Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wales & England: Two Different Countries!

Happy December!

Hope you are all staying warm over there in the states! Yesterday in Verona it was 60degrees and sunny. Just had to mention it in passing!
This past weekend from Friday - Tuesday, I got to go visit NANA! Yay! For those of you who aren't in the know, Nana is my grandmother who lives in Swansea, Wales, specifically "The Mumbles." Also featured on this amazing trip were my two hot messes of friends, Clara and Jenny! (Us outside a castle) They both graduated an now are part of "the real world" They decided to take the week off work and come on a European adventure with me! Yay!
The adventure started VERY early on Friday morning. I left my apartment around 4:00am to fly out of Verona to Heathrow. Heads up travelers: Heathrow Airport is one of my least favorite airports after this trip. Customs were horrible to get through, even more so for Jenny and Clara. I got there about 10:30, which gave me time to wake up, but they questioned everything. From did I know any United Kingdom natural born citizens, why I was in Italy, why wasn't I currently in school (I am?), the exact address I was staying at, ect... Like I said, it was worse for Jenny and Clara, who got there about 8:00am and were tired after an 8 hour flight. Unfortunatly for them, I had all the address for Nana and they were tricked by some questions about staying with a Natural Citizen. Anyway, we all made it through customs and managed to find each other in that mess of an airport.
Then we took the bus to Swansea, Wales where we went to Nana's house! Auntie Janet was there so we all got catch up. After chatting and introductions, we went out to eat dinner at the Woodsmen. Yum! Of course I had fish and chips! Yumm! On Saturday morning we took a drive down the beach and of course saw Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas's house. What is a trip to the Mumbles without a little celebrity stalking? We had a nice big Italian lunch on the beach, and watched it pour with rain :). In the afternoon Jenny, Clara, and I went shopping downtown Swansea and bought a few Christmas gifts! When we got home we met Nana's very nice neighbors, who made us a sponge cake! How cute! (Us and the neighbors, Jean and Tony). After having a little dinner with Nana and catching up on some "Strictly Come Dancing." The three of us headed over to my mom's friend's, Kate, house. Her son Chris is about our age and we went out with him and a few of his friends. Very fun! They were all perfect Welsh gentlemen! We ended up going to this club, that was world themed! We started off in Tahiti, but of course ended the night in New York :) On Sunday, Tony took us to church and afterwards we went off to meet Father Christmas. Being the oldest people there to see Father Christmas by decades, we didn't get a lollipop. As we were leaving though, they gave us a shot of Baileys, oh the Welsh! We walked around the Mumbles a little more and ended up enjoying the sun and walking all the way back to Nanas on the beach! That night, Nana took us to the Lindentree where we participated in Pub Trivia. We don't know much Welsh trivia, but luckily some of questions included: "Which US President was shot in a theatre?" and "What country is Berlusconi the Prime Minister of?" Another help in this trivia was the guys sitting next to us. When ever is was obvious we would have no idea what the answer would be, they passed us a piece of paper with the answer on it. All in all, we came in 4th out of 6! On Monday we had to leave to catch the train back to London. (Us saying goodbye at the train station.) To short of a trip to see Nana! I guess I'll just have to go back soon :)
On Monday afternoon we arrived in London. After dropping our stuff off we of course headed to the number one attraction on our list: Platform 9 3/4: !!! I almost made it! Look I got the cart through! That night we did a walking tour of Westminister by gas light. Very cool! At the end of the tour we got to go into the House of Commons and see parliament argue over one of their new environmental bills they are passing. We topped it off at a pub! On Tuesday morning before my flight took off, we headed over to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Then I again had to return to Heathrow where I suffered through their never ending security! The funny thing about Heathrow is they literally have HUNDREDS of gates, but they won't put the gate you're flying out of until 35 minutes before your flight, which is 5 minutes before boarding. So instead after you get through security, you have to sit in these holding areas where everyone is just staring at the monitors waiting for the gate to come up and then they run off. Amazing!

That, sadly, was my last mini vacation on this adventure! This weekend I will be enjoying Verona and their Christmas spirit. I leave on the 19th for home. No worries I'm sure something will happen between now and then, so hold out for one last post!

Have a great day!
love
Heather

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