At Last, a Laundry

If there was one thing I desperately needed today, it was a laundry. I was just about ready to start wearing dirty undies when I noticed a sign on one of the doors at my latest hostel - no need for a spotty bum after all.

Where am I now, you ask? Well, I'm currently in Conwy, North Wales. This is my third day back in Wales, and one of my last as I'm heading into Holyhead tomorrow morning to catch a ferry to Dublin - just in time for my tour!

My last day in Oxford was roughly as exciting as the first: a lot of walking, shelling out to see more colleges and exhibits, then crashing back at the hostel.

What, you want some details? Oh, very well... I'll do my best, but it's been a few days.

Having seen pretty much all the sights from the bus the day before, I thought I'd wander the streets for the day to take a more intimate look. The first stop was (I keep doing it to myself) Caerfon Tower, yet another large set of stairs that go up to a deadly drop. The upside, as is usual in this situations, is that I had a great view of the city.

Right in the heart of the city is a somewhat innocuous shop-front labelled 'The Oxford Story', which is a history lesson wrapped up in a toddler's joy-ride. Basically, you sit down on a conveyor belt and pass by scores of dead-eyed mannequins dressed in semi-authentic clothes, while an actor pretending to be an important historical figure explains the history of Oxford. At least it killed a good 30 minutes of the day.

By now, the Science Museum was open so I popped in for another 30 minutes. It was surprisingly small, especially when you consider Oxford is supposed to have such an amazing reputation for, well, being brainy. The exhibits were interesting enough, but I was unable to track down the one thing I wanted to see: a blackboard used by Einstein when he visited Oxford and gave a lecture. Apparently, it still has his original chalk notes on it - I guess I'll never know.

One quick lunch later and I was inside Oxford Castle. This one had an interesting twist to it as it's only just recently been opened to the public (we're talking less than a year). For the last few hundred or so years it's been used mainly as a prison, so its main educational focus was on prison life. Once again, another massive tower induced some heart-pounding vertigo, but it was compensated by some nice photos.

After a quick detour into Blackwells (probably the most famous of Oxford's book stores, containing a rather large basement), I strolled some more until I arrived at Christ Church. This time I had to pay my way in, so I took my time inspecting the place in order to get my money's worth. Those inclined (sadly, myself included) may be interested to know this is where portions of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.

While I was in the paying mood, I took myself up to Magdalen College as I'd heard there was a deer field in the grounds. Sure enough, there is a great big field inside - full of deer. I considered taking the long walk around the campus, but by now I'd been on my feet for a very long time and it was closing time for most places anyway, so I took this to mean it was time to call it a night.

Next morning, I hopped on the first train out of Oxford on my way to Llandudno. Again, I originally had no intention of staying here to begin with but the only hostel in Conwy I would find was booked solid on Thursday night, so the closest I could find was here.

If only I'd done my research a little more, I would've discovered that Llandudno was actually a better location than Conwy as it's much larger, has far, far, far more accommodation and has a lot more to do. You can probably read between the lines at this point: this means I had very little time to see the area. In the end, I think I packed in the major attractions fairly well.

Llandudno is Wales's equivalent of Brighton: it's a sea-side resort (the biggest one in the country, apparently), its waterfront consists of rocks, pebbles and stones, and it has a big pier sticking out the end. It felt oddly familiar. It is also home to the Great Orme! No, that's not some sort of spooky Celtic religious figure, it's the name of the massive mountain there.

Arriving in the middle of the afternoon, I quickly checked into the hostel (which was completely empty save for me - score!) and took to the streets to see as much as I could while there was still sunlight. Wandering up and down the waterfront for a while, I discovered one of the more promising attractions is a cable-pulled tramway that scales the mountain. Naturally, I'd arrived too late to take a ride, so I added it to my mental checklist of 'things to do in the morning'.

The tram isn't the only way up the mountain (oh, besides the road of course), there's also a two-mile long cable car system - that didn't appear to be working - it looked like it hadn't been used for a while. By now I was sort of annoyed at being thwarted twice in an hour, so instead I took a walk up the pier and enjoyed the rocky view.

I set my alarm early so I could race around to see everything before I had to leave for Conwy. My first stop was the tram - but its first ride wasn't until 10am (a good hour away), so to kill time I took a walk along the Orme and enjoyed the view. Llandudno is quite interesting in its placement, as the town reaches the waterfront on both its east and west sides. Up where I was walking gave me a chance to see both sides simultaneously.

Arriving back at the tram in time for its first run, I purchased a return ticket and hopped aboard. I like trams, as any of my friends from Melbourne can attest to, so this one was definitely appreciated. As it's a cable-pulled tram, we passed the other tram half-way up the hill (these things work quite simply: the weight of the downward tram pulls the other one up the incline).

On the way up, I could see the cable car system - and it was running. This was frustrating, as I'd bought a return ticket for the tram and they weren't transferable! Now, it may sound like an excuse to miss out on another nauseating height, but this time I was refusing to shell out for a ticket for two reason: one, I'd have to buy a return ticket, otherwise I've wasted half my tram ticket; and two, I had to hurry to get back in order to get to Conwy!

At the top of the mountain there was another dodgy looking tourist trap which I avoided, instead opting to take a walk around the area to enjoy the views. The weather for the last few days had been surprisingly pleasant (tee-shirt weather, believe it or not) but today it'd decided to be cloudy and cold. Which was a pity, because I was in a tee-shirt. And cold.

I didn't get to see everything in Llandudno (I thought I'd skip the animatronic Alice in Wonderland exhibit), but I did get a pretty good idea of what the area is like. Nothing spectacular, mostly designed for tourists, but quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I'd actually passed through Conwy on the way to Llandudno, so I was really excited to get back to take a good look around. Like Caernarfon, Conwy is a castle-based town surrounded by massive stone walls - ostensibly for protection from invaders (like Australian tourists).

Even though I still had my backpack with me, I didn't want to miss out on seeing the Castle - especially seeing how the weather had taken a massive turn for the best (it was back to the tee-shirt). This castle was just as impressive as Caernarfon too, being mostly intact and absolutely massive. It makes for a fantastic entrance to the town, too, as it's the first sight you see coming on the bus from Llandudno!

Taking my time to have a look around, I tackled the lower level first before climbing the stairs to the walkway half way up the walls. This path makes a tour around the eight towers, which I carefully stepped around taking careful note of where I was putting each foot. Eventually, I had to bite the bullet and go up the towers - the bit I love and hate, mostly hate.

Only six of the eight towers were accessible, and each one held a superb view of both the town and the surrounding areas. I braved each one long enough to enjoy the sights (and, of course, take some photos), but I was very happy when I started on the steps down from the last tower.

Another really cool feature of Conwy is its walls: unlike Caernarfon, these ones are intact enough that you can walk almost the entire way around them - which I did. It's a good long walk, has great views of the town and is another frustrating attraction for sufferers of vertigo, like myself. Reaching the waterfront at the end of the walls, I took advantage of the great weather to eat an ice-block in the sun - trying my best not to be sickened by the rank sea air.

Having seen all I wanted to see in Conwy, I headed back to the hostel (having checked in after seeing the Castle) and crashed early. My big plan for Saturday was to head over to Mt Snowdon and climb up it - a good five hour walk, weather permitting. At 6.30am my alarm buzzed and I was up, ready for the bus at 7.10am.

Actually, just an aside for a second: I felt pretty grotty after all the walking and sea air, so I thought I'd have a shower before I went to bed, which would also save me time in the morning. Good bloody thing I did, as when I tried it in the morning there was no hot water. Not impressed.

Anyway, the bus arrived at 7.13am and I was deposited at Bangor at 7.50am ready to catch my connecting bus. Unfortunately, as I had no timetable for the connecting bus, I was extremely pissed off to discover it wasn't for another hour and twenty minutes - which then meant I wouldn't actually arrive at Llanberis (where the walks begin) until 9.45am at the earliest. There goes my brilliant plan of getting there early.

I'd actually had a bit of a change of heart when it came to climbing the mountain too: my original plan was to walk it both ways, but if I did that I'd miss out on the train ride. Not wanting to miss out, I thought I'd catch the train up, then walk down - easy. Of course, Bastard's Law says nothing can go right for me when I try to make plans, so when I arrived it turns out the train is only going half-way up the mountain due to high winds and is not letting anyone out. Better yet, it was now way too late for me to walk up and down again with any hope of getting back to Conwy at a sensible time. Realising I'm screwed, I opt for the train ride - which is then delayed an hour, just for the extra kick in the pants.

The weather had turned crap again, so visibility going up the mountain was pretty poor. It was still a nice ride, though: it's a huge mountain (1080 metres high) and it has a surprising amount of variety along its incline. Lots of sheep, too. When we reach as far as the train goes, we stop for a while so we can take pictures and admire - the fog. Then it's time to go down again, and I'm thinking I may have wasted a day and too much money for this rather anti-climactic train ride.

I'll admit it: I was in a bad mood by now (I think it kind of shows through this entire post, to be honest) so I was glad to be heading back to the hostel. It was at this point I decided to do my laundry, which is when I discovered this hostel not only has a washing machine and drier, but also the most expensive Internet terminal I've ever used. Still, I'm a sucker and I paid the exhorbitant fees in order to get my fix.

Tomorrow I will attempt to catch a train in order to get to my ferry in Holyhead - not that big a deal, you might think, but you're forgetting one thing: tomorrow is SUNDAY!