Day Eighteen: A Welsh Birthday!

Well, I woke up today as a 21 year old...

which doesn't say a whole lot actually when you also wake up having the mental age of a 26 year old, the height of a 16 year old, the memory of an 85 year old, and the attention span of a 9 year old. But waking up as an official 21 year old was pretty new and exciting, so I figured that was a pretty awesome way to start off a day; good enough to get up and keep makin the rest of it awesome! 

I got to start my birthday at 4am today, since we had to be packed for our overnighter and in the van by 5am! I got up and ready for the day. As I was packing my rucksack with the things I had set out the night before, Theresa came running in, gave me a gigantic hug, and wished me my first happy birthday greeting.

Oh yeah, this day has already been made, and it's not even 5am yet! :)

I came downstairs once I had everything packed for today's trip and made some breakfast. Miya greeted me just as I was finishing with a huge sparkly silver tiara. She said that I had to wear it all day, starting right now. I fit the tiny plastic tiara on my head and gave her a big hug. How my temples were going to survive this day, I now was unsure, but the idea made my heart just about melt. 

We got everyone loaded up in the van and took off by our planned time. We had a six-hour drive to our hostel, but we were going to be making a lot of stops on our way up and then back the next day. 

First stop: Glastonbury Tor. A Tor is a sacred hill that is very small in circumference, but is very tall and steep. Because they were revered, they almost always have a stone building at the top, or at least have a flat stone foundation. 

So, in the early morning light, we went on our first hike of the day. The hill was crazy steep, but Abby, Josie, Lydia, Miya, and I did it all in one straight climb without stopping. Honestly, I'm not the best hiker in the world, probably just the second best, but this low altitude really makes these hikes (that are more difficult for other people) a ton easier for me, which is a way fun feeling.

When we got to the top of the hill, the view was amazing. You could see farm lands for many many miles in every direction. As I faced the eastern ledge of the hill, the young sun warmed away the chilly shadows that we had climbed through. I could see dozens of farms, the majority still under that mysterious blanket of mist that just loves hugging fields. To my back was, well, first the steep slope of the hill, and then some more low rolling hills, many trees and fields, and then an old fishing town that did business with the vast ocean just beyond.

What also made that place was the towering chapel that was built there on the peak. The hill didn't allow much in the way of wideness, so the builders back in the 1500's made up for that in height. We sat up there for a bit and read that the last pastor of that chapel had been hanged by its ramparts many hundreds of years ago. We also learned that the myth of that place is that since it the hill and the little caves within it are haunted, anyone who spends the night there either loses their mind or becomes a poet...

I'm still not sure which fate is worse. 

I keep forgetting on my way up these hills that the return trip is its own grand adventure too. As I was heading down the tiny trail, I got stuck behind a girl who was going a ton slower than my group and I, which was making it really tricky. I happened to glance back at my party just as Miya rocketed off of the trail and started deftly thundering down the brush of the hill. 

'What the heck?' is probably not the wisest of final thoughts before one does something crazy, but tell that to someone who will listen. :) I flew off the trail behind her, once again taking up my 'Man from Snowy River' method of descent. I slipped only once towards the very bottom, but somehow managed to step backwards and stay on my feet anyway. 

Our next stop was to Tintagel Castle: the supposed birthplace of King Arthur. While King Arthur did briefly reign over king of England, the Arthurian legends were created by a priest about 100 years after his reign to act as an example to future kings. You know, something to look up to. The tales died away and resurfaced over the next 400 years, being slightly altered to keep up with the culture changes each time until the Victorian era where it was changed to what we know them to be today. 

The funny thing about Tintagel is that it is at the top of the cliff face overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. You guessed it, hike number two!! This was a gorgeous hike along the black salty cliffs of southern Wales. The water below was a myriad of clear teals, light blues, and dark blues with a kaleidoscope of white foam casually morphing and evolving on top. I could have just sat on those warm stone steps and watched that water all day (haha, being up since 4 may have had something to do with that), but I had a castle to go see. 

The castle itself was so ruined that there was really not much to go see. It was cool to be able to see some of the foundations of the halls and living quarters, as well as some cottages and towers down below. But I more enjoyed just walking along the cliff tops. Every turn presented a new view of the surrounding cliffs standing stoically against the ocean, Mother Nature in all her silent strength. 

Miya called out a 'tiara check' every few hours, so I made sure to keep it on hand (literally) if not on my head. I only took it off when I was hiking and when I was alone. Hypothetically, there's potential of getting some weird looks when you're walking around by yourself with some massive sparkly tiara on your head than when you're around a group wishing you a happy birthday. It's different...or so I've heard. 

When I decided I had seen enough of the cliffs and of Tintagel, I hiked back down with Bronte to the beach. I was already wearing shorts, so that made it really easy to just go walk through the shallow water and look for fun shells and rocks. I wanted to go into Merlin's cave, but I knew I didn't have enough time before we had to go back, so I was content to just beach comb (something I always LOVED doing with my Mom! I really wished she could have been there, she loves the beach more than anyone else in my family). I found some super cool rocks that are all silver, but they shine almost like mirrors when you put them in the sun! They're crazy! I also found a cool celtic ring that had been made with the all-black rocks with a single white stripe through the middle. It had been made the night before while the tide was out. All the white lines in the middle were put together, so it made a really cool thin inner white circle amid the black stone circle. In the middle of the circle was a stone just opposite of all the others, a very white stone with thin black lines running through the middle. We got there as the tide was coming in fast, so i actually noticed it only minutes before the tide started sweeping it away. I thought it was cool enough that I'd save a few of the stones from that as well, after it had been destroyed. 

Theresa and I decided we were done at the same time, about a half hour later, and so we made the climb back up to the cute town together to look at the fun shops we had seen on our way down to the castle with our remaining time. 

We found another Pastie shop that we had heard Tom rave about a few days before, so we popped in. Teresa didnt want anything, but i thought Id check out the prices. The pasties there were giant, like twice as big as any from the other shops! It looked like the crust was thinner too, so it was mostly stuffings. Yum! :) Josie was there, just paying for her purchase. She turned around, smiled as she saw us, and handed me a big warm lamb pastie! I protested, that wasnt mine. She smiled as she showed me she had another in a bag, and said happy birthday. I loved it! 

As we headed out of the shop, we ran into Abby and Miya. Miya was holding her sides she was laughing so hard as she meandered down the sidewalk. Abby was zig zagging along the sidewalk, wearing a distressed look on her face as she pranced along energetically. It was like she was searching down the row of shops for something. We asked what was going on. Miya tried to answer, but couldn't stop laughing long enough. Abby was very quick to let us know, "a seagull just pooped on my head!!" She yelled. She bent down and pointed to the top of her head. Sure enough, Abby was now some birds target practice trophy. Haha, without much further delays, they went past us, continuing their search for a public bathroom in the same poses that we found them. 

We found a thrift store on our way back to the car. I didn't think it would be this hot here, so I didn't bring a pair of shorts. Bad news. Ive been rolling up my jeans when it gets really hot, but its just not quite the same. So I popped in to see if anyone might be selling a rare long pair of shorts in my size for a good price. I almost laughed when that is exactly what I found. It was the only pair of long shorts in the whole store (long meaning it went just a little above my knees), it was just my size, and they were only three pounds! Score! 

It was getting close to the time we were to meet back at the van. On our way back, we ran into Lydia and Bronte. They were just coming out of a shop next to the lot. As we stopped and said hello, Lydia ran up to me and put a cute paper bag in my hands. I was super surprised, and opened it excitedly. Inside was a beautiful reddish-purple scarf with silver owls. It's beautiful! I'm super excited to wear it back in Utah when it gets cold! 

So we got back in the van and drove to the harbor village of Port Issac. This was the place that Theresa had wanted to see the most on our whole big trip, since it is the film site of her all-time favorite show: Doc Martin. Apparently it's not super well known, but the way she has talked about it makes me want to give it a try. 

When we got the the back part of the village, we had to get out and walk, as the roads into the village were too steep to drive down in anything but land rovers. No joke, they were psycho steep, like an 18% incline. Only me and six others wanted to go see it, everyone else stayed in the van. We walked all the way down to the waters edge, and then back up around the other side of the village to see the main house where Doc Martin 'lives.' Then we made the crazy hike back up to the van. It was so steep that Katy started having some problems, so we stayed with her while Tom brought the van down a little lower (there were suitable roads a little lower you could drive on, there were just no parking lots). 

I am seriously considering the idea that Tom is missing a fatigue gene, because this is getting just weird now. So when Tom told us to do what we wanted, we weren't sorry to stay with Katy :) we passed the time by having a lovely mock sword fight. There were no survivors. 

When Tom collected us about twenty minutes later, the five of us jumped in and we all drove off to the Lanhydroc estate. Basically, it was a gigantic very old mansion home with really scary tiger pelts on the floors. 

Abby and I had only a few minutes left before we had to go back to the van. We had explored the whole house together, playing with the old phones, looking at the fancy pedigree charts, picking out favorite paintings, and looking in keyholes. At this point, we happened upon a little room that had an extremely old piano in the bay window. Abby asked if I played, and pointed to a sign sitting on the piano which read "If you are a confident pianist, we would love to hear you play." Abby sat down and played a little tune, but got embarrassed about some missed notes and got up quickly. She encouraged me to try, so I moved over to the bench. 

Enter Mr. Gruff, as I'll call him for my purposes here. He was one of the many staff members in the estate, primed to call anyone out who touched the artifacts or even thought about taking a flash picture. He was a great big guy, in his 60s probably, very white hair, and kind of a snarky expression. 

"Are you a competent pianist? You should only be playing that if you are competent" was his first remark to me. 

"She's plenty good!" Abby said to him, to which i looked at her with widening eyes. "Besides," she added wittily, "the sign says you just have to be 'confident,' it says nothing about being competent." 

"That's an important word I think they should change right away," he replied to her, still looking at me. "Well, are you competent?" He asked me. 

Pause. I was really nervous about how gruff this guy was, hence the name, but at the same time, I knew he was half kidding. I grew up in a  family where I knew I was still loved if I was bashed upon walking into the room. Seriously, thats how I know that my family would be willing to do anything for me. 

Play. 

"Sir, I don't make any promises about my competency, but I certainly have enough confidence to make up for any competency issues. You can kick me out at your leisure if you decide to disagree," was my response as I sat down. 

Crap. It's been forever since I've played! My mind took hold of the first song I had ever learned on the piano, way back in elementary school before I knew how to read music. 

I kept a straight face while I secretly searched for my beginning notes by singing each piano key in my head. The man grumbled something about how he thought that was a ridiculous misconception, but gave me a sort of appreciative/quietly pleased sideways smile as he turned and walked to the other side of the room.

After I found my notes, I slowly played the first few notes of my song. My mom always said that when I competed in violin competitions that she was always super nervous UNTIL I stood up to play, then she relaxed. This was because she knew that if I had done enough work and stressed out enough, when I played for competition, I would stop thinking and my fingers would take over the song till it ended, then I would 'come to' and have to ask her how I did. 

Well, the same thing happened here. I zoned out after the first few notes, and then my fingers took over. From what I remember, I actually hit every note dead-on. I started to get up as soon as I finished the song, still trying to hide my surprise and nervousness. I hadn't gotten up before Mr. Gruff returned. 

"Well sir, was that competent enough?" I asked. 

"That was, well, it was fair. Yes, confidence. But this piano is so old and out of tune that it didn't really help you much. So no, it wasn't good enough. You'll need to try it at that piano over there, it will stay in better tune for you." He muttered, pointing through a doorway and into a room I hadn't noticed before. 

It was a long, gorgeous, Beauty and the Beast library, with white decorated vaulted ceilings, rich dark wood floors, and great luminous windows going all down the long echoey room. The wooden white grand piano was at the far end of the room, right under the main end window. 

I looked back at the man, followed his finger all the way down the long room again, and then shot an enormous grin at Abby. We walked the length of the room, each step echoing off the magnificent carvings above our heads. When we got there, I sat down at the piano, and gently worked out my first few notes. Though I was playing timidly, the notes rang out everywhere. When my confidence actually came to me, I really put myself into my song, pushing and pulling the dynamics and the tone along the simple haunting tune. I played it twice, and when I was done, I just sat and soaked that grand moment in. I stayed for only a few seconds before I got up and started walking back with Abby. 

When we got to the end of the room, we saw that Mr. Gruff had followed us in at some point, as he was now answering another tourist's question. We passed him as we were about to leave the room. He interrupted his answer and leaned around the couple just before we left. 

"Hey," he said, "that was tolerable." Then he softened, as he knew we were leaving. "Yes, quite lovely, thank you for that. Do please come again soon." And smiled. 

I thanked him and smiled as we left. We had just gone up the stairs into the first piano room when we heard a "hey! So where are you girls from then, eh?" It was Mr. Gruff again, who had just finished up with the couple and apparently wanted to chat still. We had a few more minutes, so I was cool with it. He was standing behind the stairs banister as we talked with him on the little steps. We ended talking about a ton of stuff: Utah, the hot weather 'out in the Rockies,' and how it usually rains for all but 6 days of the spring and summer here. 

When he asked what we were here for, we told him that we were studying the Welsh history and language. When he asked if we knew how to speak it, I said 'I like to try to speak Welsh'...in Welsh. His eyes lit up and he started off in full Welsh howdy-do, glory-be, and hallelujiah. He was so excited about talking to me in Welsh that he started walking around the banister onto the steps while he started asking me a long train of questions in Welsh...none of which I knew enough to answer. 

I could only get a few beginning words in to answer, but then the only words that came out as an answer was in German. Haha, I thought he got excited when I told him we were studying Welsh, but he just about burst as he loudly exclaimed "you speak German?? Who are you? Where are your ancestors from?" So I had a blast telling him about what little I know about where my ancestors are from, and answering all the other questions he had and was willing to ask in English. It was a grand old time, and i really had a blast talking with him! 

Our time ran out though, so we had to leave for the van a bit later, but we bid him a fond farewell and then went back to the van. 

Our next stop was to our hostel where we would be spending the night. It was in the middle of a forest, which was in the middle of field country, in the area known as Penzance. As in 'Pirates of.' Cool, no? Cool yes! Me and the girls all took a room together. It is a bit nicer than Abigails was, but I found out that it doesn't have free wifi. 

We only had a half hour before we were going to leave again, so I got my bed made  and then went down to use the internet to contact whoever I could, just to see someone from home on my birthday. You know, just birthday stuff. But it just wasn't going to happen. I was okay with it, but Tom told me to bring my iPad to McDonalds, as they usually have free internet. 

When we got to McDonalds, Miya first called yet another tiara check (which I passed, it had put it back on in the van), and then told me that she was getting my dinner for me. I protested, but Miya is really hard to argue with. Seriously. I also have to admit that the food at the McDonalds here actually tastes pretty dang good, which is saying a TON since I really don't enjoy the food of the Golden Arches. 

I spent pretty much all of dinner getting access to the wifi, and much to my delight, I had received a few emails from home! Oh, they made me so happy! I shot off a super crazy fast thank you email to people back home and explaining that I wouldn't be able to communicate for another while. That was a fun dinner though. 

From McDonalds, we went to St. Michaels Mount, a mansion on an island. Well, we didn't walk clear over to the house because we were more interested in walking on the beach. 

Haha, actually, once we got to the beach, Katy gathered us all around the van on the sand. She and Anders pulled out a big pink donut with a candle in it, and everyone started singing. Gah, that always makes me blush a ton!! I thought it was so sweet of them to do that though! I blew out my candle and then Katy and Anders passed out two more boxes of donuts to everyone. It was great!

We walked around the beach for a while, looking at a brass footprint of the queen where she first set foot on Welsh soil, and then got back in the van for our last trip for the day. 

It was about 9pm when we arrived at Lands End. This is a way cool place where the earth just seems to fall away into what looks like an eternity of blue. The thing is, this was late enough that the sun had almost completely set. So when you stood at what seemed to be the edge of the earth then, you didn't just look out at the big blue ocean, you looked out into an abyss of purple, red, and orange. I kid you not, the sun itself was dark red as it set, and I almost couldn't tell when it passed below the horizon because it set the water beneath on red fire. It was glorious. I wish you could have seen it for yourself, because this just can't really be constructed in the mind. Sorry. 

We stood at the edge of the world and watched another day end. Another day, my Birthday! How strange is that? And by strange, I mean amazing. Completely unpredictable, but then, I think some of the absolutely best things are. 

Who would have thought that 21 years tthe day that I was born, that I would be standing at Lands End, facing a red sunset, in Wales? One dream of many, come true.

Thank you to all of you, including you, People Upstairs, for making my big 21 so incredible.