Anyway, day three of the North Wales trip...
Sammy, Ken and I decided to work off some of the calories we had been consuming by running every morning. I have learned (though have rarely put it to practice) that running is a great way to see a lot of a town in a short period of time. We went running every morning we were in Caenarfon, and we found a lovely road that is sandwiched between the ocean and some sheep fields. When you turned back, you coud see the impressive Caenarfon castle behind, with sailboats and pretty pastel colored buildings on either side. That first day though, Ken put us through our paces and made us run up stairs. ugh.
We returned to the B&B for breakfast, which was absolutely amazing; the eggs were always perfect and the porridge was delicious. I have become such a porridge fan since being in the UK, and the B&B porridge was the best EVER. We had the morning to wander around the town, so we all went to Caenarfon castle and explored the grounds. I think professor Geier was proud of us because we all were at the castle before it opened. The castle was fun, as they all are; we ran up and down the ramparts and took way too many pictures of us posing to shoot arrows out of windows. The place was completely flooded with french students, which was a bit alarming. Maria kept yelling Vive La France! from the castle walls.
After the castle, we found the local knitting store, and at least 6 of us purchased more wool. I got some to start a hat for Jack. I think we overwhelmed the lady who owned the store. We wandered around a bit and Laura, Sammy, Ken and I went to a cute tea shop for lunch. I got delicious welsh rarebit (which is essentially an open-faced grilled cheese with beer).
We then joined the rest of the group and headed to Llamberis, home of mount Snowdon and a large Hydroelectric power plant called Electric Mountain. We checked out the extensive gift store, then went on a guided tour of the plant, which involved wearing very fashionable hairnets (which we put on well before the tour for fun), and watching a hilarious movie on why the plant is so important. Apparently, the plant's main purpose is suplimenting the grid with electricity when there is increased demand. The example they gave was during the last world cup, people in the UK would all turn on their electric kettles at the same time to celebrate a goal or during a commercial break. At the plant, it was one man's job to predict when the surge in energy from the electric kettles would occur, so that the generators could be powered up in time. Failure to do so at the right time would mean a loss of energy and money or a catastrophic black out. The rest of the tour was not as impressive, even though the plant itself was really interesting. The tour guide was not very enthusiastic. We learned how the power plant generated water, and about the economic and ecological impacts of the plant. Apparently, an entire species of fish was removed from one of the lakes that is part of the power plant system and introduced elsewhere. Weird.
We gathered together after the power plant tour and discussed the rest of our day; it had been pretty miserable weather all day, and we had been scheduled to climb part of mount Snowdon. Geier took a poll and of course, only Jackie and I wanted to attempt the climb. Eventually Sammy and Laura joined us. The walk was very windy and rainy, but fun nonetheless. Im sure we looked like a motley crew, as we were hiking in jeans and tennis shoes and were wearing cheap plastic ponchos. We turned around early after taking some fake peak shots to confuse our study group mates, and headed down, happy we at least seen some pretty views of Mt. Snowdon.
As we walked into town, we realized that barely anything was open... it was a bit like a ghost town. We looked for a tea shop but couldnt find anything. We then went to check out Pete's Eats, the place where we were supposed to meet the group for dinner later. Professor Geier walked out and seemed overly happy to see us. Apparently, he had been calling us to see if we could come back early because there was NOTHING to do in Llanberis. Everyone had been sitting in Pete's Eats for the past hour playing cards, since the town doesnt really open up until the hiking season in the summer.
Pete's Eats was a great little establishment. Its main purpose is to feed hikers with as much greasy good food as possible. We got a massive amount of food, served to us by a boy of about 12 who was apparently just getting used to the job. He was cute, but never really told us what he was bringing out until we asked him what he was holding. I think he thought we were odd for ordering so much food.
When we got back to the B&B, we all cuddled together in the living room and watched the Lion King while singing along to the songs and knitting. We are SO cool.
I think it is amazing that the Pope has time to read your blog.
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