So last Friday night, Christy, Julia and I took the 11:30 pm train to Cardiff, Wales. We got on the tube a little late to the infamous Paddington Station (think of the childhood stories of Paddington Bear) and had to run to our train just before 11:30. It was just like in Home Alone Lost in New York when the family was running through the airport. Well, we made it to our train, with time to spare. At the first stop we picked up some drunk men who looked like they were in their late 30s. And they were wasted. One guy was yelling about losing his cell phone and it turned out that it was right there on the floor. Mind you it's midnight and these are drunk grown men acting like they've never drank before. So we switched to "the quiet coach." We arrived in Cardiff at 2:30 AM and were forced to stay in the waiting room at the station until 5 am so we wouldn't be seen as "trespassers" on CCTV. So we attempted to make ourselves comfortable in the piss-smelling room and watched Sweet Home Alabama, only to be joined later by quite a few interesting characters. When we were able to walk around, we decided to make an appearance on the streets of Cardiff, that were still trashed from the night's festivities and eat some McDonald's. We then found ourselves running back to the station to catch our next train to Haverfordwest (our destination for the cliff jumping). We jumped on a train that was on our platform, only to find out that we got on the Hereford train...AKA the wrong way. So we get off in Newport (a place I would never like to visit EVER again) and are stuck there for an hour and a half. There is nobody working there and it is in the middle of nowhere. We then take the train to Swansea where we finally get ahold of the place that we were trying to get to and I tell sweet Lorraine our situation and how we won't be able to make it to the morning session of coasteering, so she squeezes us into the afternoon session. So we hang out in Swansea for a couple hours and do some shopping. Then we take our 4th and final train of the day to Haverfordwest, hop in a cab and make it to Preseli Lodge with time to spare!
Now time for the real adventure...
So it turns out, the afternoon session is Christy, Julia, me and 10 guys on a stag party (AKA bachelor party). What could be better? So we gear up in our wetsuits, life jackets and helmets and head to the rocky beach. Then we do the coasteering, which is way more intense than I ever thought. I'm still sore! So we waded through the water first which then became quite rough and then there were large rocks/boulders and we had to do jumps off them. It was crazy. I can't believe I did it. At one point we had to scale a rock that was a mini cliff. I was towards the head of the line with about 8 people behind me. I freaked out and almost couldn't make it across because I couldn't find footing. But I made it, even though I did slide down the rocks at the end. But I have never been more proud of myself. Every time I took a jump off the rocks, I told the instructor "My mom is gonna kill me!!!!!"
So then we head back to the lodge to see if we could wash up before heading back to London, only to have Lorraine tell us that we have all the time in the world to shower because she wasn't letting us spend the night at the train station again since we missed the last train to London. So they put us up in the lodge for the night. I thought the Irish were nice, but the Welsh definitely top my list. Everyone there was so nice and welcoming and they all had heard our story. We were the celebrities of the lodge! There was a different stag party staying and a hen party (bachelorette) and another group all there for the night. So we hung out with them for dinner and then the 3 of us took a 20 minute trek to the beach only to have a little run in with a dog and some mud. But we made it to the beach to watch the sunset. We came back, drank some wine, played some pool (which the balls are just yellow and red, no numbers, no stripes), and then passed out on the couches from sheer exhaustion. That morning we headed out to London and made it back perfectly, and just in time for Julia to head to work. And then I finally did my laundry for only the second time this summer, but I didn't have enough change to finish drying my clothes all the way, so I had wet clothes laying around. Oh the joys of being cheap.
Okay and a quick recap of the past couple of days...
Monday
Went to work and finished up our big presentation for Tuesday. Then I had to run home so I could make it to Imperial for my meeting with GK and IE about the status of my internship and then sit through class, which wasn't too bad because we talked about advertising the whole time.
Tuesday
Went to work, and it was a quiet day because half the people were off at the presentation. At lunch I planned on going to buy another book to add to my list of 6 I've read this summer. But one of the girls at work offered her library card to me. Best thing ever! And it made me feel like an actual Londoner since only residents have library cards. So I came back and about an hour after lunch I hear music and it turns out, they have ice cream trucks in London! So we all chased down the ice cream man so I could have my first London ice cream truck experience (they thought we didn't have them in the states). I got an ice cream cone, which is actually whipped cream in a cone (no complaints here!), and we took some pictures, which were up on facebook in a matter of minutes. Then a few of us headed to get drinks after work where I had more revelations about how I've been lied to my entire life. Schools have always told me that we had to learn the metric system because EVERY other country uses it. Well, the English schools taught their students that America uses the metric system. They use feet and miles here. So after a few drinks and revelations, I headed to the tube and made a "friend." This little Indian man from Sri Lanka sat down next to me and told me that I have a great and strong aura. Now mind you I'm a little drunk and so I become over interested in what he has to say. I am sitting there, totally amazed at everything he says about me (even though it is all so generic). Definitely a situation they warn you about. Luckily he didn't get off at my stop.
Wednesday
Headed to work and had the usual day. Got invited to the red carpet premiere of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, but turned it down because of a previous engagement: CHRISTY'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! So we went to Ping Pong Dim Sum for dinner. Little did we know that we would have a celebrity siting as soon as we came in. Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland was also enjoying some dim sum. Only Emily had enough courage to say hi. But we had an awesome meal and I had an amazing drink called "Ping Pong" and it was basically a fancy white wine spritzer with grapes.
Tomorrow I head to Prague for my last trip of the summer. I'm flying by myself to stay with some Mizzou people on the Advertising trip. Hopefully my travels are uneventful.
Things I've learned:
1. The bugs in Great Britain love me as much as the ones in the states. I am once again, as I am every summer, covered in bug bites and hydrocortizone cream.
2. My tube card works on the trains too in London (these are different than the tube/underground).
3. Glamour is the number one magazine in Great Britain (a saleslady came today and gave us a presentation about it)
4. a WAG is "Wives and Girlfriends" of soccer players and they are tanned, botoxed, arcrylic nailed up women
5. Contrary to previous belief, I think I like chicken curry. We had some in Wales at the lodge and it was good. Or maybe we thought it was good because we were so hungry.
Alright, off to bed (it's 2:40 am here) and then work and off to "Czech out" of London and jet off to Prague. Cheers!
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