First Report from Cymru

I meant to start this blog to keep everyone up to date on my Welsh adventures, and thus far I have been really falling down on the job. Sorry to all of my many followers, and if it is any consolation, I never meant to leave you all in the dark, it is just much more difficult to get internet access here than I was anticipating. It always involves walking, for one thing, sometimes almost a mile each way, and often involves cash as well… But in any case, let me tell you about some of my favorite events thus far.

The first week was quite slow, we saw a neat 18th century castle and had a lot of free time to explore Cardiff. This last Sunday we visited our first real castle ruin, Cerrig Cennan. One of the most beautiful places in the world, in my opinion. I wrote a lot about it in my journal, but since I am presently in an internet café and don’t have said journal with me, you will have to ask me about it later and enjoy the picture of it.
Yesterday we went to Uffington White Horse and Oxford. The countryside around Uffington, a stone age chalk carving in a hillside (think Rushmore except really really old and quite abstracted), was absolutely beautiful, so many nice rolling hills and clusters of trees. The horse was pretty cool too, though it is impossible to see clearly from the ground. Oxford was pretty sweet, a bunch of us went to eat lunch at the Eagle and Child, the pub where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and their buddies all hung out.
Today was another busy day. We visited Chepstow Castle, Raglan Castle, and Tintern Abbey. Tintern is huge! Most of the ruins we've seen thus far don't have especially tall walls, they just weren't built that way or they've crumbled. But Tintern was really quite majestic, huge towering walls that open into a blue sky, and through every window that was once filled with stained glass you can see clouds and hills of trees. It really was quite as romantic as everyone says it is, and would be more so if nobody else was there.
Raglan Castle was fun too. The front of the castle has a moat around this little jut of land, and the grand tower is built on that little piece of land. I found one of those spiral staircases that have become so ubiquitous over here and climbed all the way to the top of the tower. A Welsh green and white flag was flapping in the wind at the top. What a view! I could see for miles and miles around, and it was spectacular. I just stood up there for a long time, drinking in the landscapes surrounding me. I could sit and stare at them for hours. The rest of the castle was fascinating, and to add the perfect touch to the end of that experience, a torrential downpour hit right as we were leaving the huge front gates. Rain always increases the mystery of castles by tenfold, I swear.

Well, sorry folks, but that is all I have time for right now. If there aren't any pictures accompanying this post at the moment, there will be within the next few days, it means I need to resize them and it is too difficult on this dinosaur of a computer they are charging me a pound an hour to use. Until next time...