I spent the weekend of February 12-13 in Llandudno, Wales. I and nine other Calvin students made the 4 hour train-trek to Wales--five of us left at 3 am while the other five left at 6 on a Friday morning.
For those of you who have been acquainted with an early morning Jenica should be able to guess which train I procured. I wrested my body from my bed at 4:45 and stumbled into the shower, impressed with myself that I was up a full hour and half before my departure. I turned on the faucet ready for some warm watery goodness. Instead I made a discovery. Apparently, the hot water tank is turned off after 11:30 pm. BUT despite the shivering kickoff, Wales proved to be a heart-warming experience.
Joel, Jennifer, Melissa, Mary and I stepped off the platform at Llandudno train station around 10 am-- about 1 hour after the first group, Will, John, Melissa, Erin and Teresa. Upon arrival, John and I went inside the station to see if we could find our hostel.
-Hi. Could you tell us where we could get some information?
-Oh yes love, said the substantially jowl-ed stationmaster, just go round to the lib'ry. Go up this here street and turn left at the turnabout. You'll see a wee church, turn right. Then another street, turn left. That should get you just about to the lib'ry.
Needless to say we got lost and ended up at the seaside.
We did eventually find our hostel and were met by an immensely kind Welsh woman. She allowed us to check in early so that we could leave our packs in our rooms. Immediately after check-in, we headed down to the Llandudno Public Library to make plans for the day. Thanks to Joel's guidebook and previous recommendations from friends we decided to visit a castle in the nearby village of Conwy [yes that is the correct spelling].
What an imposing piece of architecture! Castle Conwy overlooks the entrance to the village and comes complete with towers and moats. Not even my wild childhood imagination could have conjured up such a castle. For a mere 5 pounds we could ramble all around the castle grounds, walk the ramparts and climb the many towers. We were blessed with a beautiful day. The already stunning view from the castle towers was made even more astounding by the sunlight which cast a bright sheen on everything from the lake to the castle bricks. The view from the towers was something out of an old medieval painting. The hills surrounding Conwy looked as if they'd been brushed with a generous streaks of vibrant green and brownish orange. Aside from taking multitudes of pictures and drinking in the views, the lot of us had a blast posing like roman soldiers on top of the towers. After had our fill of the castle, we walked along the seaside and stopped at the harbour. There were so many beautiful old boats beached on the shore for the winter. We also got to view the smallest house in England. Though it was closed for the winter and we couldn't go inside, I was enthused to discover that for the first time in my life I would have had to duck to get through the doorway.
I must preface the following anecdote with a short comment: Contrary to the outcome of the following story, Calvin students are not boring--unless severely tired by travel, hikes, and copious amounts of sugar.
We returned from Conwy at 4:30 and went down to the pub for dinner. The bartender was a bit miffed when all ten of us asked for water with our meals: "Water? Are you sure? Haven't any of us heard of a pint b'fore?" After dinner we stopped at pounland to pick up desert. Equipped with a grotesque amount of chocolate, java cakes, digestives, gummy bears, and burbon creams we arrived back at the hostel around 6. After filling our bellies unto bursting, we thought it would be a wise idea to play the "Ha-Ha" game. Four of us formed a circle with our heads lying on the adjacent person's belly. Each person in the circle has to say "Ha" with enough gusto that the head on their belly bounces like a bobble-head. The goal is to see how many "ha"s you can get in without making anyone laugh. Guess who always ruined it for my team? You guessed correct, twas your truly. By the time 9:00 rolled around, we were all dog tired [hey! remember that some of us had been up since 2 am]. We went upstairs with the intention of reading until some less lame sounding hour came around and we could go to bed with a clear social conscious. All I can say is that I remember lying in bed reading and looking at my watch lamenting the fact that it was still only 9:30--too lame a time for a college student to fall into slumber. Next thing I know my light is turned off, the book is put away and everyone is sound asleep. I looked at my watch--11:30. We are SO COOL.
Had we spent only one day in Llandudno, I would have deemed the journey worth it but the next day topped off an already superb trip. While Mary, William and Melissa took the bus into Snowdonia National Park, the rest of us stayed in town. Llandudno is home to a large hill--a "huge hunk of carboniferous rock" to be exact (words taken straight from the Wales tour guide section on Llandudno)--otherwise known as the Great Orm. Before we trekked up the Great Orm, we asked a local about the strenuousness of the hike. Easy, she said. After a few minutes we realized this hike was not what we would call easy. The Great Orm is shaped like a camel's back with one hump larger than the other. The hike to the summit of the smaller hump wasn't too bad and was certainly well worth the effort. The view of the coast and the patchwork of Welsh farmland around it was amazing. To get to the real summit though, we had to climb down into a valley of farms. Along the way we found a beautiful old church set amongst equally old gravestones. It was humbling to walk around the stones, read the inscriptions and dates and wonder who each person was.
Now picture this. A 50 degree incline. You. Walking it. Now you've got a pretty good picture of the last 200 meters to the summit. Not that I'm complaining though, it was fun to dig my shoes into the pre-made crevices and lean close to the long grasses that were shaped in tufts like baby's hair. Once again, the effort was well-worth it. The view was even more indescribable and awe-inspiring than the first. We sat for a long time, silent, just looking out over the hills. We discovered the most effective way to descend the Great Orm was to run straight down windmilling our arms for balance (apparently all the cross-country runners do it..).
On the way down to the village we stopped at a quaint pub called King's Head. The ambiance was superb and whoever was in charge of the music selection will have my adoration forever. In the space of an hour I heard some of my favourite songs from Keane, Simon and Garfunkel and Van Morrison (among many others I can't recall). Though the menu was rather pricey we took the recommendation of Joel's friends' as grounds enough to foot the bill and try the food. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever had a better sandwich in all my days. Local backbacon (which is a cross between ham and bacon) smothered with melted brie cheese on a baguette. Oh it was enough to make the tastebuds cry with pleasure. With full bellies, full eyes, and full hearts ten Calvin students returned to York after a wonderful sojourn in Wales.
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