I slept most of the way there. The first place we stopped was Tintern Abbey. Tintern Abbey was a Cistercian church/monastery that was hidden in a valley. It was really beautiful. It didn't have a roof and a lot of it was falling down, but it was crazy to see how big it was. It was built in the early 1100s I'm pretty sure. Here is a picture of it:
It was pretty chilly outside, definitely windy. I think the valley would have been beautiful if we could have seen more of it, it was pretty foggy out. Everything around there was really pretty though and our guide said that when it was operating the inside walls were painted different colors and there were stained glass windows. Here's one more picture:
After that we got back on the bus and drove to a coal mining town. It was so crazy, we got to into the coal mine. The mine was called the Big Pit. The mine shut down in the 1980s and is now just a museum that people can take tours of. I learned so much going in the mine and it was crazy that we were 400-300 feet underground. It was really cold down there are we had to wear hard hats and some sort of carbon monoxide mask around our waist that weighed 12lbs. We walked through the tunnels and different parts of the mine, probably only just a small section, and our guide told us a lot of cool things. They had ponies in there that used to drag stuff around and would be taken out of the mine for holiday and would go wild with seeing the sunlight. He also told us about how they use canaries to detect carbon monoxide. If there is a fire or explosion that usually means there's carbon monoxide and they take canaries in cages down into the mine and as soon as the canaries show signs of distress they turn around and take the canaries back to the surface. The canaries aren't harmed and even if they are there's a vet at the site. They use canaries because they breathe something like 12x faster than we do so they can detect the gas and also they're a bright color and easier to see in the dark shaft. It was literally pitch black in there without a light. I'm glad we did that, it was neat.
That night we stayed in a hotel in Cardiff, a port town in southern Wales. I went to an Italian place for dinner with Kerri, Chris, Courtney and Mary. The town was pretty cool, it was much more modern and geared towards young people. I think our guide said it has a population of 300,000 and 25% of them are university students. After we went to dinner we went to a very crowded pub and then to a club. Walking down the street was so strange because they street was only open for pedestrians and I think that town is a popular place for hen parties and bachelorette parties, it was like Halloween everyone was dressed up in weird costumes and stuff. There were a lot of Christmasy white twinkles lights decorating everything. It was a cute town.
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go to a Museum of Welsh Life. I'm not really sure what the point of that was because I don't think I would go to a museum of any nationality's life, let alone a Welsh one. Anyway, there were little huts all over this farm replicating what life was like for Welsh farmers. I think the most exciting part was the pig that I saw:
After that we drove to the Caerphilly Castle. That was so awesome. Caerphilly was an adorable town because it was down in a valley and the whole town was centered around this castle that had a mote and everything, like straight out of a movie (I'm thinking Shrek). We had to walk over a bridge to get inside the walls of the castle and our guide explained to us about the different lines of defense that castles like that have. They can pour boiling water or sand on people if they get through the main door. They also shoot long bows and cross bows, each with different ranges, as enemies. It's pretty self sufficient so they had no worries of being poisoned. It was built during Henry III's time, in the mid 1200s. Apparently it only took about 5 years to build. One of the walls is leaning over, probably because of architecture errors. That was definitely neat to see a castle like that.
I ate lunch in the town with Kerri and Mary and got back on the bus for our final stop. Our last stop on the tour was the Caerleon Roman Ampitheater. The Romans came to Wales in the 1100s (I'm pretty sure) and they conquered the people and set up towns and stuff. We went to a Roman ampitheatre that could 6,000 people. That's so many! It was pretty cool to see. We learned a lot about the Romans v the Welsh people and how the Romans were so organized and had armor, etc and that was basically how they were able to defeat the Kelts.
After that we drove back to London, which took about three hours. It was a great tour and really educational. Our guide knew so much history and I learned so many things about the Kings and Queens and history of the UK that I didn't know before.
Right now I'm going to go make lunch. I still have to write about my experience at the Globe Theatre and maybe I think of some other things to write about Wales.
M
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