Every Plan Is A Tiny Prayer To Father Time

Well, here I am again after yet another fantastic week in the U.K. The majority of last week was spent relaxing, touring the local area around Pontypridd an preparing for the weekend.

The weekend that just ended was, as far as I am concerned, one of the highlights of this trip. On Friday morning, Martin and I packed our bags and headed out the door to meet with a few of Martin's friends. The plan was simple: get everyone together by around 11:00 a.m., pack the cars, take one last shopping trip, and then drive up to Snowdon where we would spend 3 days hiking and camping.

Of course, plans don't usually go exactly according to plan. Martin and I showed up on time to pick up people and pack up the cars, but almost none of the other 4 lads we were heading out with were quite prepared. One had to finish an essay, another was only half-way packed, and a third was overly packed and had to sort out what he didn't need for the weekend. We were supposed to be on the road around 11:00. We were on the road much, much later than that. I believe it was after 2:00 when we finally left for our first camp-site.

After four hours of driving, we arrived at our initial destination, took a short hike in, spent a little while scouting out the landscape in search for a decent camping spot, and then pitched the tents and started up a fire. The camp-site was in an area that specifically said "no camping," but being out of sight of anyone or anything, and it being dark, we decided we had to set up somewhere before it became impossible to do so.

The plan for the following morning was also supposedly simple: get up around 7:00, pack up and hike back to the cars, and then drive to base camp of the Snowdon peak itself where we were to meet with 3 more of Martin's friends from the Frinton area. Again, not all things worked out. We were over 2 hours late for meeting up with the other portion of our hiking team. As a result, they took off up the mountain without us, and we never found them the entire trip.

Parking at Snowdon was something of a disaster. The car park we had chosen for the day was full, so, we had to park roughly a mile away from that, adding an extra mile to our days hike. That wasn't too bad, however, since it was on pavement and relatively level. The beginning of the trail up the mountain was somewhat level as well. However, once we reached the last 1/3 of the hike, it was anything but level. It was, in fact, as close to vertical as you can get without needing rock climbing equipment. On top of this, all of us were carrying large back-packs with tents, sleeping bags, food supplies, and our rain gear.

Needless to say, reaching the top felt like quite an accomplishment. However, the amount of snow at the top mixed with the brutal winds made it impossible to stay long. We took off back down the mountain again after about 45 minutes of time spent at the peak. In our hurry to warm up, we took the wrong path heading back down the mountain and got rather lost. Once we finally reached the bottom, we were miles off course and had to improvise, so, exhausted, baffled, and in varying degrees of muscular pain, we took to the road and started for a patch of trees nearby.

After about 2 miles of hiking, we made it to the woods and searched desperately for a spot to pitch our tents. In our desperation, we almost camped inside a horse pen. However, we all decided that, since it was in plane view of the nearby farm and surrounded by barbed wire, perhaps we should look some place else to camp. We eventually found something sheltered under the trees and amazingly made camp despite our zombie like states.

We woke the next day in a hurry to get to the nearest town. Once there, we gorged ourselves on a full fry-up at a little cafe that I will forever love. Perhaps it was my pure exhaustion and hunger speaking, but that place was excellent. From the cafe, two of our company called a taxi and got a ride back to the cars which they then drove back to the tiny town to pick the rest of us up. We survived the grand adventure.

Today had been a day of pure rest - late getting up, going nowhere, and doing a little home-cooking. I'll be happy when my toes are back down to their natural sizes.

Leave Forsaken Towns to See the World Go Round

Well, here is the promised post, updating all of you who are curious as to the latest events on my travels through Europe.

It was just about two weeks ago when I left my friend Martin in Pontypridd for a bit of vacation-while-on-vacation. I had a few key spots I wanted to see, but didn't know how it would all pan out (in terms of funding more than anything else). I booked a few hostels, purchased a couple of plane tickets, and decided I'd figure out what to do with myself as I went.

My first stop took me to Cardiff - not all that far from Pontypridd, but, while I was in Wales, I decided I might as well see the capitol city. It's not the biggest in the world, nor is it by any means the most exciting, but it's laid-back pace and some of it's architecture made it a good first stop. The Millennium Stadium and the nearby castle grounds and shopping centers were where I spent the majority of my time. I tried to stay close to both my hostel and the train station since I was only in Cardiff for the one night.

My next few days, I would be using Bristol as a home-base. I booked my nights in a place called the "Rock and Bowl" hostel. Yes, the ground floor was a bowling alley, and, yes, that did mean that half the night long I could hear the thudding of bowling balls against the lanes while I tried to sleep. On top of that, the hostel was undergoing some construction and maintenance work. Only portions of the hostel were even operable. It's location, however, was not bad. It was almost directly in the city center - about a 2 minute walk from shopping, and not much longer to anywhere else - that includes the Castle Park. Old Town Bristol and the University area were a bit away, but I didn't mind too much. I thoroughly enjoyed finding my way through the city day after day. After getting lost upon my arrival in search of my hostel, I had accidentally found some of the better places for cheap food, and those were no more than 5 minutes walk from my hostel's front door.

After retiring for my first of four nights at the "Rock and Bowl," I awoke the following morning to find the nearest showers/restrooms were flooded with backed-up sewage. This was yet one more upon an already mounting list of oddities concerning the hostel I had chosen. For the price and location, though, it was hard to complain. For three of my four nights there, I had the entirely to myself, and I was paying next to nothing for it.

I found the working showers, got ready for the day, and decided to take a train to Bath. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Bath is a beautiful and, after Bristol, very tame city. The Roman ruins, the old Cathedrals, the used book-stores, and the immaculate streets made my entire time there completely and utterly enjoyable. I spent the majority of my day there, and only returned to Bristol when it was getting dark and I could no longer see much of the city.

On day three, I had thought I'd go to Stratford. That ended up being an over-priced trip. It was something along the lines of £40 for a one-way, two-hour trip. I thought it best to skip Stratford and enjoy Old City Bristol and the University area. I explored the city all day long and saw only about half of it. I also randomly saw one of the Capernwray staff members wandering around the university district. When I first saw her, all I could think was, "who is that? How do I know this person? They look so familiar." Only later did I remember her. When I finally made it up to visit Capernwray, I had it confirmed: yes, she was in Bristol at the exact same time as myself.

On day four, I thought it would be nice to go to the Bristol zoo. I had heard good things about it. It would be a great way to pass my final day in Bristol. However, even after exploring the city the entire day before, I got ludicrously lost. My sense of direction let me down and I couldn't for the life of me figure out which part of the city I was in. By the time I had figured that out, most of the day was gone, so I returned to the hostel. When I got there, I found that I had acquired some room-mates. Since it was their first and only night in the city, they decided that I should be their tour-guide and take them somewhere to eat. After dinner, we retired to the hostel and just enjoyed the evening talking with each other.

On Sunday morning, I got myself ready to fly to Belfast. I found a coach to take me to the airport, caught a plane, and, only a short ride later, found myself being picked up by one of my old Capernwray room-mates: Jonny Rocks. Day one in Belfast was hectic: from the airport, we went straight to a church service in the university quarter of the city. After the service ended, we picked up a Capernwray student (one of Jonny's brother's friends. His name was Stephen Mosher. He, incidentally, is the younger brother of one of the students from my year) who was on his way back to England. Somehow, this kid Stephen had decided he had to say goodbye to someone roughly 20 minutes outside the city. We made a mad rush there and then back again to the airport. He barely made it in time for his flight.

We then went north to a place called Ballymena where Jonny's parents live. I was given a wonderful dinner there, and then Jonny and I went and visited Slemish: a mountain known for being St. Patrick's first location where he tended his sheep. It was cold and windy and wet, but the view from up on Slemish was quite beautiful. After climbing back down, we eventually made it back into Belfast where Rob Bell, known for his Mars Hill church, was giving a seminar that night. We attended the seminar, and everyone came to the same conclusion: Rob Bell is a bunch of fireworks - all flash, little substance.

I slept hard on Sunday night. After Cardiff, Bath, Bristol, trains, buses, airplanes, and cars, I was quite tired. On Monday, I spent some time looking around Belfast, had lunch with Jonny, looked around the university some (by the way, the Queen's University grounds are spectacular), and ended the night by going to a pub called "The Spaniard." One of Jonny's friends had his American girlfriend in town, and we were to meet her.

On Tuesday, I met up with another one of my Capernwray room-mates: Sam Crawford. He and I grabbed some lunch, and then headed just outside of Belfast to an area called Cavehill. It's a small hike to the top, but the view of Belfast is fantastic. The biting cold and wind drove us back down rather quickly, however. After I made it back to Jonny's place, I relaxed for a bit, and that evening, we went to see a movie called "Exit Through the Gift Shop." It's something of a documentary about street-art and street-artists. It was both interesting and highly entertaining.

Wednesday was St. Patrick's day. I was told that, on the previous year, there was some minor rioting in the university quarter in an area named "The Holy Lands." We avoided that area all day. It was decided that we should start with a late brunch, followed by a rugby match, visit Jonny's brother's party, and then end the evening with a rented film. It was the first rugby match I had ever been to, and it was loads of fun.

Thursday, I did little-to-nothing. Jonny was in lectures all day, so, I went out for a bit of a walk, read a little bit - I just decided it was time for a day of letting my body catch up. I took off for Bristol again the next morning.

It took 2 buses, 2 trains, and 1 plain to get me back from Belfast to Martin's place in Pontypridd. Upon arrival, I discovered that we were invited to a birthday party for someone I had never met in my life. I believe the birthday girl is a cousin of Dana, Martin's girlfriend. We went out and had a curry. It was quite good.

On Saturday, Martin and I went up to see Capernwray. It was something of a four hour car ride, but it was entirely worth it. The campus was mostly dead since winter school had just ended. The few people on campus were either staff or students waiting to leave on Sunday evening. However, most everything was open and unlocked, so, we toured the grounds, played some ping-pong, used the giant jenga set that we wasted many hours with during our time at Capernwray, and then retired for the night to watch the England versus France rugby match. The following morning, we went back to Capernwray for a final few rounds of ping-pong, and then met up with Ian Ellershaw - one of our school-mates from Capernwray who is on staff at the hall to this day. The reunion was short but sweet, and, once we all said our goodbyes, Martin and I came back to Ponty.

And that's where I am now. I'll be uploading a few pictures in an upcoming post to let you all see a few of the things I have seen so far.

Yes, I'm alive

For those of you following my progress, I've been without a laptop for a while and have not been able to post here. I will give you a full update when a chance is given, but now, I'm off for a curry - it's for a birthday party. I don't know the birthday girl, either.

One week already?

I thought I'd catch you all up on the last few days. First of all, Friday was a beautiful day. It might have been absolutely freezing, but the sun made it out for the entire day. We had perfect weather for the planned hike.

The area we went to is call the Brecon Beacons. Great hiking up there. The wind was biting, but the view was spectacular. The saddest part about the hike, however, was that I had somehow left my camera back at Martin's, though I was somewhat convinced that I had grabbed it for the hike. Ahh well. Martin and I are talking about returning to the Beacons when I come back through Pontypridd. There's a great lake surrounded by a shallow tree line that we are considering camping near. Here's a picture of the area (without the snow that was there when we went up) to give you an idea of what I got to see:

It's quite a beautiful area, as you can see.

Saturday was filled with some time spent at the gym (since Martin and I are hanging our again, it seemed all too fitting) and an evening event for a youth-ministry called Urban Saints (formerly known as Crusaders). Local youth talent performed music, dance, and drama. I got to sit back and just enjoy the evening.

Sunday was interesting. Church in the morning was good, and after church, Martin asked if I would like to perform a gig with him that night at a local pub called Barini's. It was somehow related to some small group or college group that Martin is involved with. I can't quite recall. Anyway, the afternoon was spent with Martin and I picking songs to perform and practicing up for the gig. After 3 and a half hours of practice, we received a call letting us know that the gig was cancelled for this and that reason. None of the reasons made a whole lot of sense to me, but, the bottom line of it was this: Martin and I didn't get to perform after much revision.

We considered what we would do that evening since we were cancelled, called some people, and decided we'd go for a walk to and through a local park. Once we got to the park, we found it was closed. So, we were going to head back into town and meet up with some folk at a place called Alfred's. It, too, was closed by the time we arrived. 0 for 3, we gave up and went to Barini's anyway and just lounged about with some of Martin's friends from university and church.

Today, we found similar failings at every turn. We got lost trying to find the school Martin was doing a workshop for. After finding it, our equipment broke that he uses to launch rockets for the workshop. We fixed it, returned to the school, and tried once more to launch the rockets. We got about half-way through when the equipment failed yet again. With some improvisation, we found a way to launch the rockets and finished the workshop a little late.

After that, we had a hovercraft workshop. These are somewhat more difficult than the rocket workshops to start with. Using a balloon, a bottle-cap with a hole in it, a cd, some paper, and some sellotape, the kids are supposed to create a hovercraft and see how far they can make them travel before all of the air from the balloon has escaped. This being a hard enough task for some of the kids to grasp, Martin tends to avoid these and substitutes the rocket workshop wherever he can. Since, however, Martin had done that workshop with the children at the school we were visiting already, we had no choice but to try the hovercrafts. It was an utter failure. This is due, in part, to the rowdiness of the children we were trying to oversee. Simple instructions like "stop talking" and "sit down" were rarely understood or heeded. This was something of a first out of all of the schools I had visited with Martin. Sure, sometimes you have to try harder to get the children to listen or stop moving about etc., but this crew would have none of our instruction whatsoever. We left exhausted.

That's the scoop so far. In the next few days, I don't know what chance I'll have to post anything here. I'm leaving Martin's and heading East for a bit, and then north up to Edinburgh and then west over to Northern Ireland and Belfast. I'll do my best to keep you all informed on my travels.

Well, I made it safely and soundly, though the trip was long. 5 hours by plane to New York, 4 hours in the terminal, another 6 and a half to Heathrow. Luckily for myself, I remembered the name of the town in Wales I was supposed to head toward - Pontypridd (pronounced ponty-preeth. It's Welsh, and I don't understand any of their pronunciation rules) - even though I didn't have a working phone to call Martin on, or wifi for my computer to look anything up on, or a power adapter for my computer to give it life again after the long ride over.

Still, I remembered the name of a town, and, after landing at Heathrow, I desperately tried to find my way to the Underground or the train stations or the bus depot. After finally finding the underground, I recalled that, no, it wouldn't be helpful since I needed to get all of the way to Wales and not just around London. So, I found my way back through the airport and over to the trains. I grabbed an Express to London Paddington - the main station for London. From there, I found another train to Cardiff, and then headed on up to Pontypridd. I walked around town for a good long while since I somehow arrived a good hour before I had predicted. When the time came, I headed back to the train station where Martin picked me up. We ran a few errands in the evening, grabbed some food, and then called it a night. Even though I should have been massively jet-lagged, I somehow wasn't.

The next morning, I woke ready to go, and I set out with Martin to help him at work. He prepares workshops for local primary schools. He takes half a day at a school and gives them a talk about scientific forces then shows them how to build rockets or hovercrafts that the kids then get to operate. So, for two days straight - Wednesday and Thursday - I visted schools with Martin and had a blast working with the kids and helping them put their crafts together.

Today, we plan on going for a bit of a hike. Should be a grand time.

I Watch The Patchwork Farms . . .

It's 6:49 AM on Monday morning. It's March first. I'm watching the colors in the sky shift from black to the overly-familiar grey that Seattle is blanketed with all-too-often. Here's a shout out to Starbucks and those who give gift-cards to place.

I can't be entirely certain, but, as I remember it, SeaTac airport is one of the only airports that I've been to that supplies free wi-fi for all customers. This is probably one of the better things about this airport, considering most of it appears rather run-down.

The security check was as much of a hassle as usual. While in line, however, the woman directly in front of me struck up a short conversation. In the 15 minutes I was in line, I learned that she had a daughter who just graduated from Pen State and is now living in Baltimore. This woman herself was from Atlanta, and she was in town visiting her brother who got her to the airport a little bit on the late side. She was going home with a bag that was far heavier than what she arrived with. New additions to her luggage included something along the lines of 6 bags of crumpets and 2 bags of flax wheat. I was recruited by her to lift her luggage onto the x-ray machine since, on her way to Seattle, she managed to cut herself lifting the bag. According to the story I received, she nicked her knuckle and blood spurted all over her jacket. She had to make a trip to the restroom to clean herself up. I heard her mumble something about "cranberry juice" and how she "did not want a repeat of that."

I helped her lift the bag onto the x-ray machine. Then I went to get coffee.

Well, it's just about seven now. Boarding should begin in roughly a half an hour, and then I'll "watch the patchwork farms/slow fade into the ocean's arms."

To Trunks and Travels

It's only hours away now: I will be picked up and shuttled to SeaTac, and at 8:05 A.M., a plane bound for New York will take off, and I will be aboard. New York, however, is not my final destination. From New York, I will board yet another plane - one bound for a much longer trip over the Atlantic and to London Heathrow. This is how my six week adventure and second trip to Europe will begin.

For those of you who have indulged me and listened to a few of my stories from my first trip to Europe, you are quite aware that I had rarely a dull moment abroad - from 28 hour train rides to hidden hostels in Barcelona to being discovered and saved by mormons on a small platform in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea what all I'm in store for on this trip, but this time I travel alone. The potential for more crazy adventures is present.

I thank all of you who read through this blog for your well-wishes and prayers.

Here's a little something I found somewhat apt. I am travelling on.

I'll see you all on the other side.