so we woke up early to get on the coach cause we had a lonnggggg trip in front of us! before we got on the bus i handed out a bunch of the america themed tattoos my mom got me for the olympics. almost all of the girls wore them! we had so much fun being all american all day. then it was onto the coach! i slept most of the way but when i was awake i just fell in love over and over and over again. wales is so green and beautiful and basically i felt like i should've been in a movie the whole time. like a movie where you didn't even watch the actors, you just wanted to be where they were because the scenery was so beautiful.
our first stop was tintern abbey! as you can see in the pictures, it's not exactly in the best shape. it looks really old right? surprisingly it's not!! cathedrals that we've seen previously like westminster and canterbury, which are both in great shape, are actually like 200 or 300 years older! i guess the difference with this was that henry VIII was not a fan of the large monastery (catholic monks) that ran this place. so when he separated england from the power of the pope so he could marry his second wife, creating the church of england, the monks fled and the place was looted! obviously all the stained glass is gone. apparently the tin roof was salvaged by the nearby villagers, who used it for themselves. pretty cool right? it was BEAUTIFUL. it was really neat to see how even without the stained glass or ornate chapels, it maintained it's beauty. alright gonna have a byu moment now, but everyone kept saying how they just felt it was a sacred place and could seriously feel the spirit there. so it was really neat. okay byu moment over. :) but other than the beautiful abbey itself, the coolest part was it's surroundings. i seriously felt like i was in a village in a place that was a mix between the alps and a rainforest. it was incredibly green, but it was sort of mountainous, with pine trees and the cutest stone cottages you will ever see. oh i just died. i think people wanted to kill me because i kept saying things about how in love with the place i was.
alright, so after the abbey we had a few 'bonus' stops! we were actually supposed to stop by stonehenge in the morning but didn't for some reason, so we had some extra time. the first place we stopped at was Raglan castle. it was a hugeee midevil castle and actually played a significant role in both the war of the roses as well as the civil war. it's really run down now but it is cool to look at! it has the cliche turrets and walls and towers and all that good stuff. since it was a 'bonus' we didn't pay admission to actually go inside the ground but it was fun to take pictures and whatnot. it also was the first castle we have seen with a moat! not filled these days, but still kind of fun to say we did that.
after our castle stop, it was time for our second 'bonus' stop! this time it was a place called the 'iron works'. now if you keep reading you will find that a lot of these welsh names are really basic. an important thing to notice is that they are translations of the welsh name. and welsh is a beautiful language! oh my goodness. it looks really trippy because they don't use any vowels but it is so cool. it reminds me of all the funky fairytales i read when i was little with impossible elf names and all that geeky stuff. like straight out of lord of the rings! but recently there has been a movement to revive the welsh language because when the english came in they would punish the welsh when they spoke it, so it was quite literally driven out of the country. for about 3 generations it has been lost now! but now they teach it in elementary schools, so it is making a comeback! it's the primary language used on all their roadsigns and stuff now, which was a little confusing at first, but it's cool to see them kind of have a surge of patriotism or whatever you want to call it.
so iron works! it was not exactly the most amazing place, but it was a really significant place in relation to the industrial revolution, which we will be studying later in the program. why? you guessed it, they made iron! pretty complicated i know.
BLACK SHEEP. i just want to be a black sheep in wales for forever!!!!!!!
okay so after that, it was on to the coolest thing ever! we have had some really cool underground adventures on this trip! this time we went on a tour of the largest coal mine in wales, big pit! (simple names, remember) it is no longer a working mine, but it had been in operation from the late 1800s to like 1970! so it put out a ton of coal. technically it's a museum, and they have done an awesome job because they literally just left everything exactly how it was. there are still coats hanging down in the mine from the miners!
to go down into the mine we had to wear these freaking heavy belts that held our battery as well as our gas masks (in case of a gas leak!) they were intense! we also had to have helmets (see below) and lamps! because of safety reasons, we couldn't take anything with a battery down into the mine, so i didn't take any pictures. but trust me, it was cool! we saw all sorts of things, but something i thought was interesting was the horse stalls! they kept 70 horses down there at a time. they would head down when they were four years old, and would only come out 2 weeks out of the whole year!! crazy right? poor horsies :(
funny story, as me and chelsea were walking around, we heard singing! so we followed it. turns out it was the other group coming up the elevator shaft from the mine. they were singing the national anthem! it was beautiful! yay usa :)
canaries! they were used before we had carbon monoxide detectors because they would stop singing (die) when the gas was leaking. they still have some on display now!
part of the museum was the 'bath house' where the miners would shower and whatnot! it looks lame but it was actually kinda cool.
apple pie for 4th
tesco adventure
okay so after our long adventure at big pit it was back over the bridge to england! how sad right? everyone really wanted to spend the night in wales. but we headed to salisbury! where we were split into two or three hotels. they were all cute and different! i stayed at the kings head inn. it was great to be at a bed and breakfast! yum yum. it was a huge room by european standards, and i only shared with one person (ashby) so it was great!! also we had amazingly fast wifi so it was amazing.
apparently in smaller towns freaking everything closes at 5 o'clock, so all the cute shops were closed! but we did have a good time walking around! professor jacoby recommended a pub, and it. was. amazing. best pub i have been to. i wish i would've gotten one of their fun desserts but i am trying to be good! they had treacle tart, sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, banoffee, and more! oh well.
one of the things salisbury is most known for is it's cathedral. it has the tallest spires in england! it is beautiful!! since we were there late we sadly couldn't go inside, but we did walk around it for a while and could hear the beautiful organ being played inside so that was really fun.
after our cathedral escapade we went and did our little fourth of july shindig. earlier in the week we all decided we were going to get apple pies at mcdonalds to celebrate the big day. i passed because like i said i'm trying to be good. but it was a fun little thing :) all the employees thought we were incredibly annoying and kind of wanted to kill us. but who cares! then it was off to our bed and breakfasts and time for bed! YAY. it was the best day so far i think!
collage of the day. YAY AMERICA! hope everyone had a great fourth!!
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