At the Atlantic in Aberystwyth - 2 August 2011

To begin, the Borth hostel was weird. We shared a room with three other women, some who were very open with their personal lives. It was mildly dirty and the manager was semi-creepy. At least, this is what our group decided over yet another English breakfast. By this time I started to worry about what all these delicious breakfasts were going to do me. More specifically to my thighs. Don't worry, I decided I didn't care and kept eating.

The main activity of the day was exploring the seaside town of Aberystwyth. We started at the National Library of Wales. Those who know me well will know how excited I would be about a special library. It was huge! It also had some beautiful exhibitions. My favorite was one celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of the King James Bible. I saw some first edition King James bibles as well as some much older than that. They were exquisite to say the least.

We took the time to walk along the promenade and I got to see the Atlantic ocean up close and personal for the very first time in my life. I also discovered that skipping rocks on the ocean is much harder than on a lake. The promenade is bordered by the ocean on one side and rows of colorful hotels built sometime between the Victorian or Georgian periods. (I realize those periods are very different but I can't remember which is which at the moment.) At the end of the promenade is Aberystwyth University, which used to be part of the castle. The real castle ruins are there as well, situated on a very pretty spot almost completely surrounded by ocean.

Next we wandered through the town a little bit. Aberystwyth is a tourist town and therefore the shops are great. We stopped into quite a few charity shops and stopped at a local meat vendor for delicious shredded roast beef on whole wheat baps. A bap is like a large, softer hamburger bun minus the sesame seeds. While we were eating we watched some boys bring in literally one half of a pig at a time into the meat shop. It was disgusting and funny all at the same time.

 

Afterwards we called it a day and headed back to good ol' Cardiff. Even though we were dead tired none of us went to bed immediately. The joke was that even though we had been stuck in a car together for the last four days and now all we wanted to do was stay together in our tiny living room! I think being together so much – not splitting up for classes and meals and evening activities – forced us all to become even better friends. Tom, Susan, Neoma, and Hannah are all wonderful people!