About writers, slaves and north Wales

Sometimes I have to ask myself what kind of demons reside deep inside me and why they force me to crave for travel all the time.

You know, you are at home, everything is nice, stereotype, boredom, peace and stuff, and then – boom! You are in a pick-up truck with bunch of slightly drunken Slovenians, driven by a Welshman with a long beard and pencil behind his ear. And you are shrieking like hell, because you are the one that is standing right on the edge of cargo part and you expect to fall out of the car in a second…

But let me explain.

My boss asked me, if I want to come to the book launch on Friday and then to some event of Slovenian writers in the north of Wales. I explained to him, that there is rather big difference between Slovakians and Slovenians, but I still wanted to go there.

The launch was very nice, though it was in the village in the middle of nowhere with minimum of light pollution around and just one sheep every six miles, if you know what I mean. I met there a woman who claimed that only a heartless man can live without the mountains and without the sea. Which automatically makes me and all the other Slovak people heartless creatures, but whatever.

But the author of book was really nice and enthusiastic, and although it was in a small village, more than fifty people came to the event.

The next two days I spent with Slovenian writers in the writers centre Tŷ Newydd, which is really awesome place to be. During the day, there were presentations and talks about Slovenian and Welsh publishing sphere and books. In the evening, unofficial chatting and drinking began. On Saturday after the dinner and couple of drinks, they got this awesome idea to go to the pub in the village nearby. I joined the others, why not. The next thing I knew, I was sat in a pick-up driving through the forest, wearing a nice dress, desperately clutching some part of the car so as not to fall out of it.

I think I should be writer too.

In the library of Ty Newydd.

But after all I survived the ride and it was nice weekend. And I got to know some interesting facts about Slovenian language and its connection to my native language. One example: in Slovenian language “otrok” means a child. The same word in Slovakian language means slave. All I have to say… probably meeting writers from Slovenia is not what you usually expect from an internship in Wales, but as I like to say:

"Life is what happens to you while you´re busy making other plans."

Seaside is just 15 minutes of walk away from Ty Newydd.

Cricieth Castle.

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How living in Wales changed my lifestyle

After a month in Wales, I feel like my life has changed and I have to write down a few points that reflect this change. It might be a warning for you or invitation to come here and visit me, as you wish.

1 BBC Weather.com is one of my favourite webpages now.

I strongly object to depicting of this superheavy rain with strong wind just as two little drops, but they are mostly right about what the weather is going to be like, so I still check it there.

2 I use an umbrella.

Even though I have always been in my private guerilla war with umbrellas, now we both agreed on truce for these three months. (Though I have a feeling, that umbrellas are not quite sincere. That one of mine is already half broken. They hate me.)

3 There is always a cup of black tea nearby me.

I drink approximately 10 litres of black tea a day. I have no idea, how can I sleep after this amount of caffeine in my body, but it works somehow. Everybody in the office likes to add some milk to it, but I still resist to this trend. What if I liked it, then I would have to walk to fridge and back, just to get some milk for tea!

4 I eat mayonnaise.

In fact, not only I eat mayonnaise, but since I came here, I have probably eaten more mayonnaise than in the rest of my life. I always found mayonnaise really unhealthy, but here, if you just want to grab a sandwich for a lunch, you have to buy something with mayonnaise. Otherwise it is usually pretty plain and disgusting.

5 I do not believe in buses anymore.

They are always late. Or early. Which means you have to come to bus stop at least ten minutes before, to be sure you won’t miss the bus, but mostly those buses come so late, that you end up waiting there for half an hour. Well, buses and weather are probably two worst things here in Swansea, where I live. Confirmed by locals.

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Caerphilly Castle

If you have spare three or four hours and fancy visiting some new historical place nearby Cardiff, Caerphilly Castle is a wise choice. We were lucky to have very nice weather, because most of the time in Castle, you have to walk outside and you do not have many places to hide in case of bad weather. (It seems to me, that they do not have many “indoor castles” here in Wales.)

When you walk around the castle, there is not much information about it, half of our visit, we were just wondering when it was built and who lived there. After some time, we found a room with huge table tablet, where you can play with touch screen and old documents all day long, and later also one hall with pictures introducing the history of castle.

Out of all materials explaining about the castle, we probably enjoyed most a short animated movie that was screened in one of the small towers. I think the movie would use some warning before, for more sensitive kids. Even though it was animated, it showed a lot of cruelty and a couple of times, the red colour splashed all over the three walls (depicting blood of soldiers or something like that).

Some practical information:

Caerphilly Castle is the biggest castle in Wales and second biggest castle in Britain and there is one nice tower which out leans famous tower in Pisa, so you can make the same classic tourist photo supporting it.

It took us about 30 minutes to get there by train from Penarth. Return train ticket cost around 4 pounds per person (we travelled in a group of four people). Entrance fee to the castle is £ 4.75 for adults and £3.60 is student ticket.

Enough said, let´s have a look at some pictures of castle:

Some wooden guy supporting the leaning tower.

The Shire, I guess. Frodo, is that you?

With two flags of Wales.

Birds and stuff.

Caerphilly Caste was built in the second half of the 13th century. Still a nice place to visit.

Inside the castle walls.

Lovely houses nearby the castle.

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Look right!

Nearby the Central Bus Station in Cardiff.

Getting off at the right bus stop requires some advanced skills acquired through thorough study of science and a lot of training in arts as well as some instinct and plenty of luck. In most of the buses they do not announce the names of bus stops. You cannot find it anywhere inside the bus, too. And in common timetables with routes, you cannot find all the stops that bus is going through. Say, out of forty of bus stops, you can find there only ten most important of them. All in all, if you are traveler just visiting Cardiff, you might find it extremely difficult to get to the exact place you want to. If you want to go to the place you have never been before, you have to ask the driver, where to get off or your local friends have to describe the place for you. The common instructions then look like this:

“After the roundabout, the bus will go around the big blue building on your right and when you can see the small park on the left side, it is time to get off the bus.”

And if you are misanthrope and you do not want to speak to people, you have to spend hours with Google Street View.

Further, the bus stops seem to me to be the other way round. As if the bus should go through the pavement or something like that. I added some pictures, so that you can see it as well.

I do not know where should I wait for the bus. Does the driver even see me behind the glass?

And THE left side! I suppose it was created a long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away) to put off the immigrants from the life in Great Britain. If you do not get run over by any vehicle (here you cannot find any street sign saying Look right! like in London), there is at least a big chance you end up at the completely different part of the city than was your original intention, because of getting on the bus on the wrong side of the road.

But I must admit, that although the system may seem pretty user-unfriendly, the people around are always helpful. The bus drivers are very patient when confronted with never ending inquiries from foreigners about where to get off. When travelling here, do not forget to be polite and thank them. People don’t say goodbye, when they get off the bus, they usually thank the driver. I enjoy this local expression in particular:

“Cheers, drive!”

I always feel too jovial when I say it, as if I was drinking with driver, but I like it anyway.

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Sully Island

Today I decided to visit Sully Island, which is a small tidal island nearby the village I currently live in. During the low tide, it is accessible through the rocky pathway, but once the tide gets high, you can end up stranded on the island for pretty long time. If you don’t come back before the tide rises, you can either call coastguards or wait with some rats on the island for about six hours.

The rate of tidal rise and fall here is the second highest in the world and the tide comes quite quickly. That is why some people do not consider going there completely safe. Before entering the pathway, you can notice some not very encouraging signs. One of them says:

Warning! Warning!

DANGEROUS TIDES 

Many people have been drowned attempting to visit or return from Sully Island. The causeway is a death trap. Please take great care.

Death trap! To tell you the truth, I was a little bit scared when I began to cross the pathway to the island and every other second I was glancing to the water, if it is not too high. Even though I checked the times of tide on a website, I was nervous (those random numbers on the internet didn’t seem very credible to me). Still, I was supposed to have two more hours before the pathway disappears below the water.

I just couldn’t help but wonder, what I would do, if I really end up alone on the island. The battery on my mobile phone would run out of power in about an hour. I had with me a brand new Marvel T-shirt with Spiderman, Ironman, Hulk, Captain America and Thor on it, but I was pretty sure none of these American superheroes would help me in such an awkward situation in South Wales.

But I managed to go there, enjoy the beautiful view and come back home unharmed. Below you can see a couple of pictures I have taken there. Enjoy!

Just chillin' for a while.

My shadow.

On the island.

The pathway seemed to me a little bit the-lord-of-the-rings-ish.

When the tide is high... you shall not pass!

The path is covered with shells and sea grass.

The picture of Sully Island from the coast.

In case you want to know, where I checked tide times, go to this link.

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Welcome to Wales! (Croeso i Gymru)

It has been only a week since I arrived in Wales. It is certainly not enough for me to say I know the country perfectly, but for sure I have found here some things I fancy.

So far, these are the best three things I came across here in Wales:

1. Language

Though only about 20 per cent of people in Wales can actually speak Welsh language, you can see street signs in both Welsh and English everywhere. For example, in my opinion, just seeing the expression for ashtray is priceless:

2. Palm trees

At this point I have to admit, that I suffer from the lack of knowledge about the vegetation in the world, because I had no idea there are palm trees in Wales. But they are in every street here and this fact leads to my utter happiness. And now they are also in approximately 50 per cent of pictures I have taken here.

3. Friendly people

A short example: After I had bought some salad with shrimps and mayonnaise in Tesco yesterday, a very nice lady at the counter told me that I shouldn´t put the box into my bag, because it leaks and the mayo smells terribly inside the bag afterwards. Very nice advice. Too bad I had already known that, as at that time I had one smelly bag back at home, because I had bought the same box of salad the day before. But the point is, people here are lovely and helpful.

...

Other delightful things hopefully coming soon! :)

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