I Am Not a Number!

I had to say it, I had to bloody say it. I should've gone to Portmeirion on Tuesday, when the weather was perfect. Instead, yesterday was overcast and foggy - all day. I had to say it.



Despite the weather, yesterday was a brilliant day out. I woke up early so I could get the earliest bus out there - which only goes to the front of the (mile long) driveway. That was okay, the walk was worth it.

When I made it to the gate, I couldn't resist the temptation to ask "Where am I?" - unfortunately, the guy at the gate didn't appear to understand my little joke. I'm guessing that almost everyone reading this doesn't get it either, so let me fill in some back story...



You see, Portmeirion is where the classic '60s cult TV series The Prisoner was filmed. Starring Patrick McGoohan as the protaganist - known only as Number 6 - it's a fantastically surreal and subversive series that, by the end, really has your head tied up in a twist. Naturally, I love it.

Not only was I intrigued about visiting where the show was filmed, I was genuinely interested in seeing the place for its unique architecture. It was put together over a period of 70 years by its somewhat eccentric creator, and includes his own specially created constructions along with rescued buildings from other sites, all put together overlooking the sea.



It's colourful, it's fascinating and it's beautiful. I've noticed it a lot in Wales, but pastel colours seem a popular choice for painting houses - and Portmeirion takes it to the limit. Amazingly enough, it never oversteps the mark and passes into tastless territory. The bright colours seem quite overwhelming at first, but as you walk around the area you really feel the atmosphere created by the clash of colours and architecture that it works, it really works.

Having watched the show a few times, it was a little disorientating walking around and finding buildings in different places to where I was expecting them. It turns out the creators of the show were even more inventive than I'd originally thought as they've really used the locations to their full extent. The producers were also given access to a number of areas around the resort that aren't available to normal visitors, so I wasn't able to see everywhere Number 6 had been.



What I wasn't expecting was that the Village is only a small part of the resort - the rest is taken up by a massive maze of bush-enclosed pathways that lead to various lookouts. I spent a good couple of hours just wandering around here and still only saw around half of it.

Unfortunately, as I hinted at earlier, it wasn't all perfect. Sadly, the glorious weather of the day before decided to bugger off overnight and, in its place was a thick and gloomy fog that refused to dissipate all day. Funnily enough, it actually helped create a pretty secluded atmosphere which, considering its history, was quite enjoyable. But still, I would truly have loved to be able to have a blue sky in my photos rather than the grey and white gloom I captured instead.



I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not, but there were a lot of visitors there during the day - and I'm pretty sure quite a few of them were there because of The Prisoner (at one point I was following a guy with a video camera who was singing the theme song). Apparently the annual Portmeiricon Prisoner Convention was held just the weekend gone and you could see some of their handiwork around the area - particularly the grassy section, where you could plainly make out where they'd placed the markings for the human chess game.

I also took the time to grab some souvenirs while I was there - the first time I've done so on my entire trip.



My original intention was to head home at closing, in the desperate hope that the sky would suddenly clear up and I'd get my blue sky, but by 3pm it was pretty clear it was only going to get worse so I decided to head back to the hostel, which is where I stayed for the rest of the night.

I'm very unhappy to say that I've had to cut my trip to Wales a bit shorter than I'd intended because... I've fallen sick! On Tuesday night I started to get a tickly throat and on Wednesday it'd only become worse, so today I decided to head back to Cardiff for the night before catching the train back to London tomorrow.