The Heart of the Dragon

One weekend in October a few of us girls (as usual) decided to take a little trip to Wales. Not many may quite understand how the United Kingdom is made up...therefore I will give you a brief crash course.

The United Kingdom is made of four countries in all: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Many of you may have heard of Wales due to the names of the famous princes. The Prince or Princess who is in line for the throne will be called the Prince of Wales. Wales is it's own separate country yet since it is still within the United Kingdom, no passports are needed to get through it's border. 

For our adventure to Wales we chose to visit the city of Cardiff, it is also the capital of Wales where the Cardiff Castle is located.

When we first arrived in Cardiff we scuffled our way into the center of the city with bags in tow searching for our hostel. The "Bunkhouse" a hostel in city was our first experience staying in a hostel. Many have a preconceived notion that hostels are nasty and gross and it'd be much better to pay the extra pounds for a nice hotel. Well...they are wrong. So far our Bunkhouse residence has been the best hostel I've stayed. And having now traveled all over the UK, that is saying something. It was decorated in a shabby-sheik style with Frank Sinatra playing in the background, vintage beds for couches, twinkle and tea lights everywhere. It was every girls dream stay. We didn't want to leave the confines of our hostel to see the city, but luckily we did because we would have missed seeing the magnificent Cardiff bay and castle. 

Not only did we get to tour the castle but the next day we went to a little place called St. Fagans where ancient and old homes have been moved and are there for viewing like a countryside museum outdoors. Saying we took a walk in the past is an understatement. We walked through houses and churches dated as 700 years old. 

To spare you all from excruciating details I will leave you to take a gander at the pictures and see for yourself the amazing time we had on our Wales adventure. And to those you are fresh on their royal trivia--no we did not see Prince William and the Duchess...they live in Northern Wales, we were in the southern region, unfortunately. I am still holding out for the day I see the royals. Cross your fingers for me!

Stay tuned to hear about how we discovered the foundation of Harry Potter in Scotland and how we walked through a love story in Ireland.

Till then...

audra

Ps. Ten points to the house who can guess the meaning of this post title! and maybe even a little extra gifty from nifty London!! :) (for some reason I don't think the comments are really working, so if you have my fb, then just message me the answer!) this is for real.

Checks on the List

I know I have been epically failing at keeping my site updated. As it always is here, things are just crazy busy!! Since the last time I've written I've been to four different countries and traveled to roughly six separate cites. For our "Enrichment Week" (just a fancy word for "you have a week off, yay!") myself and a couple other American girls here planned a trip to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland (aka Ireland...it gets confusing sometimes). Then last weekend a few of us also went to Paris and Versailles in France.

It's been simply exhausting and wonderful all wrapped up together. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities to visit the places I've only been able to dream of seeing. As of now I have traveled to every place on my list "Places I want to see while living in England." I feel very accomplished when I see check marks next to each name. England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland, Ireland, Paris France.

Now the biggest obstacle is coming up with some new dreams...because even the one I thought would never come true, IS! My wonderful boyfriend is flying over next week to visit me for five days during Thanksgiving. We owe it all to his fabulous mother who generous provided his way as a gift. It couldn't have been a better present to receive. Thank you so much Mrs. Sall. I love you and am so grateful for all you've done and how much you've made me feel apart of your family over the last two years. Having Anthony come over to visit is truly the icing on the cake-- and that's the best part right? :)

I truly feel like the girl who has everything.

Also, thank to you all who are still checking the site and reading it. Hopefully by the end of this week or next I will give more detail on the trips I've taken and even some pictures!

Till then...

audra