This is a photo of me and my new friend Max, the horse that I was riding this past weeked during my adventuring weeked in Wales! He is really nice except for the fact that he was really hungry and wanted to stop and eat lots of ferns and plants along the way. He took me all the way through the Brecon Beacon mountains in Wales and it was very beautiful - postcard perfect. The morning looked a little misty but it cleared right up and we were riding through a valley in this national park in the midst of sheep and wild horses. I'm pretty sure I saw a unicorn.
This is a photo of the "hostel" we stayed at during the adventuring weekend. I use the term hostel very loosely as it was the most mansion-like hostel I will ever stay at, I am fairly sure. For one thing when we walked in the door there was a Welsh couple awaiting us to say "Welcome to the Baskerville Hall Hotel"....
It is the real Baskerville Hall from the Hounds of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This means that we were staying in the same grounds that the author of Sherlock Holmes did - very cool. And the hotel is still very much in its original state. The girls on the tour shared a chilly but comfortable dorm room and we ate breakfast in the dining room overlooking stunning grounds and the Welsh countryside. Add to this the fact that we were fairly far out in the middle of nowhere and I could almost believe that I was in a Jane Austen novel as I drank my coffee and had baked beans for breakfast.
This is the only photo I took during our stop to Hay-on-Wye, also known as the Town of Books. They have a yearly literary festival every year in May and have something like 30 plus bookshops in this tiny Welsh town. Needless to say I was in heaven!
I exercised restraint and only bought one book from this bookshop which was yes, in a legitimate castle. The whole main floor of the castle has been converted into rows upon rows of dusty old books, photos and other vintage knick-knacks for sale. There was also a massive bookshop inside of an old cinema that we visited.
Other stops during the adventuring weekend in Wales included Chepstow Castle - the oldest stone castle in Europe, and Tintern Abbey where the monks used to live hundreds of years ago and which was made famous by the poet Wordsworth.
Overall I really really enjoyed Wales - definitely a highlight of my time so far. The atmosphere was so peaceful and incredibly beautiful. Surrounded by so much natural beauty it was hard not to enjoy the slower pace of Wales and just try to take it all in. The horseback riding was a great way to experience the mountains and see some sheep close up. The weekend felt like it was a couple of weeks long and it was like going back in time and entering another world to leave the hustle and bustle of the city.
On the way back to London I seriously considered a new life plan that involved moving to a secluded cottage in Wales to write a novel and while away my days in the countryside. I will try and give plenty of notice if this plan is to go ahead but in the meantime it is back to work in London for me. I'll be dreaming of Max, unicorns and the gorgeous Welsh countryside all day long...
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