I'll just start off by saying that Wales is awesome. It's very much like Ireland, but more so. Like Northern Ireland, Wales has a more manicured appearance. Everything is tidy, even the ruins and unused buildings. Hedgerows are kept cut back to keep the country roads wide and so the overgrowth doesn't damage vehicles, and it prevents accidents when there's more room to maneuver. It was actually fun to drive again because the roads were in such good condition. I don't think the Welsh know what a pothole is!

Fishguard Lighthouse

Hay Church

The land is covered in with traditional patchwork hillsides, like Ireland, but because of the trimmed hedgerows and the tidying of everything, the hillsides looked like the patchwork quilt that Ireland is so famous for. The main difference is that the Welsh quilt is new and clean where as the Irish one is well used and comfortable. The hospitality is wonderful. I don't think we met one person that was disagreeable. The Welsh are very courteous and will help whenever and wherever they can. On a couple occasions we asked for advice from people on the street and it was gladly given with a smile. Shopkeepers moved out from behind the counter to actually show us where items were on the shelves rather than point and continue on with a phone conversation, as is typical in Ireland.

We both continually had to question the pronunciation of Welsh words. The way things are spelled doesn't always mean it's pronounced that way. From our too-brief visit we learned that the double L is pronounced somewhere between a CL sound and that sound you make when hocking up a hairball! Double F is pronounced effe, as in English, but a single F is pronounced as vee. Not always but most of the time. Y is used like I and can be pronounced as ee, eye or ih, as it's pronounced in "in, is, it...". W is most always pronounced like a long O like th word "boo". Then there are the D's. Haven't quite mastered them yet. I think double D is pronounced as a TH and the single D as dee. I don't know about the double Ns, nor about what you do when a double L meets another double L!

It was not uncommon to come across town names without any vowels at all! Like Plwmp, which is pronounced Ploomp. Other strange spellings, to us, were Llanwrda (Clan-oor-da), Twynmynydd (Tooeen-meen-ith), Ffawyddog (Fow-ee-thog), and a place we spent a little time one day, Llangollen (Clan-gock-len).

And here I thought Irish was complicated!

We spent most of our time in a medieval town called Hay-On-Wye, but we took a day out to drive into North Wales. The following pages will include details of our stay and photos. We spent day 1 getting to Hay via St David, day 2 in Hay, day 3 in the north and day 4 in Hay again. We actually also had half of day 5 because our ferry home on Sunday had been canceled until Monday. We did some last minute shopping in Hay before heading back toward Fishguard, which is when we spent the 5th night in Cardigan.

The 2 and a half days spent shopping and sightseeing in Hay are combined on one page, the trip north has it's own page, as does St David and Cardigan.

Yes, we were meant to return to Ireland on Sunday the 12th, but because of bad weather (60mph winds) the ferry was canceled. (We've been getting backlash from all the hurricane's.) That gave us an extra day which we decided to spend somewhere closer to Fishguard so that the drive on Monday would be an easy one. We were scheduled, again, for the late afternoon ferry so that we'd have a few hours on the last day to see a bit more of the country before leaving. Ironically, the ferry had been canceled. again on Monday the 13th. Fortunately we had arrived at Fishguard early and went to check on sailing times just to be sure. Turns out the ferry had been canceled. Again, but they were running a bigger slower ferry, which we got on. The trip is about 3 and a half hours normally. This is the ferry we took on the first day, the 8th. We were scheduled to take the "fastferry" home, which is about 110 minutes port to port. But this type of ferry is a catamaran style boat and can't sail in rough water, so everyone was put on the slower ferry.

Stena Line Superferry

Essentially we ended up leaving at the same time but arrived much later. Much later. The 3 and a half hour ferry turned out closer to 4 and a half hours. They actually slowed the journey because the water was so rough. They should have renamed the ferry from Stena Line Superferry to Stena Line Hospital Ship. Almost everyone was seasick. There were lines out the bathroom doors and ship staff were walking around with barf bags. It was rather disconcerting to be sitting next to someone who was wolfing down a meal quite happily while another was hocking theirs up. Nasty! Happily, Peter and I kept our lunches down, but only just. Peter spent most of his time on the upper deck watching people get sprayed with sea water as they hung over the railings to feed the fish. He loved it...not the watching people get sick part but the rough weather. I guess he enjoyed a thrill ride! I stayed inside chatting with friends from the Mini club who had gone to England for a Mini event. I guess all the times I fished with dad paid off. But I had great fun telling fishing stories, of Mexican's drinking beer and eating cold KFC later to hock it up once we'd set to sea Dad knows what I'm talking about!

Anyway, Peter and I really enjoyed our stay in Wales and can't wait to go back. We both decided that it would not be a hardship to move there =-) We even humored ourselves by looking at property ads in the estate agent windows...many areas are still very affordable, even in popular areas like Hay. Cardigan was even more affordable, and they're on the coast.

Interestingly enough, I found out today that RyanAir is offering FREE flights to Cardiff in south Wales over the month of October, so I'm might look into one of those if I can afford the accommodation.

Enjoy reading through the rest of the travelog. I'm happy to answer any questions.