Tag: wales

Ynys Môn (Anglesey) – Wales, July 2023

~ HowNot2Life

Anglesey is an island off the north-western coast of Wales with a population of around 70,000. It is well known for it’s beaches, coastal path and ancient sites. The largest town in Anglesey – Holyhead – also has a port that has regular ferries to Dublin, Ireland.

I have felt increasingly guilty in recent years about not visiting the northern part of our wonderful country. Ages ago, I went to a few places watching the County (Rhyl, Bangor, Connah’s Quay and Llansantffraid) but even those were door-to-door coach journeys.

After a random craving for a weekend away two weeks beforehand, we had our hotels booked, a decent list of things to do and a slight idea of which way to drive there!

Flights and Accommodation

No flights for this trip! Just two long-arse drives through some of the most picturesque landscapes the country has to offer. We completed the whole weekend on a full tank of diesel. This was around 500 miles getting there and back and probably another 80 miles driving place to place. More about the drive shortly.

As our plan was to follow a circular-ish route of the island, we chose two B&B’s for a night each. One in Beaumaris to the south-east £80 per night, and one in Aberffraw in the south-west at £100. These were expensive I thought, but bear in mind we were visiting during the summer holidays.

Both hotels were perfectly adequate. In the upmarket town (village more like) of Beaumaris we stayed in the Castle Court hotel/pub overlooking the castle the name refers to, with a continental breakfast. In Aberffraw, a very small community with nothing more than a local shop if that, the Prince Llewellyn B&B was great accommodation ran by a couple, and a bloody brilliant breakfast to boot.

Getting around

As we had the car there was no need to think about this in detail. There are a few train stations in Anglesey with trains running to Cardiff and northern England but this really does restrict you as most areas are remote. Without use of a motor vehicle your best bet is a bicycle. I was told the coastal walking path is popular, if you have TWELVE DAYS to complete it!

One worry I had was the type and quality of roads. I was impressed by the quality of the roads and single-car lanes were minimal. Away from Holyhead, the roads were very quiet throughout the day, which was a nice surprise considering was peak tourism time.

There are buses but surely these are few and far between and surely do not go to all of the sights you’ll wat to see. Finally, expect all signs to be in Welsh, with the vast majority having the English translation, but not all!

Costs

For a trip that lasted just 48-hours, the ball-park total cost of £350 was an eye opener! To break this down a little… accommodation £180, petrol £60, meals £100 and a couple of odd quid for parking, Christmas decoration, magnet for mum and castle entrance. Bear in mind we didn’t go anywhere snazzy for food or had a pint.

More places accepted card than I expected but it is always worth taking some cash with you including around a tenner in change.

What we didn’t do…

I hope you’ll agree that in such a short space of time we done bloody brilliantly to visit so much. On the island itself there wasn’t much I thought we missed out on. Sure, there was other beaches and the odd lighthouse.

The one thing we did have to discard, due to time was a visit to Ynys Llanddwyn, the island that is the location of St Dwynwen’s Church. St Dwynwen is Wales’ patron saint of love, and is celebrated each year on 25th January. The island itself may only be accessible depending on the tides.

North Wales as a broader area is another matter. I think there would be enough stuff do to “up North” if we stayed for a week. The big one is climbing Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) of course.

Itinerary

Day One – South to North

With our wedding coming up in this years annual leave allocation, I’m having to be careful when taking time off. After a few early mornings in the week we were able to leave northern Newport at 4:30. Google told us that we’d be looking at just over 4 hours without stops. Challenge accepted.

Choosing what we hoped to be a more scenic route getting there, we knew the intended four-hour drive was going to be considerably longer than we are used to. Driving up to Ebbw Vale is something Mikayla usually does every weekday, and once we entered the Brecon Beacons the first of endless views of rolling hills were enjoyed.

On the route we either touched or went through Brecon, Builth Wells, Rhyader, Porthmadog… places you think you’ve heard of before but equally could be made up in your head… before arriving at the castle town of Caernarfon on the north-west coast, with Anglesey swimming distance away over the Menai Straight.

Considering we only stopped three times for a few minutes, we were still behind schedule. However, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Caernarfon castle and found a lane that provided a good opportunity for a photo. I’m actually a bit pissed off the Ferris wheel was there. It wasn’t even bloody working – on a fine Friday evening in summer? When else would it open?

Anyway, after a pit stop in Tesco to replace a forgotten hair brush (for Mikayla – I like to let my mane flow), time was a little against us to ensure we got to our hotel in Beaumaris both before the sun disappeared and before everywhere closed for tea. One final treat was in store as we passed the Menai Bridge, incredibly the worlds first major suspension bridge.

After finding a free parking spot, we hurried to the hotel by 9:30pm. The staff member thankfully notified us the only place open for some food now was a Chinese that closes in 20 minutes.

Phone order, collection, pacey wobble back to the hotel, Singapore fried rice in bed. Stroke of genius packing some cutlery just in case mind….

It all went to plan (and the Chinese was very decent!)

Day Two – Island Exploring

We were up bright and early for breakfast and to move the car in to the car park. Beaumaris seemed a nice seaside resort-type to have a stroll around, and the gaol (jail) there is probably worth a visit. For us through, time was not on our side so after a few minutes walk along the coast we waited outside the castle entrance before it opened at 9:30. Entrance £8.70 per adult.

Beaumaris Castle is coined as ‘the greatest castle never to be built’. Work started on the castle around 1295 under the ruling of King Edward I. The castle looks as though it is a castle within a castle and almost perfectly symmetric. Unfortunately for the castle, it was never finished as King Edward had to spent his cash on war with Scotland instead.

Beaumaris Castle was taken by Welsh forces in 1403 during the rebellion of Cymru legend Owain Glyndŵr (yaaay), but recaptured by royal forces in 1405 (boooo). Anyway, that’s enough history for one post.

The castle grounds were nice to walk around in the morning sunshine. The castle has a few secluded areas that provided information. I actually liked that there wasn’t endless things to do. One thing I did enjoy was walkways either side. To the right you can walk inside the castle, through a corridor that leads to small chapel. On the left you can scale to the top of the castle and follow the walkway to another corner before descending. Of course this offered terrific views of Beaumaris, the Menai Straight and North Wales with Snowdonia in the distance.  

By the time we got over the delight of finding a Christmas tree decoration in the gift shop (never the easiest thing to obtain in July) we were back in the car on schedule to drive to our next stop, Pont Lynas lighthouse on the northern coast of the island, a half hour drive.

The lighthouse itself was ultimately located along a private road. We managed to find a small car park but instead of potentially unravelling our time schedule, had a short walk along this section of the coastal path, overlooking a bay where surfers and swimmers were enjoying their weekend. Back in the car.

A shorter drive from here was to the small port town of Amlwch. In times gone by the town was bustling from one of Europe’s biggest copper mine but today it is another sleepy town. Unfortunately, the “Copper Kingdom” visitor centre was closed so after a quick read of some notice boards we were on our way again – to the copper mine itself.

Mynydd Parys, as I just mentioned, exploited in the late 18th century, was once the biggest copper mine on the continent and largest producer of copper in the world. Today it is no longer in operation, but has definitely left scars on the landscape interrupting what otherwise is green farmland. With a convenient car park on site, it was easy to explore the fascinating area firstly walking along the small pools of water (I forgot the purpose of these) and then on to the main path that within 10 minutes took you to the rim of the mine.

My photo really doesn’t do the site justice here. It is difficult to see that we were looking in to the mine, which must have been 100 meters in to the ground – not far off what I imagine a sight from the Grand Canyon may look like. There are signed circular walks here for 1 or 2 hours and you can go down in to the mine where there are tunnels, but you guessed it – it was time to go to our next stop, Holyhead.

Holyhead is the biggest town on Anglesey and the only place we visited that did resemble a town that we’re more accustomed to. As soon as we got here, we were surrounded by supermarkets and retail parks, and possible the only McDonalds and KFC on the island!

One reason for visiting Holyhead was to quickly snap a photo of Admiralty Arch and a brief description of the monument. However, this is located within the ferry terminal and we had no intention of buying a ticket to Dublin.

Admiralty Arch was built in 1824 for the visit of King George IV and marks one end of the A5 road that was a direct route to London. The other monument in London is slightly fancier and more well-known – Marble Arch. Perhaps I found this more interesting that I should have.

During lunch, we had time for some budget-planning for our wedding in March next year. Mikayla bought her dress just two days before and at the time of writing, everything appears to be in hand! Oh, what I’ll think of that statement when reading this after the event!!

From Holyhead, we moved on out of town towards the western coast of the island to South Stack Nature Reserve, which was one of the sights that appealed to us when considering our trip.

With a lighthouse as its focal point, the island is accessible by 400 steep steps hugging the cliff edge. Add this to the crashing waves below and the 40mph winds, it was some effort. After going ALLLLL the way down and across a bridge to get to the island, we were told that access to the lighthouse itself was temporarily closed due to the winds. At that point I was undecided whether I was disappointed or relieved! I’m not going to say the journey ALLLLL the way back up the steps was any form of fun, but we got back to the car eventually, took a deep breath (or 300) and were pleased to find that our next stop was to check in to our digs for the evening, an hour earlier than planned in our itinerary. 

After a couple of hours relaxing in our B&B, we set off again around 6:30pm. Next up was a little church that is on a small island, only accessible by foot when the tide is out. The Church is still in use, some effort, and even holds wedding ceremonies!

We were unable to park particularly close here but I did enjoy a walk along the beach, still uncertain whether the island was reachable or which way the tide was going! Feeling a bit daft I hadn’t checked the tidal times (you can do this easily online) I traipsed back to the car, at least having a couple of photos to record the visit.

Yet another 20-30 drive followed to a train station. But not any train station. The village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is quite well-known anyway, before Ryan Reynolds and *the other one* put it back in the spotlight after buying Wrexham football club, and pronounced the name much better than I can… and I spent all weekend trying.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch translates to “St Mary’s Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near to the Rapid Whirlpool of Llantysilio of the Red Cave”. This is indeed the longest train station name in the world, but sadly second on the list for an actual place name. That accolade goes to a hill in New Zealand in the Moari language. It’s called Taumata for short if you wish to check, I’m not bloody typing that out.

If we were at the station for five minutes we must have seen three other tourists walk up for a peek and the photo. To be honest, it wasn’t exactly the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu.

From here we went over the Menai Bridge for some basic tea in Bangor, although we were treated by a layby on the way that offered INCREDIBLE views of the Menai Straight and the bridge in all it’s glory.

I also enjoyed the information board listing the mountains in the distance. Snowdon just out of sight due to the clouds. I did start to get a bit annoyed by the cloud, but then remembers it was supposed to rain all weekend!

After food, the day had just enough light left in it to tick off some things we planned to do the next day. First up was a tall 27-metre-high column I noticed in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. This was actually the Marquess of Anglesey’s Column, erected in 1860 to commemorate his efforts during the battle of Waterloo.

The site itself was not accessible at present, but I did read beforehand they are in the process of building a visitor centre and reopening the viewing platform at the top. This was confirmed once we visited, with the building materials and ground work no doubt REALLY annoying those living along the little lane leading up to the site.

Finally, scouring Google Maps before the trip I came across an ancient burial chamber in the middle of nowhere. As this was kinda on the way back it was worth a quick stop.

We hopped over a gate to be greeted by 200 plus sheep. A bit nervous and unsure of their intentions we approached the ruin, a bit perplexed how something estimated to be 4,000 to 6,000 years old is just in a field with some sheep.

Day Three – North to South

For our final few hours this morning we didn’t have a full schedule, thankfully due to picking a few extra things off yesterday evening, plus we did sacrifice St Dwynwen’s Church as I mentioned previously.

Aberffraw beach, one of the best beaches on the island, is very close to where we stayed. It wasn’t high up on my list, but a bad night’s sleep meant I was out of the hotel by 4:50 walking along a river towards the coast. My brain didn’t remember how cold it was yesterday near the sea, so a t-shirt and short combo meant that I didn’t stay there too long.

The bridge used to get to the beach was also on a list or two I researched. I’m not sure why but have a photo of it anyway. It held my weight, so it did its job well.

After a shower and a tremendous breakfast, we checked out of our accommodation to start the long drive back to South Wales.

To break the trip up a little we decided to have a stop off at the mainland. Aber Falls is accessed by a village in between Bangor and Conwy, listed as one of Snowdonia’s most dramatic waterfalls according to the official website.

The walk from the car park was 4.5km there and back. It was determined as an easy walk and pushchair friendly but there were a few more inclines that I anticipated for a Sunday morning stroll!

Arriving at the falls after around 30-40 minutes, I was greeted with water falling 120 feet above. Many other people on the trail thought it was a sight to behold. I personally thought, although pleasant, if waterfalls are your thing, Bro’r Sgydau in the Brecon Beacons are your best bet. I made another shit blog about this in 2021, click here to read.

… And that was about that for our trip scenery wise. I couldn’t possibly come this far without a drive-by to Wrexham – Newport’s bitter rivals for the upcoming season at least. I know I look proper tough in the photo outside their ground but in truth, I got out the car, put my hat on, took the selfie, got back in the car and drove off within the space of 30 seconds! Up the County….

Thanks for reading. Diolch I darllen!

St David’s – Wales, July 2019

~ HowNot2Life

It’s very rare that we consider a UK destination (especially at home in Wales) for a mini break but as we would be going to Valencia the weekend after, and our inability to find anything cheap on the continent we decided to go as far west in Wales as possible, heading to the UK’s smallest city in St David’s.

We had a really good overnighter in Tenby last October so we were aware that there wouldn’t be endless activities to keep us occupied. For this reason we didn’t set off from Newport until midday on Saturday and although there were a few short queues once we ran out of M4 motorway, the traffic must have been a lot less painful than it would have been travelling in the morning.

Arriving just after 3pm, our hotel was impossible to miss as we entered St David’s. Our home for the night – The Grove – is an SA Brains “speciality” pub/restaurant/hotel and one of less than half a dozen in Wales. Although the pub areas were modern and spacious once we got in our room you could get a jist of how old the building actually is… not a 90 degree angle in sight!

Costing around the £100 mark for the evening, our accommodation certainly wasn’t cheap. Whilst I’m aware that our chosen weekend was about as peak as you can get in the summer, for that amount of cash one would expect a decent pressure on the shower and no tape covering the cracks in the floor tiles. On a really hot afternoon air-con or even a desktop fan would have been a bonus, considering if all 12 rooms were occupied that night they were turning over £1,200 at a guess. That said, the night was comfortable, the food was good (see below) and we would probably book there again – I was surprised how little options for accommodation or dinner there is in the miniscule centre.

Slightly refreshed having dropped the bags off in the room we headed in to town. Should we take the car and park? Don’t be silly. We assumed the hotel was on the outskirts of the city (village) but a quick check on google maps explained that the central point was 0.3 miles down the road. So we walked past the central war memorial, down the hill towards the number one things to see in St David’s, and probably the reason the place exists, the cathedral.

Walking to an archway to enter the grounds, it was a tad surprising to see the cathedral down a rather steep hill. The places of worship I had come across so far on my summer travels have all been magnificent, powerful buildings that dominate the skyline, yet St David’s Cathedral lies quietly in a ditch.

A ditch may be the wrong word. The site is certainly postcard-worthy and it was pleasant to have a walk around having missed maximum heat. Next to the cathedral lies the Bishop’s Palace that has been substantially less maintained than the cathedral but still an interesting bit of stone.

On a side note, it was really interesting to see National Cycle Route 4 running between the cathedral and palace. Route 4 starts in Fishguard and ends at the Cutty Sark ship in east London. How do I know this?? In 2014, I actually cycled 150 miles across two days on route 4 from Bristol to said Sark, raising £1600 and this is still probably my biggest achievement in life. Fast forward to today and I’ve nearly polished off a big bag of crisps writing this. Depressing much…

Anyway, the Bishop’s Palace. We had a quick peak inside and watched a few actors rehearse their play on stage before returning to the cathedral and heading inside. It was a bloody big place, but rather toned down I felt, which I found quite nice and more welcoming. And for some strange reason I LOVED the roof.

It was a slow and arduous walk back up from the site and I was getting a bit frustrated by the narrow pavements. Constantly stopping, saying thank you, trying to curb any danger of tripping over the kerb.

From here we aimed to walk in a few other directions but they all seemed to offer no source of exploration. We’d only been out for a little more than an hour. From here we decided to head back to the hotel, grab the car and go to the beach eight minutes away.

Whitesands Beach was brilliant. There were loads of people still out as teatime approached. I haven’t been to many beaches in Wales for a while but this one was very clean and the water was BLUE, would you believe it? It was a schoolboy error not to bring a change of clothes away with me so I had to make do of walking along the shore and back with Kay. This was pleasant although after an hour I still thought the water was bloody freezing; it’s late July FFS.

Once we purchased the BEST mint chocolate ice cream from the shop (forgot the name sadly) we agreed that the beach would likely be the best part of the day.

We still had a bit more to do though. We had to travel back to St David’s to get a good enough signal to hunt down our next stop.

I didn’t read much in to St Non’s Chapel and Well… as it was Kay’s choice I thought I would give her an opportunity to deliver a history lesson, especially as she is so upset having to suffer through six weeks of no teaching over summer.

As we parked up (we could have walked) it was unclear at first where or what we were supposed to be looking for but before long we followed the footpath to discover a roofed well in the middle of, well, nowhere really. It’ll be much nicer if you read from a photograph instead of me thinking I’m knowledgeable by reading Wikipedia…

The little well also had its own shrine a stone’s throw away…

dav

A little further on we could see the ruins of St Non’s chapel. At this point Mikayla told me that St Non was the mother of St David and the chapel is said to his birthplace.

The views from here were (I’d imagine) some of the best in Wales outside a Newport County match. We continued to walk along the coastal path towards the cliff edge. I found humour in the fact the farm animals in the adjacent fields were worthy of a fence protecting them from the deathly drop but as for us, we were just yards away. Neither of us pushed the other one off. Now if that isn’t love…

In hindsight, we could have and should have stayed here a bit longer as I am already missing the views. It was however tea-time.

I fancied something along the lines of fish and chips but to our amazement we only came across ONE in town and that didn’t offer much in the way of seating. After looking around the restaurants we decided to eat at the hotel that in comparison was reasonably priced. With us having to wait 40 minutes here I doubt there would have been too many options booking tables elsewhere.

A steak, a gammon, four sides (don’t judge) and two cokes came to under £40, we were pleased with that. As a final outing of the day we had a stroll for half an hour to the supermarket, to buy nothing, then back to the hotel room and bed.

Throughout the day on Saturday we were trying to sort out a boat ride that would be the main thing to do on the Sunday. We found Voyages of Discovery on Google and although we were waiting for confirmation for quite a while, on Saturday night we were confirmed on the 8:30am “Whale and Dolphin Voyage”.

The problem with such an early start was that we had to sacrifice our free breakfast at the hotel, but the other option of a 3:30pm departure suited us even less.

We picked up our tickets from the City (lolz) Centre at 8am and made it to St Justinian’s well in time for 8:30, picking up a massive coat and getting our life jackets attached.

Within minutes we were seeing not dolphins, but ‘cousins’ of dolphins called porpoises. These are a lot smaller and less friendly that the main event. Our guide said they spend their whole life feeding and have little time to enjoy themselves or socialise. Now who does that remind me of…

Further out we started seeing an array of birds, some of which we were told would fly to ICELAND and back today to go get some food. Funny as I thought they delivered. OK, that’s the last dad joke.

It was cute to see a few puffins flapping their wings like no tomorrow as we picked up speed heading towards Grassholm. There were 10 of us in that boat but once it picks up some speed and jumps off a wave you don’t half come down with a bang! Great fun for the first 5 minutes then constant pain for the other 85!

I have never heard of Gannets before, but Grassholm holds the fourth largest colony of them in the world. On a small island quite a way out (see map) there are believed to be 110,000 birds… nesting, resting and definitely shitting!

We also saw a few seals doing what they do best (absolutely nothing) and we made our way back, in the hope that we would see the main event, some dolphins.

That hope lasted all of five minutes before two dolphins were swimming parallel to the boat. After deeming it impossible to take a photo giving the bumpy boat and speed of the dolphin leap I gave up with the phone and enjoyed the view with my own eyes. The guide said that dolphins are naturally friendly and come up to the boat to have a nose. The difference between the dolphin and porpoise is that dolphins are loads more intelligent, so don’t have to eat constantly through the day. Once they have eaten they can chill and swim by some boats of tourists. Works for me.

The journey back to shore seemed to take an age but for the first part we were constantly seeing more dolphins approach the vessel. And that impossible photo miraculously was achieved! The last sighting of them was actually a trio swimming within 5 meters of the boat. What a great morning!

This specific boat trip cost £62 each but they start from £25ish, although you can get 5% off if you book 2+ days ahead. Our trip was nearly 3 hours long and they provided super thick jackets that are a must, even in the middle of summer and if you’re my size. You can’t guarantee to see everything but today we were lucky. We both gave the trip 5 out of 5 and would recommend it to anyone. Dolphins a few hours down the road from Newport!

Skipping breakfast and being battered around on a boat for three hours meant we had know built up a bit of an appetite. Dreading the long drive home we decided to start our drive back, stopping off at the Lost Coins Pub in Haverfordwest for some lunch that was just what we wanted. I did notice there was a Premier Inn next door if you possibly wanted to save a few quid and drive 15 minutes in to St David’s… but should probably recommend you use the local services instead.

Considering we were home 25 hours after leaving, we managed to do so much. I really think it would be difficult to do everything in one day but an overnight stay allows plenty of time to check things out, including several hours having a beer in the evening that we decided against.

Thanks for reading… we’re off to Valencia next weekend and I’m still trying to finish the Jordan blog from January!

Chris
#hownot2life

Football: Albania, November 2018

~ HowNot2Life

Albania… why are you going there? You would think my nearest and dearest would have caught on by now.

An early finish on Friday lunchtime allowed a few drinks in my Newport local before fellow County pal Donna gave me a lift to Cardiff for Wales’ home game with Denmark, with a win seeing us through to the Nations League playoffs. Unfortunately this didn’t materialise and the Danes provided an experienced display in a 2-1 win.

A lot has happened since that home game but I do remember being bitterly disappointed at our ability to create chances, at least until someone pointed out to me we had EIGHTEEN attempts on goal. Afterwards I may have had an extra cider or two than I anticipated to compensate, the up side being that before I knew it my friend Peter and I were at Gatwick airport, boarding the Saturday afternoon, 2h40m British Airways flight to Tirana. Good value for £150 return.

By the time we had arrived in Albania’s only international airport, night time had already set in. Perfect timing to pick up our hire car knowing that the roads and the local drivers may turn our 60 minute journey into somewhat of an assault course!

The main road between Tirana and Elbasan will soon be easy-peasy. As it is now however, there’s a 6km stretch of the motorway yet to be completed that forces you to meander along the mountainside. Anyone catching one of the 20+ coaches on match day would be in for a real treat!! Arriving shortly before 11pm we checked in to our hotel, a four-star five minutes from the ground. I’m reliably informed that our accommodation was Elbasan’s first luxury hotel. Perhaps not what we would expect back home but perfectly adequate and £20pppn. As we’ve had to visit outside of peak season there was no chance of popping in to the attached pizzeria, and the outside swimming pool wasn’t even considered during our stay.

Sunday

After a very basic breakfast we made our way in to the centre. We were surprised how quickly we reached the arena and had a walk around to the grandstand that’s was four to ten times smaller than many other international stadiums I have had the pleasure to visit. A little over ten minutes walk further to the centre we found ourselves at Elbasan castle and clock tower. These were a little underwhelming considering they often top the “things to do” lists I looked at beforehand. Inside the castle walls instead of a bustling market space I had expected it’s filled with a handful of places of worship, run down (derelict?) restaurants and small living spaces. We later found out that the two remaining towers make home to a nice cafe and garden, the other being a 5-star hotel. Chalk and cheese.

Walking back to the hotel along the main boulevard linking the castle to the ground we noticed several bars that would soon be rapidly running out of beer later in the week. I did have concerns about the suitability of boozers but they did indeed create a vibrant pre-match atmosphere during the game on Tuesday.

OK. Elbasan ticked off the list and it wasn’t even lunch time… back to the drawing board. With my travel buddy Pete and his forward-thinking-won’t-cost-you-a-kidney mobile data usage he – somehow – found a small church 25 minutes drive away. This time I was my turn to get behind the wheel, good practice for my New Year travels to Jordan, as the small, decaying Church of St. Nicholas resided remotely up a mountain, inaccessible by your average vehicle, let alone the invasions of Ottoman Turks and atheist communists who wouldn’t have found it as fascinating as we did, thus why it’s still standing today.

Regular readers will be aware that Churches and Museums rarely get my blood pumping, however this was a brilliant find. After a few minutes wallowing outside, an elderly resident at a neighbouring farmhouse came to meet us. The chap spoke absolutely zero English but within five minutes he had shouted his mate to (I can only assume) lob him the keys and let us take a look inside. We were greeted with paintings (frescoes) designed by famous Orthodox painter called Onufri. I was glad to have Pete explain the paintings to me that told the story of the New Testament. The cracks in the 500 year old walls only adding to the unique interior. I was really pleased Pete seemed chuffed about the visit as we took off the handbrake and rolled back down the mountain to the hotel.

Trying to avoid the blog being referenced on an upcoming episode of Songs of Praise, the day was a great start to the trip, so we shouldn’t have been too surprised to get back to the hotel only to be told we would have to leave the hotel to accommodate the Albanian football team. The cheek! Once the surprise and concerns were discussed we were happy to be transferred to the aforementioned 5 star hotel in the castle walls, only then to be told 30 minutes later that we were able to stay! As means of an apology the hotel staff offered us a free lunch, three courses with a tremendous portion of steak and chips.

The remainder of our first day consisted of a few hours siesta (it was a Sunday…) and a walk back in to the centre for a taste of the local beer. With a day in Tirana tomorrow we only had a sensible amount and planned our day in the capital. That, I’m going to bore you with now…

Monday

Pancakes and strawberry jam consumed at breakfast and unexpected sunshine, when I would usually be on the way to work. What a time to be alive.

The commute to Tirana didn’t seem half as bad in daylight and after only an hour although we were negotiating the Tirana side streets about as well as Theresa May has done with Brexit. My first thought of Tirana was that it was a cross of what I would expect a middle-eastern city to look like and an installment of the Assassins Creed video game. With a big sigh of relief we made it to our first port of call, the Dajti Express cable car system up to Mount Dajt. For only 6 quid each we were treated to a fifteen minute incline up some 1,040 metres above see level. As a forced cable-car enthusiast, following similar journeys in Beijing, Hong Kong and Tbilisi over the past 18 months, this was probably the longest, and made the vast amount of multi-storey buildings simply equate to a pixel or two on my substandard mobile phone camera. Even an Instagram filter won’t help the cause – I tried.

Before we made the trip back we bumped in to a family of Wrexham fans and discussed our upcoming second round FA Cup tie. That should be a great encounter but I was honest in saying I will Luis Suarez their hand off for a replay. The amount of Wrexham fans I’ve bumped in to must now be in the hundreds and I’ve always been welcomed in to conversation. Splendid. (Note: we were lucky to draw 0-0 and won 4-0 at the home replay, THEN went on to beat Primer League Leicester in the next round!)

A marginally better trip a few kilometers in to Tirana central, we parked the car (didn’t look AT ALL dodgy mind) and strolled to the most bazaar point of interest I’ve ever witnessed. The Pyramida, that often tops Tirana’s top attraction lists, is located on the main boulevard between the main piazza and Mother Theresa Square. This concrete and glass monstrosity was originally built to honor some communist geezer but when shit hit the fan in 1991 it was turned in to a convention centre, once being used as a base for NATO during the Balkans war. Since then they can’t decide whether it’s best to do something useful with it or demolish it. Whilst I had every intention of climbing up to the top after 10 feet I thought better of it, although was a bit envious to see a half dozen Welshmen complete the climb. Instead we bumped in to yet more people from North Wales, and this gang actually remembered me from a previous trip.

As luck would have it, the group we met were the same wonderful heroes who looked after me in Georgia after way too many beers. I remembered both going for wine in Tbilisi and falling up the escalator on the way to the ground, but less so my drunken conversations and them repeatedly making sure I didn’t get lost – I was very thankful!

Feeling rather sheepish after that we walked to the main square which was adorned in Christmas decorations, fairground rides and German-style market stalls mostly offering beer. It was a perfect time for lunch and the £3/400LEK spicy sausage and chips with a local beer consumed was a delight.

To complete our day in the capital city of Albania we marched to the park to see a collection of war graves before it became too dark. After a good half hour walk we arrived at the small gated area that had 40 or so gravestones remembering those who lost their life on Albanian soil during World War 2. I think there were only three people aged over 30. It certainly made me feel grateful I was here ‘on holiday’.

Leaving the park we were a lot closer to the car than we anticipated and it was only a short, but interesting wander around Mother Theresa square that separated us from the journey home as the sun set. That night we really did run out of things to do in Elbasan so eventually found an Italian restaurant willing to feed us some Ragu and Steak before stopping in one of the many bars offering a glass of wine (or 4), completely unaware that tomorrow would see every one of their tables full, staff unable to keep up with demand and a songs about players they probably haven’t heard of.

Tuesday

Matchday was upon us and again we were given the odious task of trying to find something to do around town before striking beer o clock. A sophisticated coffee at the cafe inside the castle walls was unsuccessful as they were preparing for a private function, one that probably involved a lot of beer and red shirts. So instead we started chatting to a group from Newcastle Emlyn as we headed back to the row of pubs we ended up last night, the “Coffee House” our pub of choice… and here I stayed from 11am to 30 minutes before kickoff! Good work Christopher!

Although I do have solid experience of staying in pubs for 9 hours, it certainly helped when after lunch the majority of the Welsh contingent arrived on buses from Tirana, including my life-long friend and County fan Donna arrived as Peter went back to the hotel for a siesta. It didn’t take too long at this point for the pub to start bursting in to song, aided immeasurably by a cocktail of… cocktails, and wine once I got fed up of the beer. By the time Peter returned we were hassled to start walking to the ground and we arrived minutes before the anthem sounded.

The game itself was really shit for want of a better word. It will go down in history as the game where Chris Gunter became Wales’ most capped player but little else has lasted long in the memory… perhaps two penalties we should have had, whilst the embarrassing Albanian match winning penalty was rather dubious even from the other side of the pitch, plus athletic track.

We said our goodbyes to Donna and miserably sat down to scoff a pizza before returning to the hotel, even meeting Tom Lockyer’s dad and brother did little to raise my mood. Thankfully as far as the trip went the best was yet to come!

Wednesday

The hotel breakfast room was a bit livelier today, populated with at least a few Swansea supporters, as we checked out. Today we would be heading to Berat, which as the crow flies didn’t seem to far away but considering the road system in Albania took a longer than anticipated two hours.

Certainly the number one thing to see in Berat is the castle that sits at the top of the cliff overlooking the houses built during the Ottoman Empire, and that was number one on our list once we settled in to our accommodation for the evening high up a hill outside of the city.

Worries about the road standards reaching Berat Castle lived up to expectations… more holes than a sponge… and after a wrong turn even had the opportunity to stage the first ever Albanian leg of the World Rally Championship! For added hassle we parked a wet, 10 minute walk outside the castle entrance when we could have parked right outside. Thankfully once we were inside it was worth the effort.

The 13th century citadel overlooks the entire city and River Osum and in it’s heyday contained up to twenty churches, most of which has now fallen foul to nature. We were rewarded with tremendous views over the City and scaling the ruins was interesting. Unlike any other castle I have visited (apart from Elbasan funnily enough) there we people who lived in the castle walls, and a wrong turn could well find you tripping over a chicken in a front garden! In one of the photos you can just about make out the remnants of a rainbow. Cute.

After our easier, yet still bumpy descent from the castle to the centre we parked up in the main square. It was pleasant to see in front of us a church and a mosque side by side as we walked along the main promenade before lunch in a decent restaurant mixing Italian and Albanian cuisine, the family business consisted of the son front of house whilst Mum was cooking the food… that reminds me I haven’t left that review I promised them… #hownot2keepreviewpromises…

Sun already setting, we returned to the hotel, had a plethora of dishes for tea and planned our itinerary for tomorrow.

Thursday

A great night sleep meant we hit the road to our final stopover in Sarande in good spirits. Sarande lies on the south-west coast a few miles from the island of Corfu, and is Albania’s most popular seaside tourist destination. We booked our room for the night in a hotel and spa that wouldn’t look out of place along the Costa Blanca and with that came the possibility of going in the sea which was something I was keen to do. In November. Unlikely?

First up though we had to get there, which was straight forward up until the point where we left the main motorway and climbed a mountain that seemed to never end. In fact it was some 300m incline.

An additional stop to the trip was an area that was called the blue eye, just a short 5 minute drive from the main road we traveled on. As we approached the area, that I’m sure was regarded as Albania’s most beautiful place, I became apprehensive as the nearby farm and stream did little to raise the pulses. However, I was pleasantly surprised when a path opened up to the area we were looking for. The Blue Eye is natural spring that pumps up so much water it creates a fast flowing stream running for miles. It is thought that the spring is at least 50 metres deep, but due to the pressure it has so far been impossible to measure how deep the hole actually is. If that was impressive the colour was on par. The blue and greens that emerge from the area that can be no wider than two metres in diameter was something difficult to catch ‘on film’.

The mostly flat, but still bumpy commute from here to Sarande was a lot less adventurous and we arrived at our 4* resort mid-afternoon. What I’m sure would be a packed out (and a LOT more expensive than 48 quid) hotel in the summer was somewhat of a ghost town. One of my defining memories of the trip was when I asked the receptionist if it was OK to go in the sea. The look of “are you having a laugh you daft twat” was impossible to hide as I walked jollily out back towards the grit and the waters edge. It was cold, and a little lonely before Peter came (mildly unimpressed to be seen with me) and took some photos while I was the polar opposite of The Little Mermaid. When is the next time I can say I’ve swam in the Albanian riviera a month before Christmas, or whenever for that matter.

A quick dry off and change and we set off to grab some dinner which would be our last proper meal before home. This was somewhat challenging considering 95% of the shops were shut because it was off-season but we finally managed somewhere on the pier that provided some really nice food watching the sun set, a tad disappointed that I had ordered pizza and chips.

Friday

The morning didn’t get off to the best of starts when we were told breakfast was in room with no tables, people or lights. We were a little pushed for time so saw the positive side, in that we could get going, making our five hour trip back up north, up-and-over the mountain towards the airport on the outskirts of Tirana.

And thank goodness we did! It was all going to plan when we stopped for breakfast (chicken and chips don’t judge) at a services but it we were only about a third of the journey through before we were escorted off the beaten track due to road works. As I have already mentioned, off the beaten track in Albania doesn’t mean a little detour. It would be easier riding a unicycle on the surface of Mars than some of the roads we had to endure for the middle third of our trip. I’m sure at one point I looked in a pothole so deep I seen a sign selling magma. Writing this some two months later it doesn’t seem like a big deal but there were points where us missing our flight was a genuine possibility.

Long story short. We made it to the airport and dropped the car off with enough time to spare to fulfil my allocation of cheap tobacco and an overpriced sarnie.

Thanks for reading, Chris x
#hownot2life

Football: Denmark, September 2018

~ HowNot2Life

A 7am drive to Gatwick on Saturday resulted in our flight landing in Copenhagen at 2pm and we checked in to our hotel, which was rather posh. Whereas I’m happy sleeping in bunkbeds at the cheapest hostel in a 20 miles radius, Pete prefers a 4* establishment… so we compromised and stayed in a 4* establishment. The lengths you have to go to get good WiFi and more than one pillow. 

Once we sorted ourselves out, dumped our bags and checked the County score we headed out. A walk through the park in Christiania, then past Tivoli amusement park led us to the meat packing district (keep the jokes to yourselves), where many old warehouse units now housed cool, alternative dining. Our recommendation to visit Warpigs off a friend didn’t let us down as we enjoyed parts of a pig I didn’t know existed along with a crisp pint of IPA to wash it down. 

When travelling with Mikayla I tend to have a strict itinerary, however this time around my tourism plans for the weekend were held in a single text message I compiled a few weeks prior. The plan for the evening was to walk to Nyhavn but this was the other side of the City and I had friends having a pint nearby both a) promising me a cheap-beyond-belief pint for £2.30 and b) desperate to enjoy my terrible banter and shit jokes. That place was the Old Irish Pub just a two minute walk from the main train station and central square.

What began as an innocent pint soon turned in to an all-night bender, especially once Pete decided to head back after half an hour. The establishment was already full with my countrymen chanting, singing alone with the acoustic guitarist on stage and even ‘borrowing’ his microphone on the odd occasion. Many of us around the table just had just been following Newport win 1-0 away at Oldham making us joint-top of the league, leading us to bellow out numerous tunes the carousel of musicians entertained us with.

I must admit I did have concerns early on if everyone would be able to behave themselves for the duration of the night but fair play, even once the pub filled up with more locals than the Red Wall, everyone behaved impeccably – unless the last 5 or so that were still there when I left at 3am kicked off, but I doubt.

To say I woke up feeling fresh the next day would be… absolute bollocks. 
Remembering the great night experienced and that I had a football game to go to, by the time we made the mile walk to our Wonky Sheep coach I was fully conscious, hydrated and washed. Only when we sat on the coach did it hit me how far we would be travelling. Four hours on a coach is a rare occasion for me nowadays as I seldom go and watch the County away anywhere over three.

The trip was made pleasant by some cracking pieces of bridge architecture, me sleeping for large spells and our driver’s dry sense of humour getting the odd laugh from his passengers. We arrived in Aarhus at lunchtime and had a walk through the town. 

Aarhus seemed nice. Quiet, with a picturesque river alongside countless café bars, albeit making you pay for the experience. The four bottles of Somersby cider at a cost of £22 didn’t fit my frugal agenda and if you’d seen my reaction to the bank balance after the trip you would understand. We sacrificed the option to get a lift to the ground, instead joining the red stream of Welsh and Danish supporters congregating with excitement to Ceres Park.

The decision to move the game from Copenhagen to Aarhus would have upset a lot of Welsh supporters and the associated costs didn’t help matters, but I got the feeling the locals appreciated the opportunity. The ground was basic but adequate and with the reception the Danish players received, you couldn’t imagine they embarrassingly ditched their country over a few extra quid during the week leading up to the evening.

Our anthem was ‘on point’ as one would expect. Win lose or draw it’s always up there with the highlight of the game/day/trip. Wales started the match well, Giggs changed the team more than I had hoped with Gunter starting and Brooks on the bench, but until a mistake led to the Eriksen goal I thought we were the better team, albeit creating little in front of goal. By the time Denmark were awarded their second, a harsh-not-dodgy penalty decision, we seemed to have ran out of ideas without an obvious plan B. The potential witnessed on Thursday wasn’t all there, and as many media outlets labelled it, we came back down to earth. Credit to Denmark though, I personally underestimated their quality and if it wasn’t for three brilliant saves from Hennessey it could have been more.  It was a long trip back to Copenhagen.

After a much better sleep than the night before (I had a lie in whilst Pete treated himself to the hotel breakfast buffet) it was time to tackle some of the sights that I sacrificed on Saturday in lieu of the pub. I still had just a list of places, but Pete during his give or take 8-course brekkie had discovered the best way to get to the famous Little Mermaid statue was via the public boats.

This allowed us to see the national opera house and army barracks before we reached “Kastellet”, a 17th century citadel along the river. I was forewarned that the Mermaid itself is rather underwhelming, and I tend to agree. The statue is only around a metre in height and doesn’t benefit from any particularly beautiful backdrop. The area itself was nice to have a walk around and more importantly than life itself, it was another superficial tick on my superficial list. 

We were making good time so we decided to walk south to Nyhavn, a small harbour area adorned with colourful buildings and countless café bars and restaurants. On the way here we came to Amalienborg square, the home of the Royal family and Frederik’s Church nearby which was a very grand building.

I’m never going to be the ultimate tourist, but feeling the need to force myself in to Churches and boring museums would be enough for me to want to stay home. Get over it. On this occasion however, the church did take my interest and once inside you could see the grandiose artwork inside of the huge dome overlooking the peaceful atmosphere of worshipers and tourists trying (failing) to be silent. 

On to Nyhavn, I think the picture speaks more than words here. I’m quite proud of this picture, not often do I take one I’m pleased with without having to add several newly-found Instagram filters. We passed on the opportunity to grab some lunch, I had very little money left and had a gutsful of considering buying a club sandwich and fries for £18 everywhere we went. Instead we sat down for a drink in a place called McJoy’s… the implied “joy” soon slipped away once I had agreed to a £6 pint of draught sparking water, SIX POUNDS! Without wanting to go ragingly off topic, at home £6 worth of fizzy bloody water would get me 30 LITRES from the supermarket; it’s usually free in pubs! It was a really nice lemon slice though and I was promised the ice was produced using unicorn tears… sigh.

#Watergate over with, we on got chatting to a chap who was spending the day in Copenhagen during his cruise with his wife (who he’d managed to shake off – good work). Once he had introduced himself by boasting about the fact he only paid 20KR for his cup of coffee, we had an interesting conversation around his time serving in Vietnam, all the places we have visited and his current tour along the coast of Europe. It felt like between the two of them there weren’t many stones left unturned… but have they been to Mansfield away on a Tuesday night? As interesting as our brief time chatting away in the sunshine was, once the bloke declined Pete’s offer for a photograph (he don’t believe in those things (mobile phones)) we paid the bill – one kidney lighter – and continued back into the centre wary that in a  few hours we would be making our way to the airport. 

I had devoured a hot-dog that just about fell in line with the Chris’-suitable-prices-to-pay-for-things, so we made a move through the fashion district (boy did we feel out of place) that concluded at our final destination of The Round Tower, or Rundetaarn, that would give us views across the city. As my calves are still recovering from the step climbing in Prague it was a delight to walk up the tower using a spiral ramp – an “equestrian staircase” rather steps. The tower wasn’t huge – Denmark is a very flat country, and the highest natural point in Denmark we actually passed on the way to Aarhus, and that was only 170m above sea-level – so it didn’t take long to reach the summit and enjoy the best views the city had to offer. On the way down we overheard someone say that it is the world oldest observatory tower too, so we’ll take their word for that. 

Following a quick rest for a drink in one of the many bustling courtyards, we caught the metro back to the hotel to begin the journey home. During this point was when I logged in to online banking… 

Ohhh…. Shit. 

Here’s hoping my current eBay sale brings in a few quid before the next game in Dublin on the 16th October! I may even have to drink less. 

Thanks for reading! Why not follow me on Instagram for more babbling rubbish?