The One Where She Mainly Sits on a Bus (Part One): Snowdonia

This trip was on the 24th (part one) and 25th (part two) of October; I am just now getting around to writing it up.

It was to be a weekend of intense traveling for me. I knew I wanted to go on the trip to Snowdonia National Park, and I knew that I wanted to go to Nottingham. As it turns out, they were on the same weekend. Nottingham had originally been cancelled, which turned out to be a plus for me. Since they rescheduled, more tickets opened up and I was able to go! Due to this, many other events got moved around and the Snowdonia trip I originally signed up for wound up being on the same weekend as Nottingham. I purchased tickets regardless for Nottingham as I really wanted to see Sherwood Forest. My flatmate Natalia and I have been watching BBC's Robin Hood, and so I was really into the idea of visiting his hometown and home forest.

School stress had been very cruel to me (without good reason), and so this was to be a great way for me to get away from all of that and enjoy the nature of Snowdonia. Plus, I was going on the trip with another girl I met at Cardiff Castle (and have done some things with off and on) from France. Also on the bus, I saw that another girl from SSU and her flatmate from New Mexico were on the trip as well.

Sun's not even up yet...but at least we travel in style. That symbol is for the Welsh rugby team.

 It was supposed to be a four hour drive (long enough as is), but turned out to be 6 and a half with a stop at Swallow Falls just before going to our destination of Betws-y-Coed (a city). At the very least, the drive was gorgeous. Mountains of greens, oranges, and yellows. Near constant sheep. A long river.

White dots are sheep.

A video of the journey.

Despite the picturesque drive, I was ready to off of the bus and start exploring my surroundings instead of passively watching them. That's when I was happy to hear that we had reached our destination. But confused that we didn't have any guidance of what to do. I followed the two other Americans as they decided to just go for it and not wait for anyone to show up.

 

The entrance. There was a small fee to enter, but worth it once you saw what was inside.

The waterfalls were stunning! We walked down the stairs to see the bottom first. The fresh air and mist of water was extremely refreshing. I have been seaside so long, that I started to forget what other beautiful water structures exist.

 After taking in all of the beauty from below, it was time to climb up to the top for an even better view of the falls.

I imagined living nearby this place and coming to the falls to relax on the weekends. The roaring sound of water and the tranquility of being surrounded by trees was absolutely amazing. There was even a little bench I could picture myself sitting at, just enjoying my surroundings on each time I came.

This is what you should always see when you look up.

I enjoyed standing on the top and looking down far more than I enjoyed watching the the water flow into the river. There was also an interesting memorial on the top. It seems that this is a place for people to remember loved ones that have passed and memorialize them.

There is a scarf tied around the right limb and little hearts with silver writing on them.

Old bouquets of flowers at the base of the tree.

There is the possibility that this is a way to remember those that have fallen over the edge, but I choose not to believe that. Instead I choose to see it as a beautiful place to remember beautiful people.

I took my time here, enjoying the view. Swansea is a nice town (secondary city, in fact; there is the capital city, Cardiff, and then the secondary city after that), but it is still just a main city. The beach is gorgeous, but strangely enough can blend into the background when you see it often enough. Due to that, it is easy to get tricked into thinking you are stuck in a city, despite the sea gulls chanting out your window throughout the day. That being said, I was excited to get back to nature.

Even if it was a little foggy...it's still gorgeous!

You can see here that there was a mini fall next to the main one.

Swallow Falls!

The tour guide finally showed up (we expected her to meet us in Swansea) while we were there. Apparently there was a larger group of us from various universities, all of who arrived at varying times. She made sure everyone had time to enjoy Swallow Falls before we were on our way to the next destination.

We were supposed to have time to explore Betws-y-Coed, but due to the bus driver getting us there late, we essentially had time to fill up our water bottles and get going. The base of the hike was about five minutes away. We were a rather large group, so I tried to stay towards the front with my friend from France and the two Americans I had started to befriend.

What little we saw of the city during this walk was very pretty

Lots of old architecture.

When we arrived at the base of the path, we were informed that we would now begin our three hour hike, all uphill. ...What? I didn't sign up for this. I just wanted to see the pretty lakes in the picture.

Well, there was no going back now. Perhaps in my times at Wales I have grown quite adept at climbing hills. There were quite a few on our way to Gower, after all!

Haha, nope. It was just as difficult as you would imagine. I went from staying at the front to being in the back. Clearly, I just want some pictures of Glyndwr Forest. Not stopping to catch my breath at all. What really confused me were the people feeling so exhausted that they stop for a smoke. Putting chemicals into your lungs will not make it easier for them to breath.

Don't mind me, just taking a picture of this pretty stump.

Guys, look at how pretty. Should STOP and take a photo.

Just appreciating this moss-covered brick structure. I'll catch up.

Eventually, I found other people who were doing the same. People who also ad red faces and sweaty foreheads. It happened by accident, as one girl just wanted me to take a picture of her, and offered to do the same for me in return.

Thick purple coat has been removed. Too hot after all that exercise.

Luckily, it flattened out after about 30-45 minutes of intense struggle. With the sun out for once (it was a wet journey up there), it was actually quite lovely. Being in the mountains as the sun shone through the trees? Gorgeous!

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect during this hike. Were we just having a stroll through the forest or was there some destination to see? We knew we were in Glyndwr Forest, but that seemed like all the information we had. I had imagined Snowdonia as the mountain with some trees and lakes at the base. It turns out it is far more expansive, taking up multiple cities. And we were going to see the lake, although it was not at the base of Mount Snowdon. It was in the forest.

First good look at the lake from the path.

I had managed to find another one of my friends during the flatter hiking area. I met her at a society event during freshers week and had not really seen her since, except in passing. Nadia was from Italy and had this trip booked since September. We took turns pointing out gorgeous sights and taking pictures of ourselves in them. This meant we were at the back a good portion of the time. Oh well, at least we will have more pictures to remember it all by.

Of course, it seemed that every five steps there was another good view. For the sake of the blog, I will attempt to condense the pictures to some of the best ones.

My personal favorite shot.

Nadia told me that her favorite thing about the lake was how it reflected the clouds.

It was very peaceful just to walk along and drink up the natural beauty. Also nice was having someone to talk to from another country. At no other point in my life can I imagine myself surrounded by so many cultures as I am now. The United Kingdom has so many people come to it, often from Europe as it is so close. Additionally, I am an international student and put right in the hub of all the cultures.

Although I loved the hike (uphill included), we did eventually have to leave. The path we took led up to the lake, circled around, and then went back down. I thought that the downhill would be easier than the uphill, but my toes were now in the position of being smooshed against the inside of my shoes. Oh well.

Again, the walk was gorgeous. I often pictured myself walking through a fairy tale forest. The pictures do wash it out a tad, as everything was very dark green and lush. It's the type of place you could see fairies playing in. The was a little bit away from the lake, where a canopy of trees kept the whole place damp.

Much greener than California

You can see a bit of the mountains behind the trees.

A little stream

We were given about 15 minutes more in the town once we arrived. I took this time to do my souvenir shopping. For £14.99, there was a rug (really a blanket that was just a little rougher) made in Wales from (likely) their sheep's wool. The tag stitched on had the name of the city, a Welsh dragon, and "made in Wales" on it. A perfect top blanket for when it really does get cold in California. 

Once we were back on the bus, the drivers told us that they took the scenic route the first time, and that now we would be going another way that took the same amount of time. This is when we found out how much of a detour they took as the ride back was about 2 hours shorter. When I looked back on it, I thought that this trip was like driving to Tahoe and back in heavy traffic, for about 4 -5 hours actually there. I would never do stuff like this back home. It amazes me what people (myself included) are willing to do in order to really explore this new land.