Day 31 - Caerdydd a Abertawe

Today was the first day of my adventure in Wales. My goal was to experience Wales and learn more about the Welsh people. I always wanted to hear people speaking the Welsh language. I started by going to Caerdydd (Cardiff) and Abertawe (Swansea). Those were very neat cities - I attached a few pictures at the bottom. From Swansea, I wanted to catch the Heart of Wales Line to go through the middle of Wales. Only 4 trains run through there per day, and I ended up having to wait a few hours and take the last train of the day.

As I was riding toward the middle of Wales around sunset, I discovered that I wouldn't be able to get back to Reading until 3:46 AM! Oops! After asking one of the train operators about hotels in Shrewsbury, the nearest major town (which was in fact quite far away, not even in Whales), a Welshman sitting near me on the train started talking to me. He eventually offered to let me stay with him and his wife at their farm near Llandovery, one of the next stops. It seems a little scary to spend the night at a complete stranger's house, especially in a foreign country. But I couldn't resist this opportunity to truly experience Wales. So I accepted.

Shortly after arriving at the farm house, I discovered that this man who I met on the train was no ordinary Welshman. He was, in fact, the President of the National Library of Wales and chairman for the Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies! He has written several books about the Welsh people (one of which, entied "World-wide Wales", he gave me a signed copy). I wanted to learn about the Wales, and there I was at the home of one of the most knowledgable people in the world on the subject of Wales and Welsh people. On one wall were pictures of him with some very well-known people who he had met with -- including Prince Charles, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mary McAleese (president of Ireland) to name a few. He even preaches at a local Welsh-speaking church, and his wife (who made me a wonderful fried egg from their own chickens that night) teaches Welsh at a nearby college!

How amazing is that? Later on he told me that he originally wasn't even planning to be in Swansea (where our train came from) that day, and that he usually doesn't talk to people on the train. We both agreed that it was an example of God's providence.

And the next day was even better, but I'm a day behind on the blogging so I'll write about it tomorrow.


(click on image to see larger version)

posted by Matt @ 11:57 PM