I really like nature, being outside, basking in the beauty of God’s creation...but somehow nature and I do not get along when the unexpected occurs. Even when the unexpected should be expected. Like rain in the UK. Today I planned to take the Snowdon Sherpa bus from my hostel to a little town called Waunfawr (pronounced ‘wine-var’), where there is a nice riding stable. However, I didn’t realize how infrequently the bus comes. I probably should have realized that I’m not in London (or Bristol or any other major city) any more and the public transportation just might be as bad as Minnesota’s! (Just kidding.) So I was like, ‘Well, it’s only four miles to Waunfawr, I can certainly walk that.’ Unfortunately, the only way to get there (that I know of) is by walking alongside a narrow road (typical of small towns and rural areas in the UK). This means you have to pay very close attention so that you can move off the road (or when that’s not possible, just cross the road...or if cars are coming from both directions, just try to make yourself as skinny as possible alongside the stone walls lining the road). I definitely don’t plan on doing this again because it was slightly terrifying. :-) But the drivers are usually pretty nice and aware, so it wasn’t absolutely awful. But anyways, this would have been loads better if it hadn’t been raining. Every time I had to walk on the grassy parts next to the road, my feet got soaked. And every time I had to lean against a stone wall, my pants got soaked.
But I finally got to the Snowdonia Riding Stables and I got to go on a one-hour ride. My guidebook said nothing about pre-booking, but apparently that would have been necessary in order to go on a better ride. The one-hour ride I went on was for beginners only, and because of the weather, we didn’t go very far. I was hoping to take one of the rides that went down to the coast and/or Caernarfon Castle and that included cantering, but as I said, I didn’t pre-book. I probably would have called anyway, except that I can’t top up my cell phone until I get to Manchester (when I can either find some place that can top up Lebara phones or where I can buy a new SIM card) and even if I could, there is almost no cell phone reception here. But it was, of course, fun to get to go horseback riding, even if it wasn’t everything I had hoped it would be. I was reminded once again of how much more I like English than Western riding. You just have so much more direct contact with your horse through the reins and your seat, plus I think the saddles are so much more comfortable. Plus, I like being ‘allowed’ to post while trotting. Not that we did any trotting on this particular trail ride. Oh well.
After the trail ride, I decided to stop and eat lunch at the first pub I saw in Waunfawr. I had already decided that I would not be walking back; I would just hang out in the pub until the next Snowdon Sherpa bus would be coming. Seeing as this is the UK, I assumed I would see a pub very soon. Every third or fourth building is generally a pub. However, I didn’t find one until the very edge of town! This could have been due to the fact that I couldn’t see anything out of my rain-covered glasses, however, since the rain had picked up in intensity. My waterproof jacket got drenched (and somehow even my shirt underneath got wet), and my pants, shoes, and socks were utterly soggy. I’m sure I was quite a sight to cause sore eyes by the time I entered the pub at the end of town. I went to the loo and tried to use the hand dryer to dry whatever I could (but obviously I wasn’t going to remove anything that would make my appearance even more unseemly). I ate lunch and then went out to nearest bus stop. Unfortunately, I didn’t know which stop it was. I’m always a bit bamboozled by buses, even this simple system which has a bus that runs up and down one road between the towns of Beddgelert and Caernarfon. I still think the bus stops should say which stop they are though, even if it is a simple system. Also, there were little dashes through two of the stops which might have been the one I was waiting at, seeming to indicate that the bus would not be stopping there at that particular time. I thought that seemed weird because, as I said, the bus basically goes up and down one road. So I decided to wait and hope that a bus would pass and that it would stop when I flagged it down. Wonder of wonders, that is exactly what happened! And it was a very good thing too because right as I got on the bus, it started pouring again. I was still wet and freezing from my last excursion in the rain, but I didn’t want to add to it by being out in another downpour.
I think I pressed the ‘stop’ button at the correct time to get off at the Snowdon Ranger stop, but the bus driver may have just remembered to stop there anyways (since I had to tell him where I was going when I bought my ticket). But I was, of course, worried that I would not manage to press the button at the right time because, well, that would be just my luck with buses (for more information on a previous bus adventure, see the first several pictures of this Facebook album). But in any case, I got off the bus at the right place...but the hostel was locked up. I had forgotten that this middle-of-nowhere hostel closes in the middle of the day. I knocked and fortunately, one of the workers was around to give me the code to get inside. I struggled with putting the code in correctly too because you had to turn a random lever clockwise and anti-clockwise. Yes, I do sometimes have dyslexic troubles with clockwise and anti-clockwise, but that wasn’t the problem this time. For some ridiculous reason, I kept trying to turn the door handle instead of the lever because I didn’t notice the lever at first! (I was very tired and out of it by this time due to the ‘trauma’ of the day.)
I got back and took a shower (I was afraid that the hot water would be shut off, but fortunately it was fine). And now I’m just sitting in the hostel room because my one pair of shoes are too sopping wet to go anywhere else. Yes, you did read that correctly: I only have one pair of shoes. When I narrowed my stuff down to ‘essentials’ and ‘non-essentials,’ I only included one pair of shoes in the ‘essentials.’ And usually that would be enough. Even on the other days when I’ve been out in the rain, my shoes have mostly been dry the next day. Plus most hostels have hairdryers ‘for hire’ that I planned to use if necessary, but I’m not sure that this hostel has anything of the sort. Maybe it does though. I’ll just have to ask tonight when the reception opens back up again.
So, all in all, it was not the greatest day. It was an interesting day that will make for a good story, but I didn’t enjoy it all that much. But it certainly wasn’t the worst day either...I never experienced Brighton-level despair or anything like that. I am a little sad that I am wasting half a day of my trip, and I’m a little frustrated that the public transportation is so difficult. And I really wish it would just stop raining! I want to be able to experience the great outdoors of Snowdonia National Park, but it’s really hard to have a good time when it’s pouring all day. And I don’t even want to try doing an all-day hike tomorrow if it’s even a bit cloudy because I don’t want to get stuck out in the rain again. So if it’s sunny, my plan is to hike up Snowdon (the tallest mountain in Wales and England, which happens to be right outside my hostel). But if it’s cloudy or rainy, I will take a bus (I know what time it comes to the hostel now) to the town of Caernarfon and see its lovely castle. Being in a town will also ensure that there will be pubs and other places to take shelter from the elements.
I believe I am much more cut out for city life than rural life. I always seem to be caught off-guard or without certain necessities when I’m out in nature. It was like that at the dude ranch too. I had a full suitcase for just a week and I still managed to forget essentials like sunscreen! So in conclusion...nature is wonderful but it is also an unpredictable force. It is, to steal the title of a book I haven’t even read, a great and terrible beauty.
To change the subject, I met a bunch of nice people from Ireland last night. I just randomly sat with them for dinner in the hostel, and then we played Scrabble afterwards (along with an English guy who works in the hostel and is about my age). I ate breakfast with them this morning as well. There were two couples, one of whom had a young daughter (with traditionally Irish red hair), and there was a single woman who was my only roommate in a six-bed room last night (tonight I’m the only person in the room). The mother of the young daughter obviously knew a lot about literature, and we talked a bit about Yeats’s poetry because I told her I was visiting Sligo due to Yeats. The other married woman has two daughters: one aged 23 and the other aged 21. The 21-year-old daughter is apparently very similar to me because she also goes travelling all by herself. This woman lives between Dublin and Sligo, and she gave me her work number and her mobile number and told me to call her if I have any problems in Ireland. I thought that was very nice, and I know it will make my mom happy when I get a chance to tell her.
Well, I guess that’s all for now, folks!
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