Five days ago, I walked through Fairy Glen in Wales and had, after deleting apps on my phone, got my camera to start working again. It was a very green hillside with the sound of a river coming through the trees. There was moss growing all the way around the base of the trees and covering entire logs. I even saw branches wrapped in moss. The place was serene and it was a short, easy walk.
After getting back to town, I found out that the people I had run into yesterday contacted me to let me know their plans were changing. (What I left out about the 6th of August is that they had offered me a ride to a train station in Wolverhampton or to Bristol to stay the night at my new friend's college flat.) It's an off campus flat shared among students. In the first message, they were saying they were leaving in a couple hours (now, since I read this a couple hours late) and then another one saying they actually decided to climb Snowdon instead since the weather cleared up a bit. I ended up spending much of the day in town after that just in case they contacted me again which was silly since it takes a good 4 to 6 hours to go up and down Snowdon.
The following morning, I get a ride from my new friends at 9:30 and we make our way to Bristol. We made a stop for coffee and another for lunch. Upon arriving in Bristol in the afternoon, I see the flatmates have just paused "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" and I point to the TV and exclaim, "I approve!" and it was an instant bond. Around 6 or 7, we made our way to a local pub for bargain burger Wednesday.
Thursday, after a breakfast of buttered toast and coffee, I walked to the store with the friend I met on top of a mountain and then wandered all the way to the bottom of the street and before heading back I bought another cheap book, an American classic entitled A Separate Peace. I've now read Just a Boy and Redwall and re-read The Secret Life of Bees.
There was a lot of reluctance, but I did end up buying train tickets for that day and was back at Stanford Hall Thursday evening. Despite a mistake of misreading 14:00 as 4:00, I was able to get on the 4:00 train without a hitch. Even the change over was pretty seamless. I just had to ask where to catch a train to Rugby since it wasn't a final destination for any of the trains. Since I selected the 4:00 train instead of the 2:00 train, I happened to run into friends from Stanford Hall who were just about to head back. They had already found a ride with someone in their taxi. (She had already hailed down a taxi for herself, to get to Stanford Hall, and since it was a van, there was plenty of space.) I had gotten there at the perfect moment to get a free ride back with friends.
Friday was my first day of the Festival and I must say it was less crazy than the Give festival a while back. There were still plenty of people, but it wasn't as noisy as I was expecting. I used a meal voucher for a more fulfilling breakfast, took a look around at all the things going on and then spent most of my day reading my three in one Redwall book. Not feeling particularly hungry, I skipped lunch and had planned on taking a nap, but the sun had come out from behind the clouds and turned the tent into a furnace. That evening we all went to the festival to eat so that no one would have to cook.
Saturday, I started my morning with an 8 am gong bath. Having woken up pretty late, I just had time to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and grab a bike. It was the most relaxing 90 minutes I've had in a long time despite missing breakfast. Afterward, I used another meal voucher to get a veggie sausage and egg sandwich on ciabatta. To end my day, I did a writing workshop, ate some dinner and had a really good, long chat with a friend of mine with whom I was sharing a tent.
Today, I started my day in the Midlands at Stanford Hall and now I am back in Bristol with my new friends. I'll let you know how the adventure develops. In the meantime, it's way past my bedtime. Over and out.
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