How I Conquered Wales in a Day

On April 12^th, the college offered a day trip to Cardiff Wales, the capital of the very country my namesake originates from. Well technically, the Battersby name came about in England but my ancestors had to flee because of severe religious persecution. Any Battersby who survived the stakes either fled to Scotland or Wales, or was shipped off to Australia, where the English sent most of their exiles. I took advantage of the trip of course and spent most of my time at Cardiff Castle.

This remarkable piece of architecture has more than one thousand years of history behind it—previously being occupied by the Normans, who built a keep over the foundations of a Roman fortress, and then the Welsh and English, who erected a great walled castle of the medieval variety. A group of my classmates and I went on a tour of the renovated castle that was previously the home of the Bute family, the lords and rulers of not only Cardiff, but most of Wales. I really enjoyed looking at the interior of this amazing home. Lord Bute and his best friend William Burges spent a decade or more renovating and adding to this wondrous piece of history.

My favorite room was the Men’s Smoking Room in the Clock Tower. You see Lord Bute themed every room in the castle. The clock tower fittingly implemented the theme of time. The ceiling was a mural to the signs of the Zodiac, while the stained-glass windows represented the days of the week, the four corners had intricate carvings of cloaked figures holding the sun or the moon at the four different points of the day, and the four seasons were embroidering the room at the junction where the ceiling meets the walls. There is plenty more I can describe to you but the room, as well as every room in the castle, was crafted with such fine and intricate detail that it could take a week to appreciate everything in it let alone describe it to you.

Afterward I picked up many souvenirs and ascended the Norman keep where my Welsh Flag waved majestically through the crisp Welsh air. That’s where I got the picture!

The rest of the week was spent preparing for my last class of my Social Policy course and my final exam in my Modern Britain course. With these two classes out of the way, I will be able to concentrate on my final papers and study for the other finals I will have in the next four weeks. I feel like I did alright on it the Britain exam. The exam was a fierce test of my knowledge, observations, and experiences. I also had to pace myself appropriately. I know people who didn’t have time to answer 5 of the 12 questions… I finished the bulk of the test; I just didn’t do to well on the current events section. But I feel confident and pleased to have gotten that exam out of the way. There was one other highlight of the past week. Tuesday night at the North Arms, Nicky’s father Steve, hosted at track night where we walked into a mach-racetrack for dog racing. I learned a lot about the strategy behind betting and the game of dog racing. I didn’t do too badly for a first attempt, but I didn’t win anything either. If I was at the real tracks I would have walked away with six pounds. Unfortunately this was a type of tournament where only the three best gamblers took home any money. The night was very exciting and a great break away from studying.

Keep a watchful eye. I went to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend. I should be putting a post up about it soon.