An Awfully Big Adventure: UK Travel Adventure 2011, Part 3
An interesting thing happened to me earlier this week. As I post these livejournal updates on my summer travels, I've also been creating albums for the photos on facebook- but unlike here, I haven't been as vigilant about putting dates on the facebook albums. Unwittingly, this led to some confusion. Case in point: I got a wall post from an old friend of mine this week, a girl I took ballet class with for years when I was a kid. She is in Wales right now, getting a degree (a Master's, I assume) from Aberystwyth University, and told me that if I had any spare time, I should come up and spend a weekend with her one of these days.
The effort it took to type the words "Sorry, I can't, I'm back in the States" was probably kind of ridiculous. But it was sad to type, because you know what? I miss the UK. I periodically still tune in to a couple of British radio programs, and I still occasionally (OK, frequently) convert the current time of day from D.C. time to London time. (By either time zone, I should be in bed right now.) I would love to go spend a weekend in a Welsh town I have never heard of and can't pronounce, with an old friend. Sadly, though, it is not to be. I am in the States.
I'm telling this story to introduce the next installment of my UK Travel Adventure posts, which also takes place in a tiny Welsh town! After leaving Cardiff, Gen and I went to a teeny town called Hay-on-Wye, which is notorious for its bookstores. I'm not exaggerating when I say it makes its living off them. There are about 2 dozen bookstores in the town (and about the same number of non-book-related establishments- it's a small town), which makes it sort of a place of pilgrimage for literary folks. Gen and I were both pretty psyched to be there.
Want to see tons more pictures besides the ones I posted here? Head to my public facebook album and knock yourself out. :)
Before we start, have another picture of the Welsh countryside, taken on the train from Cardiff to Hereford.
On the way to Hay-on-Wye, we had our first travel-related mishap (it had to happen sometime). We had to get off the train at Hereford and take a bus from there to Hay. Simple enough, but both of us were lugging heavy suitcases, and the doors of the train didn't stay open that long. Gen managed to get off at Hereford, but I didn't quite make it through in time. So I had to stay on the train until Ludlow, which is about a 20-minute ride away, then wait another half hour or so for a train to come in the opposite direction and take me back, with Gen waiting at the train station all the while. Neither one of us panicked (even though we had no way of getting in contact with each other)- she just sat and waited until I eventually found my way back. We ended up getting into Hay-on-Wye a couple of hours later than planned, because we had to catch a later bus.
This is what Hay looks like:
This time, we didn't stay at a hostel at all (I don't think this village even HAS a hostel). Instead, we roomed at a cozy little bed and breakfast that had the same feel as staying at the home of some very nice family friends. The owners, a middle-aged couple, were happy to have us, and as far as I know, we were the only people staying there at the time. For one of only two times on this trip, our only roommates were each other. Just like old times. :)
It was mid-afternoon by the time we got there, if I remember correctly, and in a town of this size, everything closes pretty early. So rather than scout out any of the bookshops, we went down to the Wye River and did an incredibly scenic Riverside Walk. It was definitely clear that we were in the country now.
There's actually a really funny story behind that last photo. It happened to be the 300th photo that I took on the trip (yes, we're only halfway through and I had already taken 300 photos). I had been joking to Gen that when I reached the 300 mark, I would yell "THIS IS SPARTA!" in the style of the film 300. Gen laughed the kind of hesitant laugh that said, "Great, but please don't do this if other people are around," and I got so obsessed with taking photos of the beautiful path and waterfront that I didn't pay attention to the numbers on the photos. Until this one, when I turned around to take a picture of the path behind us and caught Gen off guard. I was laughing at the way the photo came out when I noticed the little "300" in the corner of the camera display, and all of a sudden stopped laughing to exclaim, "Oh! This is Sparta!" I sense that this is not as funny a story when told in writing, or when not having been there. But it made both of us laugh.
After the walk, we went into town for dinner, only to find that there were only a handful of eating places and most of them were closed. One of two that we did find open was an Indian place a couple of blocks from our B&B. I love Indian food, so I was excited to go in, and the food was delicious. My only complaint was that they seemed to be trying really hard to be classy and cool, so I found them to be a little brusque. Later, when we were back in London, we got authentic Indian food at a little place in Hayes, and I liked that much better.
We came home, and I was so tired that I literally fell asleep over my book. I only really woke up long enough to put myself to bed properly. The next day was entirely devoted to books. When there are 2 dozen bookshops in a town, you can't visit all of them in a limited amount of time. So Gen and I chose our top preferences, and decided which ones we would visit together and which we would split up for. Then we headed out. I don't have many pictures of this because I was way too busy looking at books. But here are a few of a really cool mystery/thriller/true crime bookshop we both loved.
Also, we went to a sci-fi bookshop and found these cardboard cutouts of famous sci-fi/fantasy characters. Here's Gen making friends with them:
Since we'd eaten out so much the past few days, and since nothing was open past about 5:00, we bought some food at a grocery store and had a nice makeshift dinner in the backyard of the B&B. Afterward we went back to the room and watched the BBC Sherlock pilot (which is essentially the same as the first episode, with a few minor differences). I think it was on this evening, while we were rearranging our suitcases to compensate for the books we bought, that we established we both knew the song "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. I played her the Glee version, she played me the original. This was the start of a crazy tradition: from then on, we seemed to hear "Rolling in the the Deep" everywhere we went. Including after we came back- just as we walked into Michael's last August, guess what started playing? Now that song reminds us of each other, and of our trip.
(Note: I don't know if I ever told this story, but my roommate on my Stratford-upon-Avon study tour, Kat, and I had a signature song on that trip too, just like this one. In that case, it was "Umbrella" by Rihanna. It started when Kat and I were having dinner in an Italian restaurant in Stratford; like the Indian restaurant in Hay, it was one of the only places open at the hour we were having dinner. It was kind of quiet in the restaurant as we waited for our food, and even though Kat and I got along well, it was kind of awkward. Then "Umbrella" started playing and we started singing and dancing along, and it broke the ice. From then on, everytime we left our room with our umbrellas- which was every day, because it's England- one of us would say, "Do you have your umbrella?" and the other would say, "-Ella, -ella, eh, eh, eh." Another story that doesn't translate well to print, but at least brings a smile to my face.)
I also know that another of Gen's and my travel traditions was in place by this point: since the beginning of the trip, we had a pact that there had to be one Star Trek reference per day. The catch was that we couldn't just make one for form's sake; we had to try and FIND one. Amazingly, we managed to track down a reference on just about every day of the trip.
In the next installment: Gen and I progress to our last destination in Wales!
The effort it took to type the words "Sorry, I can't, I'm back in the States" was probably kind of ridiculous. But it was sad to type, because you know what? I miss the UK. I periodically still tune in to a couple of British radio programs, and I still occasionally (OK, frequently) convert the current time of day from D.C. time to London time. (By either time zone, I should be in bed right now.) I would love to go spend a weekend in a Welsh town I have never heard of and can't pronounce, with an old friend. Sadly, though, it is not to be. I am in the States.
I'm telling this story to introduce the next installment of my UK Travel Adventure posts, which also takes place in a tiny Welsh town! After leaving Cardiff, Gen and I went to a teeny town called Hay-on-Wye, which is notorious for its bookstores. I'm not exaggerating when I say it makes its living off them. There are about 2 dozen bookstores in the town (and about the same number of non-book-related establishments- it's a small town), which makes it sort of a place of pilgrimage for literary folks. Gen and I were both pretty psyched to be there.
Want to see tons more pictures besides the ones I posted here? Head to my public facebook album and knock yourself out. :)
Before we start, have another picture of the Welsh countryside, taken on the train from Cardiff to Hereford.
On the way to Hay-on-Wye, we had our first travel-related mishap (it had to happen sometime). We had to get off the train at Hereford and take a bus from there to Hay. Simple enough, but both of us were lugging heavy suitcases, and the doors of the train didn't stay open that long. Gen managed to get off at Hereford, but I didn't quite make it through in time. So I had to stay on the train until Ludlow, which is about a 20-minute ride away, then wait another half hour or so for a train to come in the opposite direction and take me back, with Gen waiting at the train station all the while. Neither one of us panicked (even though we had no way of getting in contact with each other)- she just sat and waited until I eventually found my way back. We ended up getting into Hay-on-Wye a couple of hours later than planned, because we had to catch a later bus.
This is what Hay looks like:
This time, we didn't stay at a hostel at all (I don't think this village even HAS a hostel). Instead, we roomed at a cozy little bed and breakfast that had the same feel as staying at the home of some very nice family friends. The owners, a middle-aged couple, were happy to have us, and as far as I know, we were the only people staying there at the time. For one of only two times on this trip, our only roommates were each other. Just like old times. :)
It was mid-afternoon by the time we got there, if I remember correctly, and in a town of this size, everything closes pretty early. So rather than scout out any of the bookshops, we went down to the Wye River and did an incredibly scenic Riverside Walk. It was definitely clear that we were in the country now.
There's actually a really funny story behind that last photo. It happened to be the 300th photo that I took on the trip (yes, we're only halfway through and I had already taken 300 photos). I had been joking to Gen that when I reached the 300 mark, I would yell "THIS IS SPARTA!" in the style of the film 300. Gen laughed the kind of hesitant laugh that said, "Great, but please don't do this if other people are around," and I got so obsessed with taking photos of the beautiful path and waterfront that I didn't pay attention to the numbers on the photos. Until this one, when I turned around to take a picture of the path behind us and caught Gen off guard. I was laughing at the way the photo came out when I noticed the little "300" in the corner of the camera display, and all of a sudden stopped laughing to exclaim, "Oh! This is Sparta!" I sense that this is not as funny a story when told in writing, or when not having been there. But it made both of us laugh.
After the walk, we went into town for dinner, only to find that there were only a handful of eating places and most of them were closed. One of two that we did find open was an Indian place a couple of blocks from our B&B. I love Indian food, so I was excited to go in, and the food was delicious. My only complaint was that they seemed to be trying really hard to be classy and cool, so I found them to be a little brusque. Later, when we were back in London, we got authentic Indian food at a little place in Hayes, and I liked that much better.
We came home, and I was so tired that I literally fell asleep over my book. I only really woke up long enough to put myself to bed properly. The next day was entirely devoted to books. When there are 2 dozen bookshops in a town, you can't visit all of them in a limited amount of time. So Gen and I chose our top preferences, and decided which ones we would visit together and which we would split up for. Then we headed out. I don't have many pictures of this because I was way too busy looking at books. But here are a few of a really cool mystery/thriller/true crime bookshop we both loved.
Also, we went to a sci-fi bookshop and found these cardboard cutouts of famous sci-fi/fantasy characters. Here's Gen making friends with them:
Since we'd eaten out so much the past few days, and since nothing was open past about 5:00, we bought some food at a grocery store and had a nice makeshift dinner in the backyard of the B&B. Afterward we went back to the room and watched the BBC Sherlock pilot (which is essentially the same as the first episode, with a few minor differences). I think it was on this evening, while we were rearranging our suitcases to compensate for the books we bought, that we established we both knew the song "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. I played her the Glee version, she played me the original. This was the start of a crazy tradition: from then on, we seemed to hear "Rolling in the the Deep" everywhere we went. Including after we came back- just as we walked into Michael's last August, guess what started playing? Now that song reminds us of each other, and of our trip.
(Note: I don't know if I ever told this story, but my roommate on my Stratford-upon-Avon study tour, Kat, and I had a signature song on that trip too, just like this one. In that case, it was "Umbrella" by Rihanna. It started when Kat and I were having dinner in an Italian restaurant in Stratford; like the Indian restaurant in Hay, it was one of the only places open at the hour we were having dinner. It was kind of quiet in the restaurant as we waited for our food, and even though Kat and I got along well, it was kind of awkward. Then "Umbrella" started playing and we started singing and dancing along, and it broke the ice. From then on, everytime we left our room with our umbrellas- which was every day, because it's England- one of us would say, "Do you have your umbrella?" and the other would say, "-Ella, -ella, eh, eh, eh." Another story that doesn't translate well to print, but at least brings a smile to my face.)
I also know that another of Gen's and my travel traditions was in place by this point: since the beginning of the trip, we had a pact that there had to be one Star Trek reference per day. The catch was that we couldn't just make one for form's sake; we had to try and FIND one. Amazingly, we managed to track down a reference on just about every day of the trip.
In the next installment: Gen and I progress to our last destination in Wales!