Carreg Cennen

 I have to get a few things off my chest.

One, everything in Wales closes at 5:00, except for the things that close at 4:00. As a person who believes 10:00 is plenty early enough for breakfast, this gives me a very narrow window of sigh-seeing to work with, in no small part because of

Two, it takes for freaking ever to get from point A to point B in Wales (I am not at all convinced that it's any different in the rest of the UK (or Britain, or England, Scotland and Ireland, both Northern and not (since I don't think the roads are vastly different between the two)) but since I haven't experienced it for myself, I don't want to speak out of turn.) There is an old movie called The Reluctant Debutante where an American girl dances with an English boy at a ball and he spends the entire dance telling her which roads he took and why.

I thought he was just some weird, nerdy guy in the movie.

He was not. (Well, he was, but I have become him. Or I would if I had any idea what road I was on from one moment to the next. Which brings up point 2.1 where I have to say Google maps hates Wales (again, probably true elsewhere, but I can't speak from experience). When we were there in 2017, we came to a T intersection and Google had us turn left, when our destination was clearly to the right. Not wanting to get lost in the middle of the Welsh countryside, we followed Google, turned left, and then turned right, and then turned right, and then turned left onto the to road we had originally turned left off of and now heading in the direction we would have been going if we had turned right. All according to Google.This proved important later.)

Aside from Google's issues, who puts a round about on a freeway? And then puts a dozen freaking exits on it?!?! I cannot possibly count to eight when driving on the wrong side of the road.

There is also a problem with the width of the roads, which could be compared to the width of a car, but not the width of two cars. In point of fact, Google sent us down a road that said "no large vehicles" but did not say "one way". Even though Matthew and I could stick our hands out the windows and touch the hedges on both sides.

We were driving a Mini. At least it wasn't a 'large vehicle.' But the only other vehicle making it past us on that road would have been a bicycle, and we still would have had folliage in the window for that to happen.

See how I have totally digressed on driving in Wales? Just like nerdy guy at the dance.

Taking point one and point two into account, when we first went to Wales in 2017 we went out to see Carreg Cennen, a castle I had found doing research on places to go while we were there. It's set on a hill, has a cave under it, sounded cool. It wasn't far from where we were staying. 35.4 miles, as a matter of fact. We left in the early afternoon, plenty of time to go less than 36 damn miles (sorry for the swears--my brain does this before it explodes--or remembers exploding).

It. Took. Three. Hours.

That included turning left WHEN WE COULD SEE THE CASTLE TO THE RIGHT (it was on a hill, remember, so even though we weren't 'close' to it at the time, we could SEE it). That included sitting at the mouth of a road THAT WAS NO WIDER THAN OUR CAR WITH OUR ARMS STICKING OUT THE WINDOW and wondering what the hell we would do if we encountered another car coming towards us (sorry, brain exploding).

We got there ten minutes before it closed and they wouldn't let us in, since we had to walk up a hill to get to it and we would have just made it to the top of the hill when they locked the gates.

I was bitter.

A year ago today I finally made it to Carreg Cennen. And cheated on Caerphilly.

Oh my goodness. Who needs a moat when you have a hill?

Who needs a leaning tower when you have this view?

And, forgive me, who needs a family of dragons you can't even touch when you have an honest to goodness cave? Because we all know that cave was once home to a dragon. And the steps and passageway leading down to it? It was this fantasy-loving, fairytale-believing girl's dream come true.

The steps.

The passageway.

So, although Caerphilly will always hold a place in my heart, Carreg Cennen is my soul castle.

Also? It has bunnies.

I know it's impossible to see them, but that's a whole warren right there and there are bunnies in that picture, I promise. It was like Watership Down. I squeed a bit.