June 2013

On the Monday, we made the trip to North Wales, where we stopped at the small town of Conwy, visiting the remains of the Castle, the city walls, and the port side (where the smallest house in Great Britain is located), giving us some traditional Welsh heritage. Afterwards we carried on further into the country, crossing the Menai Straits onto Anglesey, where there were some stunning views of not only the strait and the bridges crossing it, but also of Snowdonia.

We then arrived at the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (the place with the second longest name in the world), where we had some photos taken outside the signs, and visited the gift shop, before driving to the other end of the island to Holyhead, where the ferries leave to Dublin. Shockingly enough, it was even necessary to use sunglasses!

The following day we visited the historic town of Chester, walking around the city walls and looking at the beautiful buildings. We then made the trip up the Wirral to Birkenhead, where we got a view over Liverpool - staying just a few minutes before quickly exiting Merseyside

The following day was our last full day in the area, and was also the nicest, reaching 24˚C, spending it at Alton Towers. Despite arriving at park opening time, the queues for the largest rides were still over an hour long, however we did manage to ride most of the biggest rides at the park that day, topping off what had been a thoroughly enjoyable few days in the area.

Next stop, Malta!

The city is famous mostly for the Palace of Parliament, the second largest, most expensive, and heaviest building in the world - containing several different functions of the running of the state. It is also open for tourists to visit, and on the second day of my trip I took a tour, visiting many rooms (including state meeting rooms and a theatre), the basement and the rooftop terrace.

The building is almost completely made out of marble with huge chandeliers, and has some impressive views. The balcony overlooking the 2 mile long boulevard was particularly impressive, and just standing on it even made me feel very powerful! I imagine that anyone with real power must feel incredible! Despite the tour lasting almost an hour and a half, we still only saw 8% of the building.

The whole area was redeveloped after 12% of the city was demolished, and it now looks absolutely stunning. With many fountains and beautifully landscaped boulevards. However one thing was immediately clear...it was very grubby. With a good clean it would be absolutely beautiful and could really increase tourism to the city.

Also visited were some of the many churches and monasteries, parks and gardens, theatres, and famous sites in the history of Bucharest - such as Revolution Square, and Arcul de Triumf.

Interesting too was the Village Museum, where traditional houses and other buildings had been moved from all over Romania to show urban dwellers what the countryside is like. This gave me the opportunity to see what traditional houses were like without actually having to go - and with the entrance fee being just 50p, this was well worth the visit.

Bucharest on the whole was pretty cheap, and gave me a packed three days of sightseeing, and there was beautiful weather to go with it! Even at 18:30 it was 27˚C, as well as being sunny all day long!