As our Summer had been a lot busier than planned (I'm talking about work here, not fun in the sun), we had to scrap our plan to go on a week-long road trip across Wales before landing at a cottage in Blaenau Ffestiniog for a week. We also had to work part of the time we were at said cottage, BUT we managed to squeeze in lots of fun with friends, and that's all that counts.
I had always wanted to visit Wales and as it's really not far at all from Yorkshire, I decided this year was the year. I booked our cottage months ago, sometime in the Spring and definitely on a whim, and it was a lovely little place. If only I had done more research I may have stumbled upon the fact that Blaenau Ffestiniog stands for bleak and rainy. Luckily for us, the rain held out for most of the week! As for the bleak... well, it wasn't too bleak except for the gastro-scene. Let's put it this way: after a couple of days we decided we were better off living on garlic-bread from the Co-op. At least that stuff never disappoints!
By pure chance, some of our dear friends from Paris were also going to be in the area at the same time, so what might have been a week of me waiting for Boyfriend to finish proof-reading yet another book turned into a lovely time of exploring castles and going on looooong walks and searching for decent food. I also really love not being in charge, as that's the default setting when it's just the two of us.
Our first stop was Aber Falls with its beautiful waterfall (duh) and inquisitive wild poneys.
North Wales is a former slate-mining area (we even go to visit one of the mines! more on that later) so naturally, there is slate everywhere. Check out this beautiful fence made of slate. I. WANT. ONE.
What can I say? Boys like to pretend to have fights with old logs?
Well I'm going to leave you with these pics for now as this post was ready weeks ago but a mysterious, nerve-wracking and totally unresolved broadband issue has stopped me from posting... I've pretty much lost hope of ever getting a decent connexion speed again, after 30 hours on the phone and a switch of provider and 3 different technicians coming to our house. I'm tired. I'm fed up. I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to upload photos ever again, luckily I managed to sneak a few more of Wales onto my Flickr page before this hellish nightmare happened. Take a look here.
