Gone North

I've managed to find an Internet cafe in Caernarfon, but it closes in 30 minutes so I'll have to be fast.

Yesterday I spent eight hours in a bus. No, wait, I lie - it was actually two buses. It took over four hours to go from Cardiff to Aberystwyth, then another three or so from Aberystwyth to Caernarfon. Not surprisingly, I was quite tired by the time I arrived - but I still had enough time to prowl the streets and take some pictures.

It's an interesting little town this one; it's centered around a massive castle, with the main part of the town residing inside the castle walls. The streets inside are fairly narrow, and the whole castle area doesn't take very long to walk around (I know - I did it), but it's a really nice area and I'm glad I came.

That's not how I felt yesterday afternoon after the bus ride, though.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to come up this way - the only thing I can think of is that the Lonely Planet guide mentioned the castle and it sounded interesting, plus I thought I may as well see North Wales while I'm over this way.

The bus ride itself was exceptionally dull, made worse by the fact that every time I pulled out my book to read I'd feel sick almost instantly, so the whole trip was spent alternating between falling asleep and watching the scenery. And it's a good thing, too, that the scenery was so nice because every time I looked forward at the road, I'd start to worry.

What I haven't mentioned yet are the roads: they are not built for today's vehicles! They are extremely narrow along the back ways (which, over here in Wales, is practically everywhere) and barely have enough room for one car going one way, let alone two. That doesn't stop the drivers zooming around as fast as they can, though, especially around the tops of the cliffs I chose to look down. There were at least three times driving up here I was certain we were going to fall to our deaths.

Seeing how I was totally buggered last night, I stayed in, did some reading, then fell asleep at midnight. The next thing I knew it was morning - and 10am. I slept like a baby all night, it was great.

Taking my time to get ready, I didn't actually hit the streets until almost midday. My first stop was the tourist information centre for a bit of help deciding what to see - which, as was going to be the case anyway, was the castle. Its most recent claim to fame is that it's where Charles was crowned Prince of Wales by his mum (the Queen).

So far I've seen a few castles on this trip but, to me, this one has been the best. I've already forgotten most of the history behind it, but basically it's been around for a really long time and has been restored enough so that you can walk through most of it. There are corridors leading all through the walls, plenty of towers and turrets, and LOTS of stairs.

Once again, it didn't really occur to me as I was walking in, but once I reached the top of the towers I started to have that strange nauseous feeling again - oh wow, it's high up here. Really high. I don't like being this high from the ground. Despite the rising panic, I managed to brave the heights and take in the spectacular views.

For the rest of the afternoon I've been following the walking tour around town, given to me by the information centre. All up it's 1.5 miles, but it only took about 30 minutes or so to go around. It wasn't until the end of the tour that I discovered this Internet cafe.

Tomorrow, I'm getting up early in order to visit Portmeirion - roughly an hour's bus ride from here. I just hope the weather holds up, because today was unbelievably beautiful.