=/

Tapping the peak of Snowdon

This morning Molly, Sarah, Ashely and I got up early to climb Snowdon mountain before leaving Bangor. We got up pretty early to catch the bus to Llaberis, where the bottom of the peak of Snowdon is. We rode with Megan and Justine as well, who would be taking the train to the peak. We began our adventure around 9:45am with the sun beating down on our backs. We could not have asked for a better day to climb. We started walking up a very steep long path that took us to the beginning of the mountain. But it was definitely an intimidating climb since we were all thinking "is it going to be like this the whole way up the mountain?" There were many people climbing today too, probably trying to take advantage of the nice weather too. We began our walk up the mountain, getting passed by a couple runners, and walked past many sheep along the way. We were about half way in an hour, but still had the steep section to climb. We took breaks throughout the day, enjoying the view from all the angles and talking with locals, encouraging one another. We finally made it to the top, where a large group of people were gathered after about 2 hours, but realized we still had about a 15 minute walk up to the very summit. It was a steep climb and the bugs were awful, getting worse the higher we climbed. We finally climbed the last few steps to the very tip where a gold compass was mounted on a rock and about 15 other people were trying to gather around to touch the compass. Molly and I tapped the compass and got out of the crowd and swarm of bugs. It was so beautiful from the top and you could see for miles. The fog began to get thicker as the day went on but it was still very clear out. We enjoyed our lunch on a nearby grassy area and began our walk down the mountain. The walk down wasn't nearly as bad and we got down in about 1.5 hours. We were all pretty beat and very sweaty from the hot sun shinning on us all day and the continuous climb up the mountain. Before hopping on a train to go back to Bangor we stopped to grab an ice cream bar to cool us down. It was just what we needed. Once we got back to Bangor we got Pizza House pizza and watched a movie after a hard day of exercise. It was a great day to climb a mountain and I had the best crew with me to climb=)

London and Flight of the Conchords

May 18, 2010-
I woke up to a beautiful clear, sunny day as Molly and I walked down to the train station to catch our ride at 7:22 AM. After a 3.5 hour train ride we arrived at the London Euston station. We found a place to buy a tube train pass and headed to find our hostel. When we thought we had found our stop, we got off and headed toward the exit. When we put our tickets through the machine though, if wouldn't let us through. Turns out we had only bought a pass for zones 1 and 2, when our hostel was in zone 3. Thinking we were stuck, the man in charge told us we could simply update our card for a little extra cash. We were glad we got that taken care of. As we began walking around the town the train had dropped us off in, Molly and I realized we had gotten off at the wrong stop. It was a rough start to the day but we eventually found our stop and made it to our hostel. We were staying at the London Backpacker's Hostel in a 12 person female room. We didn't know what to expect but as soon as we got to our room we met a nice Canadian girl who was traveling by herself around London. We became pretty friendly with her, getting to know her and sharing our travel stories. After Molly and I changed into our concert clothes we hopped on the tube again to head to King's cross to see Platform 9 3/4, like in Harry Potter. We walked around for quite awhile at the station trying to find this landmark and finally game in to ask someone, sounding like a typical tourist. We finally found the area where a half trolley cart was sticking out of the wall with a label above that said Platform 9 3/4. Of course, it was nowhere near platform 9 or 10. Our next stop was to London Bridge. As we were walking to see the famous bridge we got mixed into a group of business people who had appeared to have gathered for a fire drill. We continued to follow them until we realized they were walking into a parking garage back to their work, so we quickly escaped that pack of people, embarrassed that we thought they were tourists that knew where they were going. We walked along the Thames River enjoying the nice weather. We rode to Tower Hill next to check out the Tower of London where all the Jewels are kept and saw the famous Tower Bridge. Our next stop was to St. James Wood where the famous Abbey Road is located. We walked about 5 minutes from the station and came across the same exact street crossing The Beatles crossed for their album picture. There were a number of people crowding around waiting to take their picture crossing the road. The Abbey studio was located just beyond the crossing. Molly and I quickly took pictures of us crossing, avoiding getting hit by the cars passing by. I can only imagine how tired they are of having to wait for tourists to take their pictures everyday there. We hurried to the tube to catch the train to Wembly Central to see the Flight of the Conchords concert at Wembly Stadium. We grabbed dinner and found our way to the entrance. The concert was amazing and both Molly and I were laughing the whole time. Even Dave from Flight of the Conchords, Arj Barker, told jokes at the beginning of the show. I love his humor! It wasn't long before the concert was over, but I had a great time and could hardly believe I got to fulfil one of my dreams of seeing Bret and Jemaine live from the second row in London! I even got a picture with Arj Barker after the show. We found our way home after a long day, struggling to stay awake and climbed into our beds with the other girls asleep already. At some point during the night one of the girls yelled at the other girl to stop moving and making noise. Molly and I both got pretty scared since it had woken us up and were afraid there was going to be a big girl fight. They argued a bit but nothing more, guess that's what happens when you put 12 girls into a room together.

May 19, 2010-
The next morning Molly and I got up early to shower and get ready for the day. The hostel provided breakfast where we got to talk to our Canadian friend again. Our first stop for the day was to St. James Park to watch the changing of the guards at the Buckingham Palace. We got there extra early to get a good view. We were right outside the gates with a great view of the ceremony of the changing of the guards. At one point two of the guards came marching straight toward us! It was pretty neat seeing them up close and person. I couldn't imagine having to do that everyday though. We walked along the outside of St. James Park. It was so beautiful with all its trees and the sun was shinning. There were so many runners too! I was really surprised, but if I had a beautiful place like that to run in, I would too. We walked past Big Ben, the Parliament, saw the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. The clock just struck 1pm when we walked past the abbey so we were able to listen to the bells. We were really hungry so we stopped at a Pasty shop to try the famous Cornish Pasty made in Cornwall and shipped to London. I had a steak pasty and it was delicious! We stopped at a near by McDonald's to get a McFlurry, of course, to end our meal right. We hopped on the train again to Knightsbridge to do some shopping and stop at Harrods. I couldn't believe how big Harrods was! There were over 5 floors in Harrods full of clothes, accessories, and toys. It was so easy to get lost. We spent most of our time in the toys, having fun looking at all the neat stuff. After too much fun and a good hour spent in Harrods we did a bit more shopping around the city. It was all so expensive though, ranging from Burberry to Dolce and Gabbana! At one of the stores there were even paparazzi standing right outside the store. We thought that was pretty neat and wondered who it could have been. We hopped on the tube to the Euston train station and began our trip back to Bangor. It had been another long day, but I had a blast getting lost and finding my way with Molly =)

The Beatles and Liverpool

Yesterday morning we gathered outside to head to Liverpool in England, home to the Beatles. In order to get there, we drove through one of the long underwater tunnels that connect Wales to England, called the Queens Way and the Kings Way. Once we got there, we headed straight for The Beatles Story Exhibition. On our way there we passed a large Ferris wheel that reminded me a lot of the London Eye. It was really cool because it looked out at all the small docking areas surrounding the outside edges of the coast. We were lead through the history of the Beatles, from the lifestyles of each band member, to the story of how they met, to finally the break up of the band in 1970 by an audio tour with the Beatles songs playing throughout the different sections of the tour. I learned so much about the Beatles and really enjoyed getting to know John, Paul, Ringo and George individually through their stories in the tour. I never realized how much they accomplished throughout their short time being a band. Even after their break up as a band, each one was able to find their own fame and success through their different talents. I could definitely see myself as one of the crazy Beatle fans if I were a band during their generation! I gained a new respect and appreciation for them after the tour and was glad we were given the opportunity to go there. After our adventure Beatles adventure we decided we wanted to learn more about the Beatles so we walked to the other exhibit, getting lost in the town center where street performances were going on at every corner and you could only see clutters of people in the distance. We explored there for a bit and tried finding the Albert Docks, where the rest of the Beatles tour was. A nice Liverpool woman helped direct us in the right direction and we were off. By now the sun was out and was beautiful out! In the other exhibit we experienced a 4D short film about the Beatles, taking us through the different places in England associated with the Beatles songs. We then went through the John Lennon exhibit narrated by his first wife, Cynthia. It was all really interesting and I enjoyed learning about John's life. The rest of the day we spent shopping around the city center with its 3 floors of shops and watching performers on the street. I couldn't believe how many people were out on and shopping though. It was almost overwhelming at times, especially when you could barely move in a store to get to the exit. The day went by really fast and before we knew it, it was already 10 minutes to 5! Molly, Megan, and I raced back to the bus, getting lost along the way like normal, but finally made it. We headed back to Bangor after a busy, interesting day. I really enjoyed my time at Liverpool, especially because we were able to spend so much time learning about the Beatles. I feel like that is really part of the experience with coming to Liverpool. It was fun to be in a city with so many people since we are all not really use to it, coming from small towns in Iowa and elsewhere and from our safe town of Bangor. It is definitely a trip a person should make if they come to the united Kingdom.

Penrhyn Castle

This morning we left for our last castle field trip of the semester around noon to Penrhyn Castle in Llandygai. I was especially excited to see this castle because I have ran past it so many times and have always wondered what the castle was like inside. The Penrhyn Castle was home to the Pennant family and their many servants over 150 years ago and is still in very good condition today, with all of the rooms still furnished and decorated. The castle was very large and had a stone wall surrounding the whole land they owned, covering 2.5 square miles! The Pennant family gained their fortune through slavery at their Jamaican sugar plantations, but added to their fortune through the success of the slate mines they owned, referred to as the Penrhyn quarries. We entered the castle and began our extravagant tour through all the bedrooms, dining rooms, and kitchens. One of the first rooms we entered had a billboard made completely of slate. Slate was popular throughout the castle and the men especially liked this unique object. The Tea Room was one section of the castle where the women could enjoy a nice cup of tea and chat. The room had drapery wallpaper and a beautiful marble table, with many nice comfortable couches. And to think this was just the tea room! The next room we entered was called the Ebony Room because all the furniture in the room was made from dark wood, giving the room an almost mysterious feeling. On one of the walls there was a picture of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. It almost seemed out of place in such a dark room. We then walked up the large detailed spiral staircase to the bedrooms. Just opposite the stairs and above was an overhanging lamp held up by a statue hand, meant to represent a light guiding the way. The first bedroom we entered was called the State Bedroom where important people slept if they were to visit. This room had a huge canopy bed with 15ft ceilings and a separate changing room and bathroom. The bathrooms in the castle were the first to have indoor plumbing, which was quite unique during the 1850s. Another bedroom we saw was the Slate Bedroom with a bed carved completely from slate and an amazing view of the slate mines the Pennant family owned right outside the window. Queen Victoria is said to have slept in this bed when she came to visit the castle. As we were walking around the castle I noticed the thick doors and walls that separated the rooms from one another. Each door was about 3 inches thick! There were many pictures throughout the castle of the castle itself in the distance with the Welsh mountains and ocean in the picture as well as various pictures of the Pennant's sugar plantations in Jamaica. Another bedroom that was really unique was the Indian Bedroom that contained stuff from Eastern Europe and the wallpaper hand painted in India. Above the bed was a painted cockle said to wake up the Lord in the morning sleeping in the room. There was even a small chapel in the castle, where the servants were to attend everyday. The Dining Room was really extravagant with the table all set up, ready to be eaten at. The different utensils used were really interesting. There were pictures throughout the room of the Pennant family and a secret area where a screen could be moved for the men to pee if they needed to during dinner. Outside the Breakfast room/Small Dining Room there was a large picture of the workers at the Penrhyn quarry, which covered 3,500 acres. We passed through the Servant's Hall that had over 50 bells hung from above with a label of the room that each bell represented. These bells could be rung throughout the castle in the various rooms to call for a servant and a boy would be watching to see what bell rang and go to the housekeepers and tell them. The last area we visited was the Kitchen, which was made up of many different rooms. It looked as if there was a separate room for desserts, meat, and dishes. The kitchen had various tools used for cooking such as a copper fireplace, which was later replaced by a coal-bunker, pastry ovens, gas stove, 3 gas grills, and an interesting turning spit that was controlled by the strength of the fire below. The castle was very extravagant inside and I couldn't imagine a single family living in such a large building. The family left the house to the government because government taxes reached up to 95%, making it too expensive for a family to afford to pass it down to their family.

After exploring inside we walked around the castle boundaries to a beautiful walled garden with various flowers, trees, and a bog garden or swamp garden just outside the walled garden. It is set at a low level with wet plants growing within that area such as tree ferns, Japanese Maple and copper hazel. We walked around the forested area, finding a pasture full of cows and a great view of the mountains. I enjoyed walking around the castle grounds and trying to imagine being a kid and exploring the area. It was such a beautiful day too, making it that much more enjoyable. I really enjoyed this castle not only because it was furnished inside, but because it covered so much ground and felt like a secluded town within a busy town outside the walls.