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I have spent the last 36 hours or so exploring the northern part of Wales, within the area of Anglesey. Using Bangor as a base, I intended to explore both sides of the Menai Strait, namely Llanfairpwll in the north, and Llanberis, on the boarder of the Snowdonia nature reserve in the south, as well as Bangor itself.

Bangor is a quiet, coastal town, similar to Merimbula back home. Well, Merimbula in the winter, as it was no where near as business as Merimbula in the summer, however there is a campus of the University of Wales in Bangor, which was on summer break and usually brings another 12,000 students into the town, which would explain the over-supply of almost empty stores and shopping centres in Bangor, for this time of year.

Llanfairpwll is, of course, the shortened form of its full title of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which translates to “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel, near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio, near the red cave”. It was named this to achieve two goals, to lay claim to the town and train station with the longest name in the world, but also to use this fact as a tourist draw, i.e. it was an early example of a publicity stunt. All I can say it that it must have worked, myself taking time out to make the trip to see it, but also evidenced by a considerable tourist centre, which attracts tour/coach stops. From what I saw, the tourist centre drew in more visitors than the station itself.

After making a trip to Llanfairpwll in the morning, I intended to make a trip down to Llanberis, and up to the peak of Snowden. However, I kind of well victim to the local bus services, which, lacking the precision of the London services, had a mind of its own, picking routes that made a casual path towards their final stop (trips that were estimated by Lonely Planet to take 25 minutes, took almost an hour), as well as the occasional bus going AWOL. After finally making it to LLanberis, I was also disappointed to find that all of the trips up to the peak on the Snowdon were booked out until the evening (due to a rash of tour buses arriving earlier), which was too late for me to make a trip. I guess it was a lesson to show that it pays to pre-book tickets.

Regardless, Llanberis, in the shadow of the Snowdonia ranges was an enjoyable place to explore and kill time before attempting to bus back to Bangor to catch the train back to Cardiff.

I have one more full day in Cardiff before I head back to London, in anticipation of meeting my father and my brother before the F1 in Schools World Championship kicks off and a whole new chapter of my journey begins.

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