The Blau's in a foreign land: Wales, not Whales.

After my final exam on Thursday, I rushed home to pack up and hit the road to Wales!!!

- Why Wales:

My mom did a great job capturing the happiness my dad has for his job. You cant describe his mannerisms right now, just look at it! 

In 2006, my dad was asked to spend a summer of in Ruthin, Wales working at the ABS company over there. He spent 3 months fending for himself in a land where they drive on "the other" side of the road (You cant say wrong side of the road, they take great offense to that). We missed him a lot that summer but I guess his friends in Wales have been missing him too!! So for the second time, my parents have saved up to go on holiday to Wales. They're so cute and happy over there, it was great to see them while Im studying abroad, but better yet embracing the travel bug like I do!

So proud of them getting out of WI every once in a blue moon ;)

- Who is even in Wales:

Aside from a few rugby coaches I've had the privilege to meet and learn from (S/O to Bowie & Plug), my dad made quite a few friends while he was there. Is that even hard to believe though? The man talks to anyone and everyone. To name a few of their friends: Rhys & Angie, Caryis & John, Frank and Nain are the folks we stayed with and I met for the first time.

- What is over in Wales:
Sheep, mountains, beer, farms & awesome accents.

Other than that, I cant even begin to describe how gorgeous it is. Take a look:

- When in Wales:

My parents, twice now, have gone for about a week to vacation and catch up with their Welsh friends. I only met up with my parents for the weekend, but their friends I met are actually TOO generous. They bought me dinner, clothes and beer even though I tried VERY HARD to not let them pay! I figure because they can heard sheep so dang well, so they had no problem getting around me to pay for things.

So the trip began:

• I began with a city bus that took me to--> 
• the bus station just in the knick of time --> 
• road to Malaga next to the smelliest lady EVER (I don't mean to be rude, but she had fancy shoes on, a really nice smart phone and obviously wasn't homeless, so why was she smelling like a stinky dog? Tip: its courteous to shower and stay clean when you're about to ride a bus, side by side with a stranger for a few hours!) -->
• arrived at the Malaga bus station and waited for --> 
• the express bus to the airport where I chatted with a couple British girls who were very nice -->
• I hopped a plane to Manchester, UK  which took 3 hours -->
• I went through border control and honestly, the man asking me the questions must have REALLY thought I was going to cause havoc in Manchester. He grilled me pretty hard and yelled at me a few times!

Man: 'Where are you from?'
Me: 'ahhhhhh Wisconsin'
Man: 'NO!!! I MEAN WHERE ARE YOU FROM?'
Me ('omgosh what answer is he looking for?!'): 'Well, Spain?'
Man (apparently very angry): 'WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!!?!"
Me:(about to cry) 'I was born in Wi, I am from the US. I am a student studying for a semester in Granada, Spain but I flew in from Malaga, Spain. Im not sure how else to answer the question"
Man (a little calmer): 'Well what are you studying?!'
Me: .............Spanish language
Man: (rolls his eyes) 'Nice answer, how long are you here for and why'
Me: 'I am here for the weekend Visiting my parents who are on holiday in Wales'
Man: *STAMP* 'NEXT!!!!'


He hates his job..





Then I grabbed a taxi to the hotel. My room was obviously a party room in the past: black marks on the wall, no telephone, a big giant black stain on the ground, a queen sized bed with 2 flimsy pillows & a blanket that wasn't that warm. It was much cooler in the UK than Spain, so when I found out the thermostat was broken, I basically ran some boiling water for a bath and warmed up. Finally hitting the hay by 3:30am or so, I uncomfortably slept until the morning. I and got picked up by Rhys & Angie, my mom and pops by 11:30am at the hotel. It was such a joy to finally see family again, I very much miss them!!!

We then drove to Ruthin, a small but beautiful town with gigantic hills and mountains, trees and fields, grass and sheep everywhere! I felt like I was already back home in WI. We stopped for some "tea & cake" (basically any food and drink, but mostly a social hour in the afternoon) then climbed to the top of Moel Famau (pronounced: 'moil-fam-ah'). The hike took a total of about two beautiful hours, breathing in clean air again. It felt wonderful to be out of the city and smelling the clean air once
again.

Me, Rhys, my mum & pops

We all made it to the top of Moel Famau! 2.4 miles round trip. My dad is so good at taking photos.

Like father like daughter? We take great pictures...

After the hike we went to our friend Carys's mothers house about 15 minutes away. We stayed with Nain, which is the Welsh word for grandmother. She is just the sweetest 80 year old woman I've ever met!!! They cooked us a delicious lamb dinner and Carys's other half, John poured us all some wine. I think he was testing my limit though. He poured me three medium sized glasses of wine then surprised me saying I was going on a pub crawl with his son and his son's girlfriend. John gave Dillon & Kat £20  to take me out for the night!!! Dil & Kat took me to four bars total because we had a mission. I collect beer bottle tops and I am making a pretty bottle cap design on top of my grandma's old night stand. The thing is, not a lot of beer is bottled in Wales, almost all beers are on tap! So without any luck at the first bar, we couldn't find me any beer bottles with interesting designs and I just ordered a pint a local beer instead. But, A PINT OF BEER IN WALES IS ACTUALLY LIKE HALF A GALLON I KID YOU NOT! They thought it was funny when I almost fell off my bar stool just from looking at the size of beer I had just ordered. We marched on to the next pub looking for our bottle caps, but in the end we had TERRIBLE luck. No bottle caps at all. We all had a great night and Dil, who had to work on the farm in the early morning, was our DD and drove us home. I slept like a baby, half drunk and jet legged from all the traveling just to get there.

Carys on the left and her mother, Nain on the right

Day 2 in Wales:

The Welsh believe in overfeeding their guests; that's how they let you know you're welcome. So breakfast (remember I'm used to solely toast and coffee for breakfast here in Spain) was scrambled eggs, MOUTHWATERING BACON, cereal, toast, coffee, juice and the works. I was in heaven.

Then we drove through whats called Horseshoe Pass. Absolutely breathtaking. This is my kind of world.

Carys took us shopping in Llangollen (pronounced: 'clan-gloth-lan' with a lot of phlegm) where I bought a few things and she treated us to my first fish 'n chips. THE PORTIONS WERE HUGE! The fish was the size of my forearm and the 'chips' (actually french fries) could have fed three people. No joke.

FISH & CHIPS

A gorgeous little creek running through the town 

Nain, my mama & pops 

so cute!!

Welsh Potatoes are the special today

On the way back home, we stopped at some old ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey.

The ruins and some mountains

Stunning architecture 

cool little stairway....AM I IN HOGWARTS?!

I want some windows like this :)

typical pose...sorry 

I RSVP'd to my bosses wedding in October by posting this pic on his Facebook wall. Cant make it, Im a kah-gillion miles away right now!!!

It was eery to be walking around the ruins of a few buildings that were used for monks to live in. Its amazing to think of how much more we have today. I wish I could have experienced that life where you work all day just to make dinner. I would be a heck of a lot less stressed out about grades and such, but probably more about communal diseases.

I fell asleep, catching flies in my mouth, on the car ride back to Nain's house. We all napped for a bit then got ready to go out for a fancy dinner. Almost all the people in Wales my parents knew were at dinner and we ate like kings & queens.

I had fettuccine carbonara, garlic bread, a pint of local lager and then my 'mum' and I split the most enchanting chocolate sponge cake. We all went home and I got another night's sleep in the most comfortable bed I've been in since living in Europe. I actually woke up both mornings in Wales having dreamt for the first time, that I can remember, in Europe. I think this is because my bed in Spain is reallllllllllllllllly kinda hard and small and I don't have my comfy blankets from home that have been passed from sister to sister, getting perfectly broken in for me!

Day 3:

I woke and had another filling breakfast, knowing I wouldn't get one of those again for a long while. My parents were off to the Irish Sea for the next few days with their friend Frank. The rest of their vacation in Wales was wonderful and I cant wait to see the photos when my mama finally gets them onto Facebook!!

Carys and Nain dropped me off at a shuttle that would take me to the Manchester airport and I finally flew back to my home in Spain. Now since my phone was stolen about three weeks ago, I luckily had insurance and got a new one sent home. My parents thankfully brought that to me and once I got through security and such, I finally got WiFi for the first time in three days. I went to check all my emails, social media, weather and stuff when finally I logged into Facebook with 27 messages. CRIPES! I miss my pals back home :)

These girls are my Winona family. This is the stunning team for fall 2013. I MISS THIS!!!

All together though, I love Wales! Its gorgeous, the people are SO GENEROUS and very easygoing, the food is wonderful and the pint sizes for beer are just perfect. I was offered to come back this summer and get a job wrapping wool or shearing sheep, sounds pretty grand to me!!

See these guys in 2 more months!