Welsh at Heart

It is sort of hard to explain the sequence of events 25 years in the making that brought me to Wales this past weekend. My Mom lived with a Welsh woman named Rosemary Roberts during her year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in the 70's. I've always known that I had a "Welsh Auntie" but I'd never met her. My mother informed her that I would be in the UK this month and I was invited to come down to Wales for a visit. Well Rosemary doesn't do computers so I got an email from her half brother's daughter Catrin who lives and works in London with her husband David. We worked out the details and it was decided that we would meet at the intersection of Davenant and Banbury Rd in Oxford, England and they would drive me down. It was kind of cool knowing I was about to be picked up by a pair of people I'd never met to go visit friends of my Moms that I had also never met to go to Wales, a place that I really knew nothing about and probably would never have ever visited on my own. As a side note, I believe I was mistaken for a homeless man while I was waiting for Catrin and David to arrive. I was sitting down against a wall with my backpack and jacket by my side. This man walked by and sort of looked at me. About a minute later he came back and asked me if I was hungry. I didn't realize what he was he getting at immediately and if you know me, you know that I certainly was hungry. I said so, and he whipped a sandwich out of his Jacket and handed it to me. Bewildered, I thanked him, then realized what had just happened. There's a first time for everything eh?

When I got there I found out that I wouldn't actually be staying with Rosemary at all. She takes care of her mother and decided that I would have much more fun with staying with her half brother Michael, David and Catrin. Well, I don't know how much fun staying with Rosemary would have been but I had a blast at her brother's house in the Welsh countryside (shown above). Upon our arrival he brought out half of a local ham, for "haggling" (cutting off small bite sized slices to eat with your hands) and a pint or two of local bitter. We woke up relatively early the next morning to explore Pembrokeshire, the county where they live.

The Welsh Language was so cool. I sort of attribute foreign countries with foreign languages, and as a result, I have rarely felt abroad during my time at Oxford - the lets just say copious amounts of work haven't helped foster that feeling either. I quizzed Catrin (David is an Englishman) on the pronounciations of all the Welsh roadsigns on the way down, and I must say, Welsh doesn't sound like any language I've ever heard.

Michael was the perfect tour guide. He seemed to know everything about Pembrokeshire. According to Catrin he is also well practiced as I was apparently not the first American to enjoy his patented whistlestop tour.

The highlight of the castle portion of the tour was most certainly Pembroke Castle, shown above from the inside. Pembroke Castle is recognized as one of the most impressive Norman castles in Wales, first established in 1093, when the Norman Conquest of Wales was not yet complete.

The castle keep is one of the best preserved keeps of its sort. At nearly 80 feet high it afforded quite a view overlooking Milford Haven. My vantage point allowed me take the two pictures shown above. Next on the list was the coastline, which I must admit was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The pictures below were all taken at Stack Rocks, just past the nearby army shooting range.

Afterwards we drove further north along the coast to St. Davids, the smallest city in England, where Michaels girlfriend Maggie lives. By population, St. Davids would be considered a town but it is elevated to city status by the Cathedral located there.

After hanging out in the city for a while, we moved further up the coast to a beach Catrin and her brother Owen used to come to as a child. It was absolutely stunning in the late afternoon and it didn't surprise me to here her say it was her favorite beach in Wales.

After a long day out we were starving to say the least. We went to a restaurant called "Somethings Cooking" where I had my first meal of authentic fish and chips. Also worthy of note was this appetizer called white bait. They take these minnow sized fish, leave the head and skin on and then fry them in a batter. I was a bit skeptical but my hunger overcame my misgivings and I ended up eating them by the handfull smeared with tartar sauce. Later that evening, they took me to their local pub, the Tufton Inn. They live out in the Welsh country side, and I got the impression that they measure the size of a town by the number of pubs they have. Instead of being a "one horse town" as we might say in the U.S. I would describe their little area of the world as a one pub town. It was a really cool place, and one I would have never went to on my own. I wouldn't want to say I would have been unwelcome there if I showed up alone but it certainly would have been wierd. It was a really cool experience to have a few pints with the local Welsh farmers and then walk back in a daze through the one lane roads in the dark back home. The next day we woke up early to go hiking along this trail they have affectionately named the "Bluebell Walk." It was raining so the bluebells weren't out but I didn't care at all. I couldn't help but think the whole time how much my parents would have enjoyed it.

My "family" for the weekend from right to left: Michael, Maggie, David, and Catrin

Working so hard as I have been at Oxford, it has become somewhat hard for me to relax. If there is ever a spare moment and I'm not asleep or eating I feel like I ought to be achieving something. Even though I had the afternoon to sit around and do nothing, I ended up donning the rain gear and setting out on my own to explore the farmlands around Michael's house.

That night, it was finally time to go to Aunt Rosemary's house for dinner. I had heard from just about everyone how interesting of a lady she was and I wasn't dissapointed. From her obsession with Elvis (she is pround to have stolen some of his carpret from Graceland in Tennesee) to the video of her with the queen, one can be sure that she will always have a story to tell. Aside from that, it was nice to finally be able to put a face to the name, and also to meet the lady that helped my Mom so much during her time in Wales.

I woke up monday morning with a discernable sense of sadness, that this was my last day in Wales. I didn't so much as crack a book during the 3 days I spent there and I was dreading my return to Oxford for a week of 5 tutorials in 4 days. Still the vacation wasn't over, as Michael and Maggie continued the trend of putting off everything in their own lives to show me around and we headed back out into Pembrokeshire to complete the tour.

I really loved the time I spent in Wales, thus the title of this entry, "Welsh at Heart." Maybe I'm just biased against England because of how much work I've had to do in Oxford, but I really felt more at home in Wales. All of the people I met there were so welcoming even though I had never met any of them before. I have no idea when I'll make it back but when I do, I know I'll have friends there.