There are no whales in Wales, but there are a lot of cows.

And an old castle or several. Actually just one. But there are a LOT of cows. And small horses hanging out in bushes on top of blustery hills.

BUT I DIGRESS. About a million weeks ago (read: 2) my friends and I embarked on an epic journey to... to be honest, we don’t think we were in a town in Wales. We were on a farm, and we ended up in a town called Mumbles at some point but while we were on the farm... picture the solitude of the farm in Little House on the Prairie. Except with less Laura Ingles Wilder and more Welsh chickens underneath the window.

ANYWAY, we stayed in a 6-person room with a HUGE shower

LOOK AT THIS THING.

But it was kinda daunting to use. We also had a desk, a full size bed and two sets of bunk beds. It was like one big sleepover. On Saturday, we went on a full day of horseback riding around the Welsh countryside; up  some hills, down some hills, and really far away from some cliffs.

It was... more difficult than I expected. The last time I rode a horse like this was when I was in Girl Scouts and I rode through a trail in some camp down the Cape. I had a big ol’ horse named Annie, who was gorgeous, calm and lazy. They gave me a stick to hit her shoulders when she got too slow, but even that didn’t make her go faster. Either that or I just wasn’t being harsh enough.

Annie, not caring about me whatsoever.

We stopped at a pub, and then went back into the sunset to curl up in a bed and watch tv for a while. It was Guy Fawkes Day while we were there, so we went into Mumbles, Wales and partied it up. And by partied it up, I mean pitchers of mixed drinks for £7.95.

Why yes, this is as classy as it looks.

Yep. Apparently there’s not much else to do in Mumbles, Wales, Aside from light things on fire on the beach, which we did NOT do.

On Sunday, after sleeping “in” until 8 (as opposed to 7:15 the day before) we took an epic hike to Three Cliffs Bay, where we scared some birds, climbed some hills and hung out in an old castle.

THIS WAS AMAZING.

Also, Wales is gorgeous. At least they have that going on? Afterwards we all passed out on the train home. And had very, very sore body parts.

I have to say, before I came to the UK I never thought I’d actually get to Wales. Scotland, yes. Ireland, oh yes. Wales? Eh. I didn’t know much about Wales before and, to be honest, I still don’t know that much. Wales was taken over in the twelfth century and then never heard from again. My core history class is based on London from 1666 but Scotland and Ireland are at least discussed, if minorly; Wales isn’t talked about at all. They’re not even represented on the Union Jack, and they were taken over by England before England was really even England.

Poor Wales. At least they still have their culture, right? Wales, Scotland and Ireland are all descended from Celtic societies, why didn’t they just ban together and kick the Anglo-Saxon butts in England? I guess we’ll never know.