End of Bangor

The end of Bangor

Alright ladies and germs

We went to Port Merion on Tuesday.  It was a village of pastel colored Italian villa houses done up in an amazing collage of yellows and pinks and peppered with the odd Greek statue.  Take a look.

And again. Ooooo.

One more time. Ahhhh.

Later I got separated from everyone and began to wander the nearby forest.  Here is what I found.

 Tree with coins stuck in it.

 Flower path

 Deceptively beautiful quicksand

Sideways Lighthouse

The great thing about this place (Portmeirion) was that there were no signs explaining anything.  The statues and exhibits just stood on there own.  Even the coin stump, which was just sitting in the middle of nowhere.

The next day, we went gorge scrambling.  It sounds like a great breakfast, but it is actually climbing up waterfalls.  I got to use my new boots!

On Thursday, we went to another castle (Conwy) and then went to on awesome concert called Mammaith I believe.  It was an Australian aborigine and Welsh music crossover concert.  I didn't understand one word.

Today was the final day, we gave presentations and had our final dinner at the Fat Cat restaurant.  Great fajitas.  On to Aberystwyth now, but I'm gonna miss Bangor a ton.

Well sitting here in my pajama's early in the morning (10:45) and I realized I didn't blog last night.

Not much to say about yesterday but here it goes.

Got some new kicks at a thrift store.  Honestly, man, we must've gone to at least seven thrift stores.  Half of main street was thrift stores, costume shops and pasty bakeries.  Pasties are like lovely little meat pies that often come with fruit.  The good ones are a mash of savory meat fruit goodness.  The bad ones are packed with potatoes.  I'll leave the potatoes to Ireland.

I also saw The Amazing Spiderman.

Here's my review: It was pretty good.  Didn't quite measure up to Spiderman 2, but still fun.  I thought there was a slight twilight vibe to the main love relationship in that there didn't seem to be a lot to like about the moody and dangerous Act 2 Peter Parker.  Yet I thought Emma Stone was a sufficiently strong enough character that this didn't offend me.  It's also been said that Uncle Ben's death seemed to have little effect on Peter Parker and Aunt May.  Yeah I felt that.  It was if Peter didn't care that his Aunt's husband had died and left her alone for long periods of time. Nice special effects.  Anyway.  Cool movie, awesome.

Yep thats the blog.

I swear by Christine's mighty beard that I will do this blog more often.

Today we went to the ritziest place I have ever been. Penrhyn Castle- built by a multi-millionaire in the 19th century, it made me want to join the ranks of Ted Moseby and Mitch Cobb.

Take a look.

 Ceiling of Beauty

 Sconce (?) of majesty

 Staircase to heaven

 Sitting room of destiny

 Dragon Mural of my dreams

Dragon dog light fountain

Not a lot to say.  Absolutely beautiful place built on the backs of the slate miners.  Now its time for a chill weekend working, reading and hanging out in Bangor.

Heres come the mother of all blog posts.

Welp sorry guys. I've been exhausted for the last two weeks, but I'm back and maybe now I can do one of these everyday.  I'll just do the highlights from what's been missed.

The last thing I posted about was...ST FAGANS?! wow this is going to take a long time.

I was on my way to Bath when I found some sheep by the road.  I tried to take a picture but these darn rocks got in the way.

At Bath:

Two beautifully carved antiques depicting the majesty of the human form.  There are no words... Should've sent a poet.

This is what the main chamber of Bath looks like.  Obviously its a Roman Bath and all my Latin homies will know what this is about.  Essentially a country club for Romans.

To all my players out there desperately missing Coach's guidance, just remember he is watching you and he expects better (this is the conference hall at the National Welsh Rugby Team's stadium).

Up here in Bangor where I am now, there is actually a growing love of American football.  New leagues are getting set up every year and people are starting to watch the NFL in pubs.  Rugby, however, still reigns supreme (perhaps tied with "soccer") and apparently Wales is better than England this year; I hear this all the time.

Lovely little stream off the side of Pen y Fan, a three thousand foot hill we climbed that's just short of a mountain.  Note: those white dots are ewes.

I still have those cookies Nicholas.  Maybe I'll spread them over the sea and let the whales go home.

Here have a castle. It wouldn't be the UK without a castle.  More castles to come.

(This castle was actually a critical base of operations for Edward the first when he conquered Wales)

I forgot that we went to another castle.  This one is basically in a Welsh retirement community.  It's one of the few remaining original Welsh castles, unadulterated by the Normans.

Next we went underground (again haha) to the slate mines of Llewchedd.  Welsh slate is actually the highest quality in the world and is guaranteed to last two hundred years.

Yesterday we went sea level traversing.  This means we crawl sideways along sea cliffs.  Here we are "tomb-stoning".  I am trying to fly to the other side.

Thats about it.  There were a ton of other things we have done, but we just got back from Chester and I'm feeling pretty tired.  Things have been going great here.  Bangor is a great town- you can walk anywhere.  The gym only costs 2.50 pounds a pop.  I'd say the only funny thing is how early stores close.  By seven or sometimes six, a lot of business will close and even the Wal-mart equivalent closes at nine.  I may be wrong, but I'm also pretty sure business hours are restricted to 10-4 on sundays.  Well I gotta do laundry

Ian out

Today we went to Sain Fagans (Saint Fagans).  After doing Insanity with Gary last night, I was feeling demolished.  Saint Fagans is a living air museum, not unlike Williamsburg, which is rather seedy at night as I understand it.

Anyway, we rolled up into a sea of British school children (who will jump to ask you about Call of Duty when they find out you are American).  One from the whitewater rafting we did yesterday asked me if I was from Canada or the States (made me feel pretty exotic (here's another parenthesis for Ami (here's a third one for Tina))).

The museum has a very nice refugee exhibit and, look at that, its one of Nana's dogs.

And when we went into the vaults- one very posh chair

90% sure my grandmother owns both of these items.

Anyway, one of the lovely employees showed us a few selections from their private reserves.  These are chairs bards can win for poetry during the eisteddfod, essentially a huge annual celebration of Welsh Culture.

Take a look at these hoes and farm equipment.

They are worth more money than Kenan will make in his lifetime.


Well to no one's surprised I wandered off and got separated from everyone and ended up spending a while at the farm exhibit.  Some Pig! As long as I am tall

This turkey was trying to show off for his woman.  The Australian ladies next to me were unimpressed.

After that, I moseyed into a church with beautiful restored wall murals from the 1500's.  Apparently every disciple and even the big guy himself was a ginger (Nicholas: 1, Kenan: 0).

Heres the inside of a beautiful manor built on the sight of an old castle and given to the British Government when some a Lord owed some serious back taxes

Later on, I went on to a Celtic village.   Below is a model hut complete with an employee in traditional Celtic garb.

Fun Facts about Wales Part 2:
Instead of toilet paper, you will sometimes get kimwipes
In the olden times, people were shorter so the doorways here in Wales are often much shorter.  Some people in the group have issues with constantly bending over.  I am unplagued.
They charge you five pence for shopping bags, at least at my local store.

Well today we went to the Senedd (National Welsh Assembly)

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Then we went to a castle built in the 1800s by an eccentric coal tycoon who reminds of a Victorian Andy Warhol.  Here is one tower.

Here is some inside bits.

I forgot to get a shot of the outside.  Sue me Cole Kidwell.

Speaking of Cole, here are some saints.  

My conclusion: THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME FACE.  (Again, kinda looks like Cole).

Well thats it for me.  Heres a church Llandaff Cathedral (one of the oldest christian sites in the UK)

Well Im here in Wales! I haven't posted for the first couple of days because I was dead tired, but now I'm gonna try to do it everyday.

The trip started off great with some cookies from Nicholas which were in the shape of fish for some reason.  

The cookies were delicious, but didn't make it through customs

When I first got here a lot of things here seemed almost American, but a bit off like these doritos

Saw a ton of war memorials and just beautiful buildings today

Mo facts:

Netflix and pandora don't work here apparently but Youtube does

In the UK, two pound coins are common

Barristers (lawyers) have to wear the white wigs and can't really move about like our lawyers can

Wales looks like this!

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