The best outdoor pursuits day ever: gorge scrambling!

I had the time of my life yesterday for outdoor pursuits. We went gorge scrambling along Afon Ddu (this translates into the Black River in English). Gorge scrambling is going up a mountain stream while going around boulders, climbing through crevices, and climbing up waterfalls. The water was pretty cold but I had the best time ever! Each person of the group took turns leading the way up the gorge and then Sally gave us little challenges as the day went on, such as climbing through a very small crevice, sliding down a waterfall, or spinning ourselves around a tree limb above water. We took a small break for lunch at the base of a waterfall and then later on in the day we took a longer break since we were ahead of schedule. We made it to the top of the gorge where there was a very deep pool. And do you know what we did?!?!?!?! We all took turns jumping into it!! It was the best thing ever! It was as cold as ever though. As soon as I came in impact with the water, it took my breath away and I was in shock but I had the time of my life!!!! After we were all done jumping in (even our instructor Sally did) we walked back on a road down to the bus to head back to the Conway Center. I'm posting a link of the video of all of us jumping in. Thank goodness Annie brought her video camera along.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=524736801864&subj=547572873

As for Easter break, it starts tomorrow! The Central College group is leaving for Ireland at 10:30 in the morning where we will be taking a bus down to Holyhead and then a ferry to Dublin. We will be staying in Dublin for a few days and then we head to Galway and then back to Bangor. I'll be back to Bangor on Thursday night. I have two days before I head back out to enjoy the rest of my easter break. Which will be four days in Rome and then a nine day cruise around Greece and Turkey!!!! I hope I'll have time to update everything about Ireland before I leave for Rome but if not, I'll be back on April 11th. So until then, I'll talk to everyone in three weeks! (Please pray that the Easter break will go safely and smoothly, thanks!)

The day I could have, almost, possibly died

This happened on the day of Outdoor Pursuits and do you know what we did?!?!?!?!?! Mountain Biking!!!! It sounded like so much fun in the beginning. We all piled into the van and drove off to the Conway Center. Along the way, Sally told us that today was going to be a challenging day, physically and mentally. We were all thinking that we were going to go gorge scrambling but when she told us that, we knew what was coming. As soon as Sally said mountain biking, everyone turned at looked at each other with scared looks on their faces. I definitely did not mentally prepare for that. We got to the center and got all the supplies we needed. Sally's husband, Steve, picked a bike for each of us depending on our height and then we practiced in the parking lot with our brakes and gears. The brakes are different here. The right hand is the brake for the front wheel and the left hand is the brake for the back wheel. You never want to squeeze one and not the other because you'll either flip over the front of your bike or skid the back tire, causing you to crash. Sally came prepared with something for two of the girls in our group that seem to fall or stumble a lot. She brought them her daughter's knee and elbow pads to put on. It was pretty funny to see the girls put the pink protector gear on. After we practiced a little, we loaded the bikes onto the trailer, piled into the van, and headed out to the trails.

It was quite a bit of a ride to get to the Conwy Valley where we were going to ride in the Gwydyr Forest on the Marin Track. We unloaded the bikes and went in a single file line following Sally. I had to remember to use the thumb to change the gears to easier when going uphill and use the pointer finger to change the gears when going downhill. I have a little fear of loose rock because it is so easy to skid on it. There was loose rock everywhere on Fire Road while we biked. So I was very tense while I followed Sally. After just a few minutes we stopped and Sally explained to us how to go downhill fairly fast. We had to stand up, straighten our legs, then bend the knees and lean our bottoms over the back end of the seat, almost over the back tire (but not sitting on the seat the entire time) and make our pedals go parallel with the ground. She biked on ahead and one by one we rode down a hill doing what she said while she observed us and told us if we were doing the correct position. While I passed her, she said I was good, so that made me feel pretty good. Sally's husband came along with us so he gave us some good pointers as well. We continued down Fire Road until we came to our first single track. Its a mountain biking trail that is very narrow with hills (very steep sometimes) and lots of rocks and tree roots stickin up everywhere. When you go down a hill, you are supposed to go down standing up and fairly fast. I don't like going downhill very fast and especially when there are things that could cause me to crash. There was one instance when I was flying down the trail and didn't get out of the way of a huge rock in time and ended up going over it. I flew in the air, landed with a jolt, and skidded like crazy until I was able to get the bike under control. That was pretty freaky for me. We did a few more of the trails and then we took a break by learning how to lift our bikes in the air. We started with trying to do a bunny hop (lifting the front wheel in the air) over a stick that Sally laid in the middle of the road. I got the hang of that fairly well. Then we went on to learning how to lift the back tire in the air. That was a lot more difficult. Sally did tell me that I was lifting the back wheel a little though. Then we went on to getting the bike completely into the air. I didn't quite master this but I plan on practicing it when I come home. But I'll be practicing it on paved roads. We then rode on to another single track (where I almost hit some rocks and crashed) and stopped to have some lunch. We sat by a very clear water pond on some rocks with the mountains all around us. It was beautiful! And I got to sit in the sun which was just wonderful.

After the lovely lunch break, we got back on the bikes (which really hurt because my bum was very sore from all of the jolting around) and followed Sally to a cross road. It was either a little hill to go on, a slight decline to the right we could go on, or a very, very high hill to ride up. We didn't even have to ask which one we were taking, we just knew. We changed the gears on our bikes (this time the gears on our left hand and not the right) and went up the hill. I did figure out that I am stronger in my arms than in my legs so unfortunately I had to get off the bike halfway up the hill and push it up. Thankfully I wasn't alone and several other people had to do that. We kept riding and then went on more single tracks. We went on one that scared the living daylights out of me. I just kept thinking when was it going to be over. Teresa did the most spectacular crash that Sally has ever seen on that trail. She ramped off several rocks before falling to the ground. Teresa was pretty shaken up by then and Sally and Steve had a few of us stay with her on Fire Road while the rest of the group went on more single tracks. Ashley Tapper (another girl who flipped over the front of the bike that day), Teresa, and I (I was definitely done with the single tracks for the day) rode down Fire Road to meet the others at the end of the single tracks. Apparently there were several other people who had some superb crashes. After a few more of those, we headed back to the van to load up and head out. Teresa and I were very happy to be sitting in the van and heading back.

Now, I want to say this. I am not a wimp. I would have enjoyed it but since it was so out of my comfort zone, all I was enjoying was when we stopped and seeing how much longer until the end. I was more of the tree climbing kind of girl, not almost killing myself on a bike girl. It's just not my cup of tea. But I'm very glad to say that I have tried it. I'm just grateful that Iowa doesn't have any mountains, just little hills that are usually paved and ready for you. Everything else that I have done in outdoor pursuits has been fun. I would definitely go outdoor and indoor rock climbing again any day. Especially outdoor rock climbing. Now the only things left are just the water activities. I guess we will just have to see how those will go.

Barcelona-Where the sun shines and people drive on the right side of the road

We started our trip with going to the train station at 9 Thursday night. The train ride took about 2 1/2 hours to Liverpool. Once we got to Liverpool we took a bus to the airport. The guy seemed surprised that with it being 10:30, we still wanted to go to the airport. But we told him we were going to be staying the night there. The bus ride was only about 20 minutes and then we went into John Lennon Liverpool Airport. All the shops were closed and there were people scattered around the airport either sleeping or just staring off into space. In the main lobby area we sat at some Subway tables and stayed there for a bit. We eventually moved to some massage chairs since they looked a lot more comfortable. But there were windows everywhere so we were getting really cold. So we moved up to the second floor where it said departures and found a carpeted area where a cafe was. We camped there for the night but it was so cold! And the ground was super hard. I kept waking up throughout the night. Eventually a worker from the cafe had to have us move at 3:40 am because he was opening the cafe. So we found some seats by the security area at Burger King and stayed there until around 5 and then headed to security to get through. We made it through just fine and went to got get some breakfast. Once our gate number was announced, we took off to Gate 8 and stood in line to get on board. Once they checked our passports and plane tickets, we found our seats and settled in to fly to Spain. We probably got about 2 hours of sleep that night so Ashley and Teresa both fell asleep on the flight but I couldn't sleep, I was too excited! Once we landed, it was fairly warm and we got on a little bus to take us from the middle of the landing area to the area. We got through a line to have our passports checked, had them stamped, and we were officially in Spain! We found that we needed to get to the metro and take it to the street of Passeig de Gracia. The metro took about 30 minutes and there were a ton of people in it! We made it to the street just fine and found that our hostel was only two blocks away from the metro station! We got into the hostel and checked in. We ended up on the fourth floor and we booked a 6-person room with our own shower/bathroom. We even got security lockers in the rooms, a full room window, and a balcony!!!! Although we couldn't go on the balcony, it was still really cool! The hostel was super nice. Our floor was covered with pictures painted onto the walls and they were really good too! There was a spiral staircase in the center of the hostel with an elevator on either side. On the second floor there was a common area where they served breakfast, had computers with the internet, games such as wii, and they even had a bar. Once we got all settled in our room, we went out too explore Barcelona. We first stopped by McDonald's to have some lunch. After we ate, we stayed on the Passeig de Gracia street and walked the entire day. We saw Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, some church, Sagrada Familia, and the Arc de Triomph. We went back to the hostel and just crashed. We were so tired from sleeping in the airport so we slept for about an hour or more. We then signed up for a tapas tour hosted by the hostel that started at 8:30 that night. We started by walking to a restaurant that served tapas (appetizers that were pieces of bread with all sorts of things on them) and a cup of sangria. The sangria is red wine with sprite and some sort of fruit juice. And I'll let you know that it was nasty! After the restaurant, we headed over to a flamenco show. It was quite an interesting show but still fun. After the show we went to a pub and then we ended the night with going to a club. The cost to enter most clubs are about 15-18 euros but we only paid 18 euros for the entire night of events! So we went into the club and hardly anybody was there. Apparently the time to go to clubs is at 2 in the morning and they don't close until 6 am! We were not going to stay that long. We actually only stayed for about 30 minutes or so because we were tired. But we did get a glass of champagne at the club. I have never had champagne and it was actually pretty good. We got back to the hostel around 2 and just crashed in our beds.

We got up around 9:30 the next morning and got ready for the day after having breakfast on the second floor. We started the day off with taking the metro to the northern part of Barcelona called Parc Guell. There are several buildings in Barcelona designed by Gaudi. Gaudi designed this park as well. The sun was shining so brightly here and we actually took off our coats for a while! We had to take a series of escalators up to the park (escalators outside!!!!) and then walked right in. There was a fantastic view at the beginning of the park and then we went into the more artistic part of the area. There was a season of America's Next Top Model located in Spain and in the finale they were in Parc Guell in the tunnel!!! And we saw it! We actually spent time doing fun model pictures in the area. It was a blast! We stopped in a souvenir shop outside of the park and I bought myself a pair of earrings and some postcards. We then walked to a metro station that took us to our hostel and we took a nap for about an hour. I have never been able to take naps so when the other two were napping, I wrote my outdoor pursuits journal and read for Tecwyn's class. After the nap we walked down the section of town called Las Ramblas. Ashley had been to Spain to visit a friend last year and had some gofres. They are basically some waffles but covered in chocolate. She had been wanting to get some before we went back to the UK and we found a shop that had them! So we ate them sitting on a sidewalk watching people. They sure were delicious. After we finished those, we walked down the rest of Las Ramblas and ended up at the beach. It was starting to get darker and a lot more chilly. We were tired from all of the walking we had done and very hungry (we had lunch at Pans and Company around 2:30) so we walked back up Las Ramblas and ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat buffet called La Vaca Paca. It was very good food. After dinner we found a pub called George and the Dragon. It was an English pub (we just can't seem to get away from the English!) and there was a huge soccer game on screen that we watched. We ordered drinks and then just sat around for a while. Then it was off to the hostel to go to bed.

We woke up around 7:30 the next morning, got ready, had breakfast, then headed out for the day. We started with taking a tour of the Casa Batllo. It was expensive at first but when we showed them student id cards, they gave us a discount. That made my day. We went into the house and were handed these hand held devices that gave a audio tour of the house. We were taken in several different rooms with interesting and cool designs. We also went out in the patio and on top of the roof! It had a very nice view as well. We finished the tour and then went onto the metro to the west part of town. We got off at the station called Poble Sec and walked quite a ways to go see the Olympic Stadium from the games of 1992. We passed the Museum of Art along the way. Once we got to the stadium we walked around the whole thing. There were windows and we could see a little bit of the inside, so we stopped by one and took pictures of it through a gate. Little did we know that when we walked about five feet to our right, there was the entrance that had a sign saying FREE ADMISSION. We felt pretty stupid. So we got to go into the stadium and look around for a little while. We moved on to walking to the castle up on the hill. It was a very long walk that was almost uphill the entire time (no escalators to help us this time) and it felt like we were back in Bangor again. We made it up to the castle and noticed there was free admission as well. We went in and it had the most fantastic view but other than that, it was nothing. It was just a box with a courtyard in the middle and some walls. We were a little disappointed but it was still neat. We walked down to the Funicular Montjuic, kind of like a ski lift but each "bench" was enclosed. We wanted to ride down in it but saw that it was 6 euros to ride it and it wasn't even going to be for very long. We decided to stick with walking. We were getting extremely tired though and very hungry. So we walked all the way back down to Las Ramblas to find some lunch. We passed through a very creepy and sketchy part of the town to get there though. We didn't know the sign to Las Ramblas was going to take us through there. People were standing all over the place and we saw about 5 policemen come through. But we made it out just fine (don't worry mom) and found our lunch at a place called Bocatta. I got a ham and cheese baguette with fries and a drink. After lunch, we walked back up Las Ramblas to our hostel. On the way back I bought a little souvenir that was a statue of Sagrada Familia. We got to the hostel and just crashed. We were going to go shopping after our naps but we discovered that all the shops are closed on Sunday so we just hung out in the hostel for the rest of the night.

We woke up around 6:30 on Monday, got ready, and packed all our stuff up. We went down to check out and then went back up to the second floor to have some breakfast. Then we took the 30 minutes metro to the airport, got on our 2 1/2 hour plane ride to Liverpool, took a 20 minute bus ride from the airport to the train station. Once we got to the train station we had to take the train to Crewe, then to Chester, and then finally to Bangor. That took about 2 1/2 hours as well. We arrived back to the University around 5pm but only to drop off our stuff and head out to Tecwyn's class at 6:30. I came back to my room after class very tired and very hungry since I didn't have time to make dinner before class. I made myself some pasta with chicken and vegetables and then hit the sack. Overall, I had the best weekend ever! I absolutely love Barcelona!

Outdoor Rock Climbing

The Tuesday group of outdoor pursuits got to go gorge scrambling so Thursday came around and almost everyone had their swimsuits on underneath their clothes, all ready for gorge scrambling that day. We got into the van only to be told that we were going to go outdoor rock climbing. I think we were all a little disappointed but in the end it was okay. We got to the Conway Center and loaded up all of our stuff and headed to the mountain Fachwen. We hiked a little to get to our climbing area and it ended up being at an area called Scotty Rock. Once we arrived there, our guides (Laura and Garreth (Sally was gone this week)) went up to the top of the climbing area and set up four different climbing stations. It went from left to right: severe, very severe, difficult, and very difficult. We all chose our partners, I went with Ashley and Teresa, and we got our harnesses on and our belaying devices ready. We started with the severe climbing station and I volunteered to go first. It was a straight slant in the beginning of the climb but once I conquered that, it wasn't too difficult to the top. I got to the top and sat there a little while to take in the view of the area. For once it wasn't cloudy and I could actually see the top of Snowdonia!! After a little bit, I told Ashley and Teresa I was ready to come down and they gave me a little slack while I walked myself down. Once all three of us had gone, we took a break and had some lunch. After lunch, I was pumped to do the very severe climbing station. I went first again and it started off again with a steep drop to climb up. I made it to the top in not much time and the view was even better than the first! After a little while all three of us had done the rest of the climbing stations. We were the first group to be done so Garreth had us come to the top and learn how to abseil down the rock face. That was pretty fun because we controlled how fast we wanted to go down the rock face. Once everyone in the entire outdoor pursuits group had gone, we all went to the top again and learned about lead climbing in the outdoors. We didn't do it because it is too dangerous but we were given different sized bolts to put in random cracks we found and see how they worked. Then we finally went down, packed up, and headed back. The day was fun and I found the climbing to be not too difficult for me. I had to go back and pack for Barcelona!

Catching up with everything-Outdoor Pursuits and Fieldtrip Number Four-Harlech Castle, Portmeirion, and Beddgelert

Sorry I haven't written in such a long time. I have had a lot of stuff going on. On Thursday I had outdoor pursuits, Friday was my free day but I spent it studying, Saturday was a fieldtrip, Sunday I spent studying, and Monday I was studying as well.

So I'll start with outdoor pursuits on Thursday. We waited for Sally and it had started to drizzle while we waited so we figured we will be doing something indoors. And when Sally arrived and told us the activity, we were correct. The activity for the day was indoor rock climbing. We arrived at the Conway Center and went into their rock climbing room to learn some basics about rock climbing. We started with traversing across some bottom rocks along the wall without using our hands, turning 360 degrees in corners without touching the floor, and climbing over and under a table without touching the floor. I finally figured out how I got a black and blue bruise on the inside of my thigh and it was from trying to climb over and under the table. After the warm-ups, we grabbed some climbing shoes, our harnesses, and then headed to the van again. We drove about 30 minutes to a place called The Beacon Climbing Center. This place was open to the public and had several different climbing walls. We started with a few more exercises to warm up and then we learned about bouldering. Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that is usually done outside on boulders, hence the name bouldering. When it is done inside, the climbing walls sometimes come out at different angles and they are not very high. But is so much fun about them is that you are not attached to any rope or harness. It is all free climbing. If there was a chance that you fell, there was a thick cushioned pad underneath that was there to fall on. This was my most favorite rock climbing. I couldn't get enough of it. After we did bouldering for a little bit, we moved onto bottom roping in a different room with climbing walls reaching about 30 feet in the air. We definitely got our harness on this time, We learned how to make a double figure of eight knot and then tie it off at the and. My partner for the day was Sarah and she decided to let me do the climbing first. She was on the other end of the rope belaying me. After I reached the top of the wall, I had to lean completely into my harness so that she could let me down. It was really freaky to let go of the wall! But Sarah did very well belaying me. We then switched gear so she could climb and I would belay. After we all climbed, we took a break for lunch. All 11 of us sat at one table and then we played the 20 question game with Sally. It was so much fun! After lunch came more exercises to warm up again and then we went to a different room with traversing rock climbing. Sally gave us challenges such as only being able to step on certain colored rocks as we traversed across. The challenges got harder as she picked different colors because the rocks got much smaller. We spent a good amount of time in there, even though I wanted to do more bouldering. We went into the last room and learned how to lead climb. This type of climbing was a little more advanced and a lot more dangerous. You still had a belayer but as you climbed up you were not hooked onto anything. We would climb up about 10 feet and then take our rope that was hooked to our harness and hook it onto a hook that was screwed into the wall. Then you climbed up about another 10 feet and hook your rope onto the hook. So if you ever fell, you would fall about 10 feet but then the rope would eventually catch you. For some reason I didn't find this very scary. I didn't think it was that difficult as well. At this time, we were let loose around the climbing center, so I decided to do some more bouldering. There were also some different obstacles that were scattered across the room. I also did half a climbing wall and then I had to step onto a rope ladder that was swinging in the air. That one was a little scary. I knew I was going to be sore the next day because I pushed myself a little too hard. But I had a blast.

Friday started out the way it usually does. I wake up around 7 and can hardly move from the activity I did the previous day. And this day was no different. I was in a lot of pain. I sat up really fast in bed and I wished I had not done that. I was groaning for a while after that. I did my laundry, cleaned my bathroom, studied, and later that evening had some of my friends over where we watched Made of Honor and half of the second Harry Potter.

On Saturday, we had a fieldtrip! We left a little later than usual but our first stop was at Harlech Castle. This was about an hour's drive to get there, which wasn't very fun at all. It seems like for the first time ever I got car sick. Since I have arrived at Wales, I have gotten car sick. I am going to blame it on the small winding roads and the stick shifts in the buses. We arrived at the castle and we were given about an hour to explore it. It wasn't very big but it was sooooo beautiful! There were towers and little passageways that we went through. But it didn't take too long to explore however so after a little bit, my friends and I went to a small cafe and had lunch. I brought my lunch but Teresa and Kaylee ordered tea. After we ate, we went down a really steep road and got back onto the bus. Our next stop was a town called Portmeirion. It is a small fake town that was built by one man, Cough Williams-Ellis. It reminded me a little of the buildings in Adventureland. It was still really neat though. We explored the place for a little while and got to see more views of the mountains and the beach. The last destination was to a town called Beddgelert. It's translation is grave of Gelert. It goes with the story of Prince Llewelyn who took his infant son hunting with him. He left his son in the charge of his dog Gelert. When the prince was returning, he noticed the dog's muzzle was soaked in blood and his son was nowhere to be seen. Llewelyn attacked the dog and injured him badly. Then the price heard a baby cry and found his son in his cradle in a bush safe and sound. Beside the cradle was the body of a giant wolf covered in wounds. The dog Gelert had protected the prince's son but he then died from the Prince's wrongly accused actions. So we went to visit the grave of the brave dog Gelert. The thing is, its most likely a made up story so there is probably nothing there. But it was still a very pretty place. We came home and since it was Allison's birthday we went over to Kaylee's flatt and made a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies. We made so many that we gave them out to some of the girl's flatt mates. We also had ice cream and then put some of the chocolate chip cookie dough into the ice cream. It was delicious!

Sunday I spent the day studying for the test in Tecwyn's test. I went to church that night, which was very nice. On Monday, I didn't need to go to my Brain and Mind class so I spend the day again studying for my Brain and Mind final and Tecwyn's test. Tecwyn's test went very well I thought. He had given us twelve terms and we had to write about a paragraph of their significance to Wales for each term.

Today I spent the day studying for my Brain and Mind final tomorrow with Ashley. I also went on a walk with Ashley around the town and took some pictures. The day was gorgeous outside! It was about 45 degrees. I loved it. I am so excited for spring!

Also, news flash. I have most of my trips planned out for the rest of the semester. This weekend I am going to Barcelona, Spain with Ashley and Teresa!!!! I am so excited for it! In two weeks I will be going to the North York Moorland National Park to explore the moors and the coast. I have always wanted to see the moors. For spring break, I am going to Ireland with the Central College group, Rome for four days (and to see Morgan!), and then finishing off with a cruise to Athens, Istanbul, and several other islands between Greece and Turkey. At the end of May, you will never believe where I will be going?!?!?!?! Iceland!!!! I planned a trip with Ashley and Teresa and we will be spending about 3 days there. I mean, who can say they have been to Iceland? This semester is going to be awesome!