Caravan holiday in wales - What else to do?

You know you in snowdonia when you see certain graffiti scrolled on disused farm huts! If youve been you'll know, but its along the lines of 'way hate the english, go home'.

 

It makes me laugh though, though may hate the English but they don't hate all the money they get off us or the jobs we create for tourism.

I personaly welcome any 'foreigners' into Manchester becuase they spend money and that can only be a good thing for the city.

Its not like the English go Snowdonia to get pissed and cause lots of trouble like say Ibiza.

Also don't forget the car is a 1992 1.3 'Kent' Fiesta so it will be interesting to see how it copes on the mountians, however my parents used to have a Lada and that was just about ok. It never got stuck.

 

I used to have a Lada Niva 4wd (in council orange with green hammerite patches) which we went to Snowdonia in every weekend from London.. It had no trouble getting up the hills when it was running, but it had a dodgy alternator - we couldn't start it going up Llanberis pass once so had to bump start it - uphill... Good thing there were 5 of us!

And besides, the Fiesta should make it as all you'll have to do is belt round the coast road to Anglesey, cross the bridge and there you are, flat as a pancake all the way. Bet you don't even move from Benllech!

But don't worry, the "gogs" are only anti-flash car English

And d'you notice that the idea of "Welshness" is completely different depending where in Wales you live?
In the south, where most of the folks live, no-one speaks Welsh, and everyone loves rugby and choirs (it's true!). In the north (where no-one lives) everyone speaks Welsh and hates singing (and it seems everything else but rain...).
And check out "Sheepshagger" by Niall Griffiths for a truly terrifying story of life in Aberystwyth and Cadair Idris.. Best book I've read in years, and required reading before anyone visits Wales..

 

I've always found the Welsh, whilst starting with a vague distrust of the English (or other foreigners for that matter), to always end up taking people as they find them regardless of whether they're English or not. I've spent a lot of time in Wales (north and south for holidays, mid wales I've lived in for most of the last 9 months).

Before going to uni in Aberystwyth I was told I'd meet lots of people who'd insult me just for being English, or would totally ignore me. Yet I haven't met a single person like that, even in the infamously Welsh nationalist halls (Pantecelyn) which are for Welsh speakers only. The only times I've seen Welsh people being genuinely rude to the English (as opposed to the usual ribbing during the six nations and football games) have been when the English people in question have been rude themselves - living in somewhere like Aber makes you realise just how bad some English tourists can be.

Some of the people I've seen here make my blood boil - wandering around in England shirts swigging beer, swearing, spitting in the streets, shouting abuse at people wearing Welsh rugby shirts, constantly making comments about sheep shaggers so everybody else can hear them and so forth. Its the minority of English tourists who act in such a manner, but as always its the vocal minority who get noticed and give everybody else from England a bad reputation. Its not as bad or as apparent as on the Costa del Sol granted as amazingtrade alludes to, but its still quite noticeable at times, and it doesn't surprise me that it annoys some of the locals.

Of the other complaints the Welsh make about the English though, the one about the English pushing up property prices seems rather silly though. One of my flatmates lives near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire (South Wales), and she moans that she'll always be unable to buy a house near her current home as all the English moving into the area pushed up the prices. Well sorry, to me thats market forces, which effect everybody and not the Welsh exclusively - for example my cousin can't afford to buy a house in London despite living there all his life. The influx of English people is also reliant on Welsh people who are willing to sell their homes and make as much money as possible in doing so!

 

Exactly, Southerners have pushed up prices in my local area to stupid amounts, I am now priced out of my area but its just what happens, since the influx of southerners there has been a lot more bars opening etc.

That kind of behaviour should not be tollerated, I didn't think it happened in Wales, I haven't seen it in Wales before, but then a lot of the places I have stayed in Wales have been more expensive caravan sites which were pretty much all English anyway.

I certainly felt welcome in the Welsh pubs I have been in but then I behaved myself and they were tourist pubs.

It sounds like they were only there to cuase trouble. You see it some times in Manchester stupid louts making comments like "I 'ate southern **** back stu-dents" - actually mate I have probably lived here longer than you.

The only time I ever had a problem was when some welsh farmer accused me and my mate of vandalising somthing which I found rather annoying,. They see two mancs and we think we will set fire to the place.

 

Every Welsh pub I've been in has been fine too, I've been in the Vale Of Rheidol and the Yr Hen Lew Du (The Old Black Lion) in Aber which are both very much 'local' pubs rather than student places, and they're both almost exclusively filled with Welsh speakers. But even on match days when it was full of Welsh rugby lads getting tanked up I didn't feel intimated despite being probably the only person speaking English in there!

 

Living on the Boarder i have only once had nasty comments said at me and that was south wales after England had won at the Rugby. I find that if they Welsh are speaking there own Language and i enter the Pub or room they start speaking English not the other way round. One bad thing though i found that in North Wales the people do not like Asian's (save Bangor full of students), I was told this is because the Welsh fought for years to have there own language taught in schools and they think that the goverment are bending over backwards to help the Asians.

 

It looks like this idea is now off, my mates parents don't think his car can make it there, its also £175 for the week which is a bit steep, as we are in London on the 24th and 25th we are now thinking just doing a rail tour of France instead.

I need to work out all the sums but it might not cost that much more, and Wales might be a bit too boring.

Edit France is off - too expensive, but I will suggest Brighton to my mate, its a part of the UK I have never been to before.

 

If you're going to North Wales, a trip up the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog (take these spellings with a pinch of salt ) is a must but make sure you check the time of the last train back or you'll find yourself waiting for a bus like we did!
A little way out of Blaenau, there is a slate mine which is well worth a visit. It even has a fernicular and an underground train ride.

And I'll second that pub in Capel Curig. We stayed in a hostel there call something like Tal-y-Bont or maybe Tan-y-Bont. Something like that anyway.