Tag Archives: holiday

UK Trip Day 4: July 17/14

19 Aug

At the end of my UK Trip post for day 3 I said how I used my walk/hike that evening to de-stress from the run around from British Airways…to read that click here.

While yes, this post is about day 4 it really starts on day 3, kinda…

Earlier in the day on Day 3 I called the delivery company that would be bringing my suitcase to see if I could get them to rush it since British Airways was being incredibly unhelpful. The guy there said British Airways told them that due to the place of delivery (Wales) the suitcase couldn’t be delivered any earlier than 2-3 days so the delivery company automatically put it in to a unit destined to deliver using that timeline and they couldn’t expedite it without British Airways say-so. OMG say what?? I explained that I was leaving the delivery address they had on file from British Airways and that the longer they took to deliver to me the farther away I would be from them. They took the address I would be staying at the night of Day 4 and said they would deliver it there. I told them I wouldn’t be there until an unknown time in the evening and requested they leave it at the front desk. I then called that hostel to explain what was going on and asked if they wouldn’t mind taking custody of the suitcase until I checked in, the lady was very nice and said that wouldn’t be a problem.

After my walk/hike I called British Airways to try to get an update, the first call the lady disconnected cause she said it was too windy where I was and she couldn’t hear me, the second call I was told they absolutely would deliver my suitcase that night, but they didn’t say by what time. This meant I was once again trapped in the dining room since it is the only room in the hostel with a view of the driveway, sigh. After dinner, which was a lovely goat cheese and tomato quiche, I sat with my cards, my book, and a diet coke and waited…and waited…and waited…I couldn’t decide what time would be the cut off time for a delivery person when it came to luggage, part of me thought no later than 10pm but then I extended that to 11pm juuuuuust in case. Regardless, it never showed so off to bed I went with a renewed sense of anger towards British Airways because not only did it not show but I stayed up later than I wanted waiting for the suitcase cause they promised it would be delivered that night. Arg!

The morning of Day 4 I got up nice ‘n early cause I had to be on the road hopefully by 9am. I wasn’t lol. This didn’t surprise me but I wasn’t running too late so that’s good. I had my full Welsh breakfast, left my contact info with the hostel so if my suitcase did show up they could let me know and headed off to Beaumaris.

Oh, before heading off I spoke with British Airways to give them a piece of my mind in regards to the lack of delivery even though it was promised. It didn’t get me any results, or even an apology but the venting kinda felt nice lol

So off I went to Beaumaris, which is pronounced how it is spelled in case you were wondering.

Beaumaris is the first place I found on this trip without getting confused or lost, yay! The super kind people at YHA Llanberis Hostel printed me out some google map directions and the road signage was a better than the signage on my way to Llanberis so no wrong turns for me! 🙂

There is a lot more to do in Beaumaris than I realized. My original plan was to go to the Gaol (that’s a prison) and the Court House, they are both Victorian era and have been turned in to museums, I looooove stuff like that! There was also a castle there to explore, a pier to walk along, boat tours, fun little shops and more. I planned to wander Beaumaris on this particular day because I wanted an easy day after climbing Mt Snowdon, as we all know by this point an easy day wasn’t needed since I didn’t get to climb the mountain but that just means I had more energy for exploring. 🙂

I went to Beaumaris Castle, it was built, well, ordered to be built since I doubt he did any of the work lol,  by King Edward 1. To build the castle the English forced an entire town of people to move so they could have unlimited space, rude! 😛 This was the last castle built by King Edward 1 in Wales and it never got finished due to the Welsh being able to get the English out of their country, and lack of money. The style of castle is called concentric and that means there is no central keep, really, there is no centre at all. The castle has a high inner ring of defenses surrounded by a lower outer circuit of walls.

It was absolutely beautiful! The day was sunny and warm, entrance was cheap, and you were left to your own devices so I was able to take as much time as I wanted to explore the nooks and crannies of this castle. 🙂

The entrance, you can see the moat that surrounds the castle.

The entrance, you can see the moat that surrounds the castle.

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You can climb up to the top walkways and walk around the perimeter, you get great views!

You can climb up to the top walkways and walk around the perimeter, you get great views!

One of the stairways to the top, not the widest of things lol

One of the stairways to the top, not the widest of things lol

View through one of the peep holes/archers spots.

View through one of the peep holes/archers spots.

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My only regret about the visit to the castle is that when I was in the gift shop I saw a necklace I reeeeeally wanted, it wasn’t out of my price range but I opted to not buy it because I thought I’d find something I would like even better later on in the trip and I didn’t want to buy my memento item so early without seeing what else was out there. Bad move! Bad bad bad move! I never found anything else I liked nearly as much and I really regret not purchasing it, sigh. I can’t remember the name of the company that made the jewellery so I can’t even look for their website and buy the necklace online. *rolls eyes at self*

Other than that my time at Beaumaris Castle was so enjoyable! 🙂 I highly recommend it to anybody who will be in the area. For information on where it is and hours of operation you can check out this website…

http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/beaumaris-castle/?lang=en

I’ll put the next part of my Beaumaris Day in a new post since this one got long awfully quickly lol

 

 

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UK Trip Day 3: July 16/14 Pictures!

12 Aug

 

 

 

This was posted on the kitchen wall in the hostel for anyone who is interested in how to pronounce some of those crazy Welsh words lol
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The following pictures are the entrance area of the slate museum I mentioned in the previous post. I didn’t go in the museum part cause I really didn’t feel like it lol but that didn’t stop me from taking some pics of the area.

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This was a pretty creek? river? I dunno…a pretty flowing water area lol I stood and enjoyed the sounds of the water and the prettiness of the area for a while before continuing on with my exploring.

 

 

 

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A wooded path I was on. It looks like something from a fairy tale or movie.

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The Round Tower was the crowning glory of Llywelyn ab lorwerth’s castle. Llywelyn ab lorwerth died in 1240 and under Welsh law all his heirs had a claim to become his successor. A struggle began with no clear winner until 1255. Llywelyn’s grandson, Llywelyn ap Grufudd finally defeated his brothers in battle to become Prince of Gwynedd. But the brothers still posed a threat. One solution was to imprison them. That’s what Llywelyn ap Grufudd did to his elder brother, Owain Goch. He was imprisoned for 22 years. Historians believe he was held here because the 13th century poet Hywel Foel ap Griffri described Owain as “a man in a tower, long a guest”.

This information was found on a sign by the tower, provided by http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk

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These are views from the climb to the tower and from when I was up near the tower. 🙂

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Here is the actual tower. You could climb up inside of parts of it, some areas were blocked off due to safety issues.

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This house was at the beginning of the little road that led to the hostel I stayed at. I thought it was a hotel or something at first but when I walked by another time there was a family going inside and it seemed like they lived there, weren’t guests. Can you imagine living there?? It’s beautiful!

 

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This is a horse I could see in a distance from the dining room of the hostel. It was out grazing when I was walking back to the hostel so I thought I’d try to make friends. It came over so I could pet it a little bit then went back to eating grass…apparently I don’t rate as high as grass! lol This picture was taken close to 7:30pm as I was on the way back for dinner.

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I focused on de-stressing during this walk, I was so mad because of the run around by British Airways and not getting to climb Mt Snowdon but I really didn’t want my vacation memories to be overshadowed by stress and anger so I looked for and enjoyed the water, the views, the history, the peace, the quiet, the beauty, the animals, the surroundings. I’d say I succeeded because by the end of the walk/hike I was kinda sweaty, feeling good from getting out there and exploring, feeling a bit more relaxed and ready to enjoy dinner and just be in the moment.

 

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UK Trip Day 3: July 16/14

12 Aug

My first two nights in Wales I stayed in the YHA Llanberis hostel, here is their website: http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/llanberis

I can not say enough amazing things about the people that work there and the location. It may have been a bit tricky to find (due to bad road sign placement) buuuuut we do have to keep in mind I have a poor sense of direction lol. I conversed with the staff a bit more than I normally would have due to my lost luggage debacle (thanks British Airways *rolls eyes*) but they were so friendly I’m glad I did. 🙂

My first full day in Wales I woke up early and was fed a lovely Full Welsh Breakfast, Mmm! I didn’t take my camera with me to breakfast cause uh, who does that? 😉  so I don’t have a picture but a Full Welsh consists of: bacon, sausage, fried egg, baked beans, toast and fried tomato. Because I don’t eat pork I got the vegetarian option which meant no bacon and sausage and instead I was given this batter covered something…I’m still not sure what it was lol I think it was supposed to be a vegetarian sausage option but that’s a guess. It wasn’t good, whatever it was lol The lady serving the food also gave me some sauteed mushrooms, yum! If you didn’t want to pay for breakfast there was free toast, cereal, juice, tea, coffee, yogurt, continental type breakfast foods.

The day prior at the airport British Airways had told me my luggage would be delivered to me the next day between 8a-4p, the hostel reception area and front doors are locked from noon to 5pm daily. If you are staying there you are given a code to unlock the door otherwise you’re outta luck. This meant that I had to stay inside and wait for the delivery of my suitcase all day. It sucked.

I was supposed to be climbing Mt. Snowdon that day but even if reception had been open and I didn’t have to be there to receive the suitcase I still couldn’t have gone because my clothes and water-backpack were in the suitcase. So yeah, no gear for the climb, bummer. The only up side was that the weather was crap that day, and I mean serious storm weather! Pouring rain, strong winds, absolutely brutal. It wasn’t cold though, which was odd. Even though the weather was horrible I was the only person staying in. I waited until a minute after the British Airways call centre opened and called them to discuss the luggage situation, it was once again confirmed I would have my luggage delivered sometime today. I stressed to them that was very important because I was leaving the next morning for a different town and would no longer be in Llanberis to receive the luggage. The lady was nice, said she understood, said she put a rush on it, she said a lot of things which would later prove to be lies, sigh.

The only place in the hostel I could clearly see the driveway from was the dining room so I made some tea, grabbed my backpack and claimed a table.

 

Where I spent most of my first full day of vacation - exciting huh?

Where I spent most of my first full day of vacation – exciting huh?

Luckily I had a book, a notebook to write in, a deck of cards and a bottle of water. I also had my ipod if I wanted to listen to music and my ipad if I wanted to play games…no wifi connection sadly but oh well. Oh, and I also had the phone a friend of mine let me borrow. She is from the UK so she had her old blackberry and she let me use it so I wouldn’t have to worry about roaming fees with my phone or finding a converter for the plug, nice huh? 🙂 I found it funny that I used to have a blackberry and for the life of me couldn’t figure out how to do a bunch of different things on that phone, drove me nuts! But at least it gave me a way to call British Airways and get updates on my suitcase lol

While I was writing in my journal I kept looking out the window hoping to see a delivery van, here is what I saw instead…

The driveway

The driveway

There be horses in that field!

There be horses in that field!

This sheep was baa-ing the whole time I sat inside, it was so cute! and sorta soothing...who knew?

This sheep was baa-ing the whole time I sat inside, it was so cute! and sorta soothing…who knew?

Close up of the sheep. Why? Cause I can lol Sheep are a bit of a novelty to me lol

Close up of the sheep. Why? Cause I can lol Sheep are a bit of a novelty to me lol

Around lunch time a girl came in to the dining room and asked if I was staying in all day. I explained why I was stuck inside and she commiserated, said BA is known for losing luggage and when they lost hers it took 4 days to get it back, ack! She then did the nicest thing! She said she was staying in for the next couple of hours so she could stay in the dining room and watch for the delivery if I wanted to go in to town to get some food or walk around or even just to look at things. I was oh-so-grateful! I was going stir crazy just sitting there, plus, I had no food for lunch and the hostel doesn’t serve lunch so I was looking at a loooooon wait till dinner. I left her to keep a look out and I dashed in to town. I didn’t want to take too long, I was paranoid about what if they brought the suitcase but wouldn’t leave it with her cause it wasn’t hers, thoughts like that…so all I did was hit up this super tiny grocery store called SPAR, walk the main street rather quickly then drive back to the hostel. Even though it was a short trip it was nice to get out. The rain had stopped by then and the air was so fresh smelling, it made me want to stay out for longer.

I didn’t get anything fancy but what I got made a nice little meal…

 

My lunch, a turkey and apple sandwich with the rest of the apple on the side, along with a rice pudding cup, two jaffa cookies and of course tea and diet coke lol

My lunch, a turkey and apple sandwich with the rest of the apple on the side, along with a rice pudding cup, two jaffa cookies and of course tea and diet coke lol

At 4pm on the dot I called BA back since the suitcase was supposed to be delivered by 4pm and it had yet to arrive. I was informed that whoever told me earlier I would get it today was wrong and I wouldn’t get it until the day after or maybe even two days after. Grr! So I spent all day inside waiting for the suitcase and it wasn’t even on the way! I was pissed!

I figured since no way I could miss the suitcase now I might as well go out for a walk. I walked in to town than wandered. I found a slate mine museum type place but didn’t really want to go in. Then I found a little mountain that when I got to the top I found an old castle that used to be a prison, exciting! I’m putting all those pics in the next post, enjoy! 🙂

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UK Trip Day 2: July 15/14

8 Aug

So there I was, in Manchester, ready to get this vacation going, aaaaaand then the sucky part of my trip started, sigh.

I went to collect my suitcase at Manchester Airport and discovered they had lost it. British Airways lost my luggage. Idiots. sigh.

I had to wait in a line to fill out some paperwork, they had lost a lot of people’s luggage *rolls eyes* and was told they’d do their best to have it to me by tomorrow so I gave them the address of the hostel I was staying at in Northern Wales and left. I was told I could buy stuff to replace what was in my bag “within reason” and they would reimburse me for it but like I knew where to go shopping?

I then went to the car rental place where I had prepaid for a car and learned they didn’t have my car, nice huh? Exactly what is the point of prepaying for a rental car if the company isn’t going to have the car ready for you?? I rented through a company called Alamo and will never use them again. 😦  I waited at the desk for almost an hour just to be told they couldn’t find me a car so go sit in the waiting area and they’ll be with me when they are ready. The waiting area is a bunch of uncomfie seats and non-working vending machines so not the most pleasant of places. Once they finally had a car for me I asked about my gps system, I was told when I booked the car I couldn’t reserve that in advance but that they would have plenty at the office and I could rent one on the day. The guy informed me they had run out so no gps for me. I asked if the car had built in gps, he said no but I could upgrade to a car that did have that, I would have had to upgrade to a Mercedes! Like I could afford that, pfft! I then asked for a map and he laughed at me, actually laughed, in my face! He informed me “nobody uses maps anymore”, well, gee, I know that but if you are out of gps systems what the hell am I supposed to use?? He said to go to Hertz (they were next door) and see if they could help me out with a map. I went to Hertz, explained what happened, they said they didn’t have maps but they google mapped for me a route to where I needed to get to and printed it out.

Just to clarify, the company I spent no money with, Hertz, printed me out directions to help me and were very nice. The company I spent a good chunk of money with, Alamo, didn’t have my car, didn’t have a gps system, didn’t have a map and didn’t help me figure out how to get to my hostel. Oh, and they were rude. Nice huh?

Unfortunately, the google directions started with “Turn left on to unnamed road”, brilliant huh? lol I turned left then promptly ended up in a construction zone where traffic was being re-routed and boom! Lost! That quickly, practically a record for me lol I stopped at a shop to ask for directions and the girls there didn’t know how to get to the motorway I needed so I drove a bit more, asked some random people, they gave me confusing to follow directions but in the end they made sense so yay! I found the motorway and was finally on my way to Wales! 🙂

I had called the hostel I was staying  at to ask if shops would still be open around the time I got in to town and they said no, the guy suggested I get off the motorway at Bangor and shop at the 24hr Tesco, think of it like a Superstore, they have everything. Food, clothes, electronics, books, toiletries…literally everything I needed to get through the next couple of days without my luggage. I got a little lost getting back on the motorway but eventually found it.

The border between England and Wales is, well, not there…it’s not like here when you want to go in to the States you have to go through border control, there is is just a little sign saying you’ve entered Wales, no border control, no security, nuthin. It struck me as a little odd but different countries different ways right?

No border patrol, just a welcome sign.

No border patrol, just a welcome sign.

A little quirk of Wales that I soon discovered was the real lack of signage for where you are. I drove through multiple little towns that had no sign saying the name of the town so I had no idea where I was. It left me feeling kinda freaked out and worried that I had driven through the town I was aiming for and didn’t even realize it. Also, once off the motorway the roads are narrow and windy and scary, and I drive through the mountains in Canada during winter! I know scary driving but this, this is totally different! Every time it was a tight squeeze my entire body would shrink in, like that would somehow help me to not hit another car or hit the fences/rock walls/bushes on my left side lol I’m sure other drivers thought I was nuts lol 😛

The town I was staying at was Llanberis (pronounced Clan-bear-is) and I did eventually find it.

Love this town!

Love this town!

I had great directions for once I was in the town for how to find the hostel but the signs within the towns of Wales are no better than the signs for marking the towns of Wales. I had to turn left on a specific road and did I find that road? Nope. Drove the entire way through the town without seeing a sign for it. By this time it was late, around 10pm, I was exhausted, cranky and all I could think was I am so close to my bed for the night and I can’t find a stupid road. When I turned around and went back in to the town from the opposite direction I saw why I didn’t see the road sign I needed, it was tiny, low to the ground, and only facing one direction. One direction! Which means I could only see it  coming from one direction, not the other. Who does that?!?!

Once I turned on that road the street got even tinier, which I didn’t think was possible lol I followed windy roads up and up and up and eventually found the hostel, yay!

My first hostel of the trip

My first hostel of the trip

When I walked in the lady at the desk, she was soooo nice, she said “you must be Heather! I’m so glad you made it before 10:30p!”, that is when the hostel closed and I would have been stuck outside which would’ve been lame so I was also very glad I found them before 10:30p lol. She got me checked in, got me a towel since I forgot to buy one, told me where everything was and disappeared for the night…disappeared to her home I mean, not like, vanished in to thin air, though, how cool would that have been? lol

I showered, lamented a bit over my lack of a hair dryer and passed out.

And that my friends is how my vacation started. 🙂

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UK Trip Day 1: July 14/14

8 Aug

I started my first day of vacation by working, weird huh? But normal for me lol I like to start my vacations as soon as possible and not waste even a moment of time. 🙂

I worked 7am-1pm then scooted off home to finish packing, cuddle with the cat, shower (I like showering as close to leaving as possible if there is more than a couple hours travel time, shrug) and all that other stuff you have to do last minute before leaving for an extended period of time. For all that I planned huge parts of my trip I didn’t give much thought to how I was getting to the airport or what time I should be there by, or really, any part of the first part of my travel, oops? I guess I figured it had to work out so why worry about it in advance, right? 😉

My flight left at 6:30pm so I started for the airport a bit after 4pm, took a cab then a skytrain and meandered in to the airport a bit before 5pm. I breezed through the baggage check in, was randomly chosen for “extra screening” at security, sigh. I had the option of being patted down in such a manner I would feel the security person should buy me dinner first or being put in that machine that takes a super detailed picture of my body. I have experienced both before and opted for the body scan, it is quicker and it means my shirt won’t be lifted up in public lol

Random question: Am I the only one who sucks in their tummy when that body scan picture is taken? I know it is pointless to do so but I still do…

Anyways, I had enough time to get a snack from Tim Horton’s, my last little bit of Canada, before flying out. Sadly the donut I bought was stale, ugh, but the iced capp was yum! 🙂

Last little bit of home :)

Last little bit of home 🙂

The first leg of my flight was great, course, I love flying so I generally find my flights great lol I had a window seat, I always book a window seat, I’m a diva like that lol 😉 It was a two seater row and there was nobody in the seat next to me so I got to stretch out which was an unexpected surprise. My plan was to wear myself out for days prior so that I would sleep during the flight, why else book an overnight flight right? I had to stay awake for dinner though, I love airplane food, but not only do I like the food I didn’t spend all that money on a plane ticket to not get my food! lol I chose the pasta dish, seemed safer than the chicken. There was a super moist chocolate brownie, how sad is it that the brownie on the plane was better than the donut I got from the Tim Horton’s in the airport? Something is seriously flawed there, tsk tsk Tim Horton’s! 😉

Airplane food, yay!

Airplane food, yay!

I watched the movie Labor Day, which fyi, excellent movie! Then semi-watched Mamma Mia, I say semi-watched because I purposefully chose it because I have seen it before and figured I could doze off to it. My plan sort of worked…I did sleep on the flight but not a solid sleep, I was constantly drifting in and out of sleep and didn’t reach a deep sleep like I had hoped I would. I bought a sleep mask to wear and am grateful for it, I think I only managed to sleep as well as I did because of that and the weird u-shaped travel pillow I had. I must have looked ridiculous lol

We landed in London July 15th, a bit later than planned but that’s ok, I got some nice shots from the air…

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I had to run through Heathrow Airport to get to my next flight, fyi, an hour and a half between flights is not enough if you are at Heathrow. When I was going through immigration the lady looked at my boarding pass and said “is your flight at one??”, my response was “if that is what the boarding pass says then yup”, she gave me a funny look then said she was fast-tracking me. I took that to mean I was running late but not like I can make the lines move faster, shrug. Even with being put in the fast line for security it took for freakin ever and since I didn’t have anything on me that had the time and couldn’t see a clock anywhere I was torn between mild panic because maybe I was about to miss my flight and didn’t know it and just chilling cause there is nothing I can do about it if I miss the flight and I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end lol.

Security didn’t like me, sigh, I forgot to take my water bottle out of the side of my bag so my entire carry on had to be searched because of that, oh, and I also got patted down to such a degree I felt like I was on a third date *rolls eyes* lol That was when the running started, running to the escalator, running down the escalator, running to the gate where luckily they saw me barreling down on them and kindly waited for me. Thank goodness they had snacks on the plane cause there was absolutely no time to get anything at Heathrow and the breakfast I got served on the first flight was long gone, it was a simple breakfast of yogurt and banana bread.

The flight between London and Manchester is short and I dozed through most of it, well, dozed or chatted with the cutie in the seat next to me. 😉

Aaaaand this is turning in to a huge post so I’ll finish the rest of it in a second post…see you there! 🙂

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