48 hours!

Hello all!  Its been a whirlwind weekend and im going to try to sum it all up but not in a novel.  As you may know, Aaron came to visit me this weekend.  Unfortunately due to his work, he could only take Thursday off (he had Friday as a holiday) so it worked out that he had about 48 hours to spend with me in England.  Thursday he flew to Newark and then was supposed to leave at 7:30pm from Newark to arrive at Manchester at 7:30am Friday morning.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen L  His flight from Newark was late leaving by 2 hours because they couldn’t get the plane across the airport even though United’s website said the plane had been at the airport since 1pm.  After finally leaving and being in the air for an hour, the pilot came on and said they were turning around and heading back to Boston for a medical emergency.  Now when I think of a medical emergency, I think of life or death and the person is extremely sick.  Not a person that gets off the plane on their own accord and smiling, which is what this woman did!!  They spent the next 2 hours at the Boston airport waiting to take off again.  Finally, aaron arrived around 1pm into Manchester, 5 hours late.  I was extremely pissed at United at first but I had to get over it and just be thankful he was here. 

Our original plan was to head to Liverpool so he could see the beatles museum and then head to the coast of Wales where we had a bed and breakfast reserved.  We skipped Liverpool and headed straight to wales.  I have to say I was pretty excited to have a car because the drives through the countryside were absolutely breathtaking.  We first made a stop in the town of Conwy to see their castle.  I had already been so I knew it was beautiful and figured a 10 minute detour would be good for Aaron.  Conwy is on the north end of England, next to the Irish sea.  We didn’t stay long, just enough to snap a few pictures since the Castle was already closed for the day. 

We then headed to the town of Caernarfon (your guess is as good as mine as to how to pronounce it) which is on the west side of Wales, bordering the Irish sea as well.  The town is quite small but it was so beautiful.  When we pulled up to our B&B, it reminded me of rainbow row in San Fran because the homes were all painted different colors.  And to say the streets were narrow is a major understatement!!  It took both of us to drive, one person steering and one person checking to make sure the car wasn’t going to hit the walls or other cars.  Friday night we walked around the town for a second and made a pit stop in a local pub that was built in the 1500s.  We tried a few local brews and they were quite delicious.  I wish there were cask ales back in the States, they taste so much better than our beer.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cask_ale -> Click on the link to see that they are totally different than the US keg beer.  After the pub stop, we made our way to a cute little Italian restaurant for dinner then headed home to pass out. 

Saturday morning Aaron was super jet lagged so we took it easy with a quick stroll around the town and the castle. The tower we climbed up had amazing views of the town, the sea and the countryside.  3 views from 1 spot – doesn’t get much better than that!  We didn’t have long in the town before we had to head out to make our train journey in Snowdonia National Forest.  I had booked us tickets for a train ride up Mount Snowdon which is the highest mountain in England/Wales.  

It was a bit of a fiasco getting there.  The GPS took us to one location that just didn’t look right.  While it had a train station, nothing said “Snowdonia Mountain Railway” which is what our tickets said.  When I found a guy to ask, he said we were in the wrong spot but it was a 10 minute walk.  Of course, it was 1145 and our train was at noon so we hopped back in the car and pulled into the correct parking lot to grab the last parking space (whew).  We ran across the street to grab the train only to find a line of 25 people waiting for the ticket counter.  I knew if we waited in line, we were not making the train.  I had to plead my case to a few people (and cut in front of the 25 people) before finally getting the tickets and getting on the train just in time.  The train wasn’t going up to the summit because of the weather but it was still a neat little journey.  The train car holds about 40 people and its not very fast but it gave us time to enjoy the scenery.  There was still snow on the ground and the farther up we climbed, the less we could see because of the dense fog.  By time we made it to the ¾ mark where we were stopping, you couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of you because of the fog and clouds.  Little bummed we couldn’t see the whole mountain (I was told the views are awesome) but it also gave it that true “English feel” with rainy, foggy weather.  Lots of people were hiking up the mountain which they said could take 5-6 hours to hike up and back but im glad we didn’t as most everyone had serious hiking gear on.  

After the train ride, we headed to Liverpool so Aaron could make a pit stop at the Beatles gift shop and to the Cavern, a replica of the Beatles hangout.  I showed him around the town and we did a little shopping before heading home.  Saturday night we fixed our craving for Indian food and then passed out after feeling as if we needed to be rolled out.  Next thing you know, I was taking Aaron to the airport for his 9:30am flight Sunday Morning.  Its crazy to think I had less than 48 hours with him, and he spent more time on airplanes and in airports than he did with me but I was so grateful for him to come!! 

I keep telling myself that this is a once in a lifetime experience but I miss Aaron, my friends and my family like crazy!! I just have to remember to make the most of it and figure out where im going next weekend J