Day 5 – 5/22

Dublin to Holyhead, Wales

This morning we got up bright and early to catch a ferry from Dublin to a city in Wales called Holyhead. I didn't really enjoy the 3 hour ferry ride. It made me nauseous so I slept most of the way. When we got to Wales, we took a bus to a tourist stop train station where we had lunch. I'll need to look up the name of the station later because its way too long. It actually has one of the longest town names in the world. They named it that way as a publicity stunt to attract tourists. It worked. At the station you get to stamp your own passport with the name of the town.

Next we went to a town called Beaumaris to explore a castle that was never actually finished because the king building it ran out of money and supplies. Beaumaris means beautiful marsh. It was absolutely AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL! I have so many more amazing pictures from it.

Then we drove through the countryside. Again, the view was AMAZING. Our bus driver offered to pull over into a photo stop so we could take pictures. We climbed up a hillside to get a better view. It was a little slippery but well worth it for the view!

Our last stop was another tourist town. It was a cute little town with a great view and tons of little shops.

When we got to the hotel we enjoyed a free pasta dinner and then went hiking up a mountain to the ruins of a medieval castle to watch the sunset. It was a very steep hike! I didn't realize just how out of shape I am. Reaching the top was well worth the effort though. The view of the mountains was AMAZING. You could also see the village in the valley where we started.

While we were hiking up we could see sheep on the mountain. At one point they herded themselves into a gate. It was a little scary to see a group of them stampeding the gate.

After the hike a group of us went to the pub down the street for a well deserved drink. We only had 20 minutes though because the bars close at 10:30 here. (Its a very small village of about 1000 people.) I've noticed that they say 'Cheers' a lot here as a form of thank you or goodbye.

The hotel I'm staying in tonight is called The Hand Hotel. Its supposed to be haunted so I will let you know if anything happens tonight!