Unfortunately, "last minute" meant that all preparations for the trip had to be done the day before we left, which will be remembered as the Day of Epic Errands. I had to go to the grocery to buy something quick for dinner on the night we got back to Dublin (a much-appreciated foresight come Monday), then find a warm, water-resistant coat that (1) has a hood and (2) actually fits me. Don't ask how I've survived in Ireland this long without one - it involves lots of layers, umbrellas, and not going outside when I know the weather's going to suck (but when does anyone know what the weather in Ireland is going to do?). I finally found a good coat in the kids' department at TK Maxx (TJ Maxx in the States... not sure why the name is different?). Sidenote: it is just as difficult to find petite women's clothing here as it is in the States, hence the kids' clothes.
Then, I had to go to class, because of course all of my obligations are going to fall on the same day. I won't catalogue the other hundred-odd errands I had to run that day, but it involved a lot of time on the bus and generally more running around than is part of my typical day. Put that way, it doesn't sound nearly as epic as it felt, but I don't think that telling you the details (ex., "I had to take the bus to buy cat litter!") would help. Eh.
So to get to Wales, we took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, since that was (1) cheap, (2) relatively quick, and (3) something we've never done before. Despite the fact that the ferry was overcrowded, due to an earlier ferry being canceled thanks to rough waters (same thing happened on our way back...), it was actually pleasant, once you managed to get on the ferry and find a seat. For the sake of my social phobia and the high probability that we'll be doing the ferry again in the future, I'll just gloss over the hoards of people pushing their way through the interminable queues to get to the ferry. So, moving on...
Once we got to Holyhead, we realized that we didn't have the address of our B&B written down anywhere, and despite the fact that our phones are supposed to work throughout Europe, we couldn't get service in order to look it up. But guess who saved the day? Two super-helpful librarians! We stopped by the local public library and asked if we could look up directions on the computer, and the librarians working helped us look it up and gave us a map with our route highlighted. +1 for librarians. :)
We stayed at Yr Hendre guesthouse in Holyhead, which was absolutely lovely. The place is on the outskirts of town, but the town is much smaller than you'd think given that it's such a major ferry port. We dropped off our things and went to a hotel & restaurant on the waterfront for lunch, and then went hiking around the coast and Holyhead Mountain. It's designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and while I'm not sure that my pictures quite do justice, I'll let you have a look for yourselves:
yay, new coat!
we felt like we were going on a quest :)
inventive ways to avoid the mud that was everywhere
When I saw this, I shouted, "It's a seal!" and Jason got excited until he realized it was just a mosaic. But it's still pretty cool.
The next day, we had the standard "full breakfast" (a full- Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English breakfast are all basically the same thing: ham, sausage, fried egg, potato, tomato, with one or two regional differences). We took the train to Llandudno junction (despite the fact that they said the name aloud on the train probably 20 times, I still can't be certain how that word is pronounced) and walked about 10 minutes to Conwy (pronounced Conway, got that one :P). We had decided to go to Conwy because of Conwy Castle and the fully-intact medieval walls surrounding the city, but as we were walking from Llandudno to Conwy, we started seeing signs for the "Conwy Feast," and then noticed the date - that weekend! Once we could see the town, we noticed a bunch of tents set up along the coast. Yep, there was an enormous food festival going on the very same day we were there, and we hadn't even realized it. It was clearly Destiny that brought us to Conwy.
We had SO MUCH food: chiefly cheese (Welsh cheddar, omg), but also sausages, chutneys, fudge, pastries, wines... In addition to all the free food the hundred or so stalls were giving out, we also bought flatbread pizza, cider, apple cinnamon cake... And yes, both sets of ellipses signify even more food that we sampled / bought. It was glorious excess.
We finally did make it to the castle and walls. I once again confronted my fears of tight, steep, spiral staircases and soaring tower-tops in high winds (I basically spent the whole visit with clenched stomach and trembling limbs, but sooo worth it! And it's not like my fears were warranted - most of the other visitors were children and they were perfectly unconcerned. I'm just afraid of everything, apparently.)
those terrifying stairs
bridges out the front of Conwy Castle
two of maybe four tents for the food festival; there were also a ton of outdoor stalls
good view of the medieval walls
good light :)
walking along the walls around the city!
We hadn't made plans yet for our next day in Wales, erroneously thinking that we would have internet access and could make those plans on the fly, but it turns out we had something better than the internet: Rita, the B&B owner. She recommended we go to Chester, which turned out to be incredible! And also part of a mildly amusing story: I had said at the beginning of our trip that it was funny that I had been to Scotland and Wales before making it to England, but that we could easily remedy that now that we're so close. Well, thanks to my ignorance of UK geography, I've now been to England without even having realized it: Chester is just over the border into England. I probably should have realized when none of the signs were in Welsh that we were no longer in Wales, but... the town is so gorgeous, you wouldn't have been focused on the signs, either:
(Not my picture; I didn't take any because it was super-crowded and kind of rainy and, okay, yeah, I just forgot.)
So despite all that is of historical and architectural interest in Chester, we spent the day shopping, but actually, the Chester Rows (the strange way the shops are organized, with shops slightly lower than ground level, topped by a kind of footpath behind which are more shops) are one of the most interesting things about the city. You can kind of see what I'm talking about in the picture above.
Our last day in Wales was like we'd gotten stuck in the Twilight Zone. Our ferry back to Dublin, the earliest one available, didn't leave until 2pm, so we had to find something to do in tiny Holyhead that morning. Once we'd walked around basically the entire town, we decided to go into some of the shops in the town centre, and... woah. We went into one "bargain" shop that probably hadn't updated its merchandise since the mid-90s: Disney Pocahontas plastic cups, Ken and Barbie in neon windbreakers, actual cassette tapes. We went into another store that sold (1) candy, and (2) onesies, but most of them were for adults. An art and craft supply store that had a well-stocked shelf of edible body paint. I was deeply unsettled and only too happy to get back to our nice little apartment in Dublin. It was also a little bizarre, but in a good way, to walk ashore in Dublin and feel like we'd made it back home. :)
