Wales and Halloween

So, this last weekend, I planned a trip to Stonehenge, Salisbury and the southern half of Wales. As is my usual, these plans got completely borked - and I had to throw Stonehenge and Salisbury out of the equation (Don't worry - I'm already in the process of making plans to head back there in December. I will stand in front of the awe that is Stonehenge before I leave Europe for the semester).
On Saturday, I traveled out to Cardiff and visited the castle (if you've read any of my previous blogs, I'm sure that you know by now that this is my ultimate obsession). Cardiff Castle houses a Norse tower in the center of its grounds, which we only got halfway up before having to run back down for the "exclusive" tour in the living quarters of the Castle.
If I remember correctly, the Castle was privately owned up until the late 19th century, whereas the Lord of the home gave the castle to the city of Cardiff (his family only lived there six weeks of the year anyway), so the house is completely maintained with all of its original furniture, books, etc.
Although my greatest pleasure it terms of castles is crawling around the ruins looking for buried treasure, the living quarters of Cardiff Castle was absolutely amazing. The family had the money to design their home any way they wanted (again, even though they only lived in it for six weeks of the year - four in the summer and two for Christmas) and some of the ceilings are literally worth more than I make in a year. One of my favorite rooms, other than the one featured above with the gold plated ceiling which was the Lord's wife's personal room, was the one featured below. It was the Lord's personal garden and thinking room on the very top of the Castle. The Lord believed you could only find God in Nature, so the fountain in the middle of the room is sculpted with dozens of animals, and the walls are painted with them. The room also featured a Madonna with child sculpture - it is one of the few in the world where the Madonna is smiling - and in the evenings, as the sun was setting, the light would shine through the back window to perfectly illuminate the statue.

To be honest, I spent more time relaxing in Wales than I did site-seeing. I did get a chance to see the outside of the Millenium Stadium, where all the World-Cup games are hosted, and go to the Cardiff Musuem, but all in all I spent more time just hanging out with a fiend of mine who lives in Southern Wales learning about the Welsh culture.
One of the reasons I chose to study abroad was to immerse myself in cultures that were different from my own, whether that be in social gatherings, language, history, or whatever. In Wales, I felt slightly uncomfortable because I had placed myself in a culture whose social gatherings most often occurred in bars, or where alcohol was located. It took me the better part of the weekend to realize that while the consumption of alcohol was almost a requirement for their social gatherings, being drunk was not. It was part of their daily lives simply because they had grown up with it as part of their daily lives.
While this seemed strange to me, as much of the drinking that I've seen and heard about in the States is revolved around getting completely plastered, it was also refreshing. Although I'm not an avid fan of alcohol, it was nice to see it used in a responsible way in social gatherings. Of course, this was made much more interesting considering I was out on Halloween night - and it seemed to be a pretty big deal out in Wales. About 85% of the people I saw were dressed up in costume!
All in all, it was an incredible trip, but mostly because I was able to do what I set out to do when I came to study abroad - immerse myself in another culture. If you're looking to visit Wales for a weekend, I would suggest doing a tour of Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, and Cardiff, if you're going to be in the area.

More soon!
~Heather~