Shrewsbury

Not very many pictures in this post (and the world breathes a sigh of relief). We had a full house in Shrewsbury (7-8 at any given time while I was there) and it was just a lovely, relaxing and well-spent few days with good company and good food and such generous hospitality with putting up with their American cousin for five days. The Shrewsbury crew is the greatest 🙂

We played many games:

Settlers of Catan three times (that one almost ruined relationships guys). Taboo. And a game about lying to customs’ officials.

 

Not one, but TWO cats. I miss mine. Even though Cinnamon hates me the ungrateful wretch. Anywaaaaay….

 

 

It also included a lovely time wandering the town center of Shrewsbury.

 

One morning, we went on a trek over to Wales to the little picturesque town of Llangollen which is not pronounced how it’s spelled, which is typical for Welsh…and English as well actually so I really can’t be too hard on them.

We started in town, bought some meat pasties to take with us, and then started up to the castle. The boys seemed properly prepared. I was slightly less so (I figured I’d done mild hiking in the hills of Sevilla and Austria and a fairly intensive hike in San Sebastian so yeah. Totally prepared. NOT). After wheezing my way to the top, I got to enjoy a stunning view and some great castle ruins of Dinas Bran.

Such a pretty town!

 

We had a quick water and apple break among the ruins before exploring and trying not to get knocked off the hill by the crazy wind

 

We climbed back down to the plateau and the boys used an existing fire pit to make a fire and then heat up our pasties over two pieces of slate. So we now know who will survive in the case of a zombie apocalypse.

 

The best part of my time though was getting to go to the fundraiser for my cousin, who is heading to Albania for a mission trip soon. The event was a ceilidh, which is of Scottish origin and basically just a big get-together involving good food and lots of dancing to set dances (luckily there was a “caller” telling us what to do!)

This was quite possibly the most fun night of my life and we got to eat curry and raise money for her trip at the same time so good feelings all around 🙂

Set up, waiting for the band and everyone to arrive! The colors are to match the Albanian flag.

Cut from a napkin. No it was not my doing.

Dancing was really just mad chaos most of the night but also mad fun so it’s all alright 🙂

And there ends the England tour stop #3.

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