A NEW country!!

Sarah planned a weekend in Wales for EJ and myself, and a friend of hers--Emily-- came too! We left Thursday May 15th in the morning. It takes about 5 or 6 hours to get to southern Wales. We had to change trains a couple of times and take a bus for an hour due to construction on the tracks. We arrived in Carmarthen, Wales but still needed to get to our hostel. We grabbed a taxi and my life flashed before my eyes as our driver was race-car-like through the busy, tiny, and extremely curvy roads. We arrived at a place called Pant ya thro, which turned out to be the neghborhood of our hostel. Our hostel--my first one ever!!- welcomed us with a sigh that read Welcome to Mexico...interesting. The owner was Ken and he was so great. He was laid back and geninuly hospitable and interested in us. The placed was decorated with pieces of where Ken had traveled.

Wales was chilly and damp and I was cold, as usual. We took off that afternoon down the two way road only to discover it did not have a sidewalk. We ended up walking next to some cows and eventually got to the waterside. We worked our way up to Llansteff Castle. This castle was very different than the others Ive seen. It was completly open to the public-- no restrictions or even an employee there to monitor or give you a mini tour. Mostly the walls were standing and everthing else had disappeared. We walked along the beach and caught a bus back to our hostel--which was also on top of a large hill, like Sarahs dorm. Sarah made us speghetti and then we went to bed.

The next day we went to a city Ken reccomened called Temby. We had a great day there and the sun was out! Yet, I still ended up buying a sweatshirt that day. We wondered the city which was filled with lots of shops and cobblestone streets. We had delicious fish&chips, too! __The picture to the right is Sarah and Emily with their fish and ketsup!__ We got to the beach and found a HUGE jellyfish! There was also this great castle sitting ontop of a huge rock/island. You couldnt go up to the castle, but we walked through a passage in the rock and you could hear the mussles--which compltely covered 6-7 feet of the rock-- making noise.

Oh!! And I discovered a shoe in Temby that fits everything my mother looks for in a shoe--its practical, black, has a heel, and best of all its a CROC!! LOVE YOU MOMMA!

p.s. The keyboareds in Belgium are different than ours, so I apologize for my typos and lack of apostryphys-- i cant figure out how t put i them in!--or how to spell it ;)