Wales

A year ago today I was on a plane flying to Wales. I may have discussed my love affair with Wales before, but that's irrelevant because I'm doing it again.

My uncle got The Chronicles of Prydain for me the Christmas I was thirteen. At the time I was a little devastated because I thought it was for kids and I was far too mature for that kind of nonsense. I soon realized the error of my ways (since I didn't get any other books and I had to read something) and it has had pride of place next to The Lord of the Rings ever since. I loved the story and the characters (I read it again for the second or third time in high school, and the day I finished the last book I laid on my bed and cried because I was saying goodbye to my friends. Even though I could have picked up the first book and started the whole thing all over again right then.) (Nobody gets out of high school emotionally unscathed.) I loved the lessons I learned. (Even though The High King won the Newberry, Taran Wanderer is my favorite of the series, and one of my favorite books of all time.) And I loved the world Lloyd Alexander had created.

This was back in the day when the internet looked exactly like the Encyclopedia Britannica in my school library (I wrote three papers on JRR Tolkien based on the half page of information about him in the encyclopedia, at which point my teacher informed me I had to pick a different author) so the only thing I had to go on was the little explanation Lloyd Alexander had put in the books saying that Prydain was based on Wales.

That was all it took. From the age of thirteen until...now, I have loved Wales. I love the castles (Wales has more castles per square mile than any other country). I love the language (I studied Welsh in college, though that doesn't mean I can speak it). I love the music and the poetry. I love the place names and the mythology. I love the green, the trees, the coast, the mountains, the rivers. And I love the castles.

So a year ago today I was on a plane heading to this place that I loved so very much. It was my second trip there, the first being seven years earlier. It surpassed all of my expectations. I did not know I would also love the sound of sheep bleating across the valley. Or the different dragons on the signs for the different parts of Wales (seriously, I don't know how Wales is devided up, but when we were at/in the Mumbles, the signs had a sea dragon, but when we were inland they had another dragon). I did not know I could love so many different kinds of sausage. I did not know I would feel bereft when I came home and did not have crumpets every morning for breakfast (and any other time during the day). I did not know that there is a Welsh accent that actually sounds like the people are singing when they are just talking. I didn't hear it all the time, and I could probably look it up if I wanted to, but sometimes the magic is in the mystery, and I am content to know it is out there.

I did not know that when I said I loved castles, that would include castles in store parking lots (looking at you, Neath Castle) and castles that were nothing but three and a half stone walls with a herd of sheep grazing inside (don't know the name of that one). Also, to paraphrase Tolkien, castles make long delays. Because there are so darn many, it is physically impossible to make it to your destination, even if it's a freaking castle, without stopping to look at another freaking castle along the way. Very pesky.

There are so many places in this world I would love to go to, and some I've been to that were never even on my radar (Italy, Amsterdam, Nassau, Barcelona). They were beautiful and unexpected, and I'm sure the bucket list places (Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany) are also beautiful. But they will probably be unexpected also, because if given a choice, I will always go back to Wales.

Ever since The Chronicles of Prydain.

That is the power of story.

PS I would be remiss if I did not include The Dark Is Rising Sequence. I didn't discover it until later, but The Grey King is set in Wales, and it confirmed what I already knew. Wales is the place for me.