Thursday, May 31, 2007

Girls Road Trip to Wales

This week was mid-term break and the only thing I had planned to do was move and catch up with Connie. I hadn't heard from Connie for a while so I figured she had forgotten about our plans to catch up this week.

On Sunday, I get a call from Connie while I was trying to race to my new job (which I don't think I still have) and she invited me to a cheese rolling festival in Gloustershire which is about 2 and a half hours out of London. Of course, me being one to never say no to anything that sounds remotely interesting, agree to go with her and 2 of her friends.

They'd hired a car so we drove down there and it was so exciting just to be in a car made our way to the festival and laughed so hard at the people who were participating. Basically, people volunteered to participate in rolling down an extremely steep hill (Coopers Hill) to chase a piece of cheese. The cheese was quite large, weighing around 2.5kg and the first person to get the cheese got to keep it. The second person down the hill got £10 and the 3rd person got £5. The prize isn't really worth it after what you have to go through to get down the hill - but amusing for us watching it!

We got quite annoyed because people kept trying to walk past us and we eventually started shouting at people 'We are NOT a path. This is a standing in one place, place!' and we pointed to the section which was a path. People were not happy at us.

After the cheese rolling was over we decided to head somewhere for lunch and headed to this quaint little English pub which was in Sheepscombe Village. We were thinking that because we were on mid-term break and the car was so cheap to hire that we'd keep the car for an extra day and go to Wales.

Now, I was absolutely thrilled but we had nothing on us except our bags and the clothes we were wearing.

So, we had to 'rough it'.

Now, our idea of 'roughing it' consisted of us going to ASDA and buying (this is between the four of us mind you)
  • deodorant
  • tooth brushes
  • tooth paste
  • concealer
  • eye liner
  • fresh undies
Kate even bought a new top and I must admit I was tempted to buy a new pair of pants! We had to stop ourselves from buying more.

We also didn't have accommodation so while we were driving (and getting lost along the way) to Cardiff, Kate was looking up accommodation on her phone. Now as we were 'roughing it' we didn't want to stay somewhere expensive so... we ended up at the Holiday Inn - Cardiff. Full bathroom, tea/coffee making facilities, mini-bar etc!

I have learnt that I really can 'rough it' well!

Wales itself is absolutely gorgeous. We saw Chepstow Castle (only from the outside) and we went inside Cardiff Castle (see photo) which was gorgeous. We climbed to the top and had an awesome view of Cardiff.

Kate wanted to go to this place called Barry which is along the coast so we went there and dipped our feet into the ocean. The water actually wasn't that bad and there were people there enjoying the sun and playing sports along the beach.


We then ended up at this gorgeous spot (see photo) for a picnic lunch of sandwiches and chocolate bought from Sainsburys. The view was amazing. Wales is so green and lush. It was also nice just to be out of the hussle and bustle of London.

On our way home from Wales we passed Tintern Abbey and of course we had to stop and take more photos. We also ended up in a graveyard in Usk and cleared up the grave of a man called John Dunn because his grave was covered in weeds. It was weird because his anniversary was today - the day after we got back from Wales so we uncovered him for his anniversary and now he can see the sun again.

After such an awesome trip we are back in London and are planning to catch up next week sometime to exchange photos. I'm off to Amsterdam tomorrow so you will hear all about those adventures once I'm back!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pleased to hear that you cleared that guy's grave- very public-spirited of you. Glad you enjoyed the West Country.

Anonymous said...

that cheese thing was on rove sunday night. it was hailrous!! guys doing flips down the hill for some cheese! did anyone get a major head injury?
you photos look great! it is sooo green! and very english countruside! hehe
why do you think you dont have the job anyomre?