June 29th- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, AKA the City with the Longest Name in the World!

Today, we were told we were going to ride a fairy to whales. It sounded like the most magical thing we could think of. And then our hopes and dreams were crushed.

For some reason, I always thought that ferries would be small and flat and open air. That’s not what these “sea trucks” were. They are like mini cruise-liners. Where you can’t afford any of the food and so you eat a protein bar instead. I had planned on sleeping on the way over, but we couldn’t find the lounge chairs, so we played cards on board instead. I went to bed early last night, but it only lasted an hour or two. Then people came in and the light was on and people outside were loud. I think a couple of drunk Germans were singing Material World and the Barbie Girl song. And then Abbey’s alarm went off at 5 am even though she didn’t get up until 6. She sets like ten different alarms, so none of us get any sleep. It’s terrible.

After the ferry, we got a new coach and a new driver. The bus went up, but the driver went down. No driver will ever be as good as Frank. At least when we did the count off, this new driver knew to finish it off, just like Frank did, without being asked. The fancy bus has better seats, and it also a toilet- right smack dab in the middle! But at least you have to go down a few stairs to get to it. And there’s a door. But the driver, Tony, made sure to specify- “liquids only.”

We went to a city with a really long name (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which means “the church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave”) and I went to the coop to get some pounds. Upon traveling around, we discovered that the “Cooperative” owns pretty much any branch of business you can think of. They have a grocery store, a bank, a funeral store, everything. Then we went to Conwy castle, where we took tons of really great pictures, I ate some honeycomb ice cream (which was super creamy and sweet and delicious- especially since I hadn’t really eaten much today, still being cheap), and I got to know the people in my group better. Most of us are starting to be really great friends, even though we’ve only known each other for a little while.

After that, we came to our hostel and walked to the grocery store where all I bought was oranges and muffins. Now we are all chilling watching Cool Runnings. Church tomorrow will be great because tomorrow will be a relaxing day. I just hope they don’t call on me to give a talk. Cuz apparently they do that spur of the moment here.

PS, to show you how crazy the roads are, while on the bus we went through an archway with only like two inches’ allowance on all sides. It was crazy and a little claustrophobicish.

Also, at the grocery store, the cashiers sit in office chairs. Weird.