Dydd Sadwrn - 9 Gorffennaf 2011

I have classes from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday so the only time I, and my fellow BYU students, get to travel is on the weekends. Let me just say that this past weekend was AMAZING. I live with four other people named Neoma, Hannah, Tom and Susan. They are all wonderful, nice, and fun people so you will see them popping up in this blog over the next two months. 

The following is a travelogue of Saturday, July 9. 

Me, Susan, Hannah, Neoma...Tom is taking the picture

To begin, we traveled to Caer Leon which is the ruins of a Roman amphitheater and barracks. It gave me a much better understanding of how powerful, organized, and smart the Romans were. Not to mention the ruins were beautiful. Also, if anyone needs a laugh look up Roman toilets. :)

Then we went to Chepstow and saw the house that JK Rowling grew up in. It is a quaint, little cottage right next to a beautiful church where her father preached, as well as a very old grave yard. Furthermore,the Forest of Dean is practically her backyard, and right down the road is what's left of Chepstow Castle including hallways, a cellar, a few towers and many walls. I was told that Chepstow Castle was the original inspiration for Hogwarts. After looking at the pictures, can't you just see the world of Harry Potter growing in Rowling's imagination based on her own childhood? 

Next, we drove into the hills and forest to Tintern Abbey. It was probably my favorite place we visited that day - I loved it there so much. It was breathtakingly lovely and unbelievably peaceful. I could understand the feelings Wordsworth experienced as he composed his famous poem because just looking at Tintern Abbey turns your mind to spiritual reflection. Wordsworth captures how I felt in these few lines:

While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We see into the life of things. (47-49)

After Tintern, we went to Monmouth Castle. This was my least favorite place, but really it was still pretty cool. It's a rather small castle (at least its ruins are little), but Henry V was born there so it is important to see and appreciate. 

Then we were off to Raglan Castle. This castle was by far the biggest and most ornate castle we visited on Saturday. We climbed excruciatingly high (I was afraid at least) into the towers and walked around the moat. Raglan was a labyrinth, which made it so much fun to explore. We had a small adventure there as well. Neoma was wetting her feet in the moat and almost slipped in when she tried to stick her legs in further but luckily, the rail caught her just in time. We all laughed so hard we almost peed our pants, especially when we saw the nice mud smeared on the bum of her trousers. :) Anyways, it is castles like Raglan that really make me appreciate the brilliance and ingenuity of the people who lived in the Middle Ages. They had no modern technology when they built this gigantic and beautiful fortress! 

The very last place we visited was Usk. The gross name really doesn't do the idyllic town and gorgeous castle justice. Most of the houses in Usk are buildings protected by the National Trust and the castle is actually on privately owned land although the owners let people in for free. This means both the town and the castle have not been "restored." The town is historic and so clean. The ruins of the castle are still covered with vines and flowers, surrounded by rhododenrons, hydrangeas, and huge cherry tomato bushes (like 6 ft high!). There were chickens and geese milling about while some men set up a stage and set for a local production of The Pirates of Penzance in the castle ruins. Can you imagine a more picturesque scene? It reminded me of the book I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. If you haven't read it, you need to go read it. I promise it is well worth your time. 

I finished the day off with Tom and Susan (Hannah and Neoma didn't want to go out again). We walked down to the movie theater in Cardiff and bought tickets for HARRY POTTER 7 PART 2!!! Hurrah! While we were waiting in the ticket line we saw that the theater was going to be playing one Harry Potter film a night until the opening of the new movie. So we went to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I had forgotten how magical the movies are...especially the first two. Since then, I've decided to go to all of the films that I am able to in preparation for the last film. Just typing that made my heart jump and ache all at the same time. In fact, I'm so excited I'm going to put the trailer into this post.

Enjoy,

Mariah