cornerofmadness

it's harder still to do it with 20 people who need your help and there's no a/c in your lab. Sigh. Just glad this day is done. I'm worn out and my leg still hurts.

The cats are now in full force HOLD ME phases. It's too hot to hold yinz my friends.

Verizon YOU SUCK. It's frozen my computer twice, and the program itself has either been freezing or disconnecting all night. Must ditch shit service.

I had more to say but my brain is baked so have more travelogue.

My last day in Wales was a little disappointing and annoying sadly. I did finally end up being served beans on toast for breakfast. The beans reminded me of the cheapest Heinz baked beans (or at least the ones from 20 years ago before they started getting all gourmet with molasses and brown sugar). I snapped a few pictures of Castle Criccieth before we headed off for Bryn Celli Ddu on the isle of Anglesey. It was raining steady and would do so all day.

But first we stopped at the train station of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch where we did the tourist thing. I got so many gifts here I'm sure it broke the bank. The name means (since you asked me before) the church of Mary in the hollow with the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio near the red cave. In one photo you can see the phonetic translation.

the train station

go on, pronounce it, I dare you.

Bryn Celli Ddu is one of the best kept up of all the sites we've been, too. While it's been excavated, the earth mound was put back over the capstone. It's also a passage grave and this one you can crawl into. In the chamber is a phallic stone and the legend has it that if you hug it you'll get pregnant, though I'm betting that's a much later legend though who knows? There is one remaining outside stone that was part of the henge around the chamber and it does have marking. It's a wonderful site, but we only just barely got there before a bus load of American school kids (though what they were doing here is a mystery to me).

Bryn Celli Ddu

me hugging the phallic stone. Supposed to get you pregnant (though one has to assume that’s a myth from a later date since who would put that sort of thing in a grave?)

inside the grave staring down the passage to the outside.

Decorated henge stone

We went to St Cadwallender's church and he built the church for his grandfather, Cadfael in the 600's. This is on the isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon). It had splendid stones and has one of the oldest grave stones in the UK inside the church. I probably would have bought the book, but they wanted 3 pounds for a little booklet (yeah it supported the church and it was on the honor system, I could have walked off but I wouldn't feel right about it).

Cadfael’s gravestone

St Cadwallander’s church

We went to a site I hadn’t heard of but since it was the area (there are over 30 in Anglesey so…), Trefignath. It was down at the end of a road to nowhere. It’s the same sort of dolmen’s we’ve been seeing the whole trip. Parts are broken. What makes this fun is the pictures. It was SO wet my camera fogged and it looks like spirits rising up out of the graves.

Trefignath

me at the grave entrance. I'm SO wet, thank you rain

Here is where the annoying set in (beyond the pissing down rain). I wanted to go into Barclodiad y Gawres. This was my most wanted site because it's one of the very few with intricately done stone art and it was passage grave you could get inside of like Bryn Celli Ddu. However, a few years back some school kids got into it and graffitied it. Not only was that awful so was the reaction. The site is locked and only open on Saturdays and of course, it's Monday. That was terribly disappointing, but what was worse was the tour guide knew it ahead of time and she knew she couldn't get the key because she's tried many times before. She tried again this time but still no. That disappointed me more because she should have just told me that. I still would have wanted to pay for this day but we could have added some castle or church or something. Then she asked if I wanted to go up to it I said no but I wanted a picture but we didn’t go back. Sigh.

Mostly she was hungry so we went to Holyhead where she said there was nothing good to eat and even the locals said that. Still we went to a coffee house and got drinks. She wanted to order but then our companion saw the kitchen help drop fries on the floor and proceed to use them so no one wanted to eat. We went from there, after tea, to another place, a big touristy place with a museum inside and eat there. That kinda pissed me off a little since that took up all the time to see the last church. It wasn't that much further down the road. We should never have made that first stop and wandered all over Holyhead looking for a place to eat.

grave pots. These would have contained cremains. I love that they are decorated as if maybe someone pressed baskets into the wet clay.

Neolithic man

But that was really the only bad thing all trip so I can't really complain. From there she took me to the train station where I about passed out from the price of the ticket to London. I was a little surprised and yet not that the ride wasn't picturesque. I finally saw where al the industry and trailer parks were in Wales, along the train track. I was so tired I kept nearly falling asleep but was paranoid I’d miss my stop. I had to change in Chester and because my train was mysteriously late we had to RUN the whole platform. Ugh. I wheezed for an hour after that.

bobfish picked me up at the Euston station and poor thing had to help me lug all my damn lugged onto the tube. Dr. H joined us for dinner and I made dad happy. I got fish and chips from a Chinese fish and chips place.

bobfish 's home is really nice. I especially liked the living room. I'm also the first to try out the new day bed and boy did I need it. I was crashing hard, but Bobfish wrote my whole train/tube path to the tower for me since she couldn't join me the next day. Public transit frightens me. I'm scared of escalators and stairs aggravates my arthritis. Tomorrow will be fun.