Well, this is it. I’m doing it. I am actually writing a blog. Didn’t see that one coming. But hey, we should always strive to do something new. Besides my fingers twitch as I haven’t done nothing worth mentioning in awhile, well except giving birth to my baby girl five months ago. But that’s a whole different story. Let’s just leave it at – my family is now complete. Two baby girls, always on the go, spending more time outside the confines of our apartment than in and a husband who’s right there with them, what else can I do but go along :).
I love to travel, have loved it ever since the first time my folks packed our suitcase and wheels of the car started spinning towards our destination. My hubby gets restless as well if too much time passes and we’ve not done some traveling. And now with the two of them it’s up to two of us to show them how much fun it can be to discover the world. And we learn as we go along.
In the beginning of May we went to see Wales as our inaugural the complete family trip. I guess we wanted to start with something that is close to our heart and Scotland turned out to be too expensive to get to. But hey we loved it. We stayed at this beautiful house on the magnificent Isle of Anglesey amidst green lush pastures filled with sheep – so many of them our toddler Stela lost interest in them after a day. We found beautiful sandy beaches but lost them to the sea, which reclaimed them along with our sandy castles much to Stela’s despair. Narrow roads with few cars were no hassle for Nikica as he could only drive in the middle not having to think which side of the road to actually go to. Still, we had to get to this haven and he managed to keep us on the right side throughout, probably from all the practice he got driving through Ireland and Scotland in the past years. As I said, there is something about that corner of Europe up there that keeps us luring and we keep coming back for more.
Wales certainly exceeded my expectations as it had something for everyone, except for Tesa who would probably be content whatever place we chose as long as I as the main food supplier came along. We made daily trips around the island that is actually connected to the rest of the UK by two bridges and we had the misfortune to be queuing on one of them during the morning rush hour – I know, like we had to be somewhere exactly at nine. But hey, we are early risers and by nine we are sometimes ready to have lunch. And speaking of food and lunch we certainly emptied the biggest Tesco on the island, stationed in Holyhead, where we bought enough food to last us a month. We find superstores to be one of the sights where ever we go and always enjoy finding different quirks that can’t be bought in Slovenia. Well, yes, we do tend to bring them home then, but they never taste just as they did originally, on location. For example, I insisted on having a cup of tea and a scone in one of the tea rooms in Caernarfon, located just after your cross one of the infamous bridges and get to the mainland and it was an experience all in itself. I never manage to brew tea as good at home. I guess the light drizzle outside and the chill you still feel even after you’ve placed the order have something to do with it.
This time around we had the perfect English weather, it was sunny one moment and the next a slight drizzle, mixed with the wind and you were wet no matter what.When we got to this magnificent lighthouse South Stack near Holyhead and needed to descend down over 400 steps with the above mentioned mixture of weather we couldn’t get Stela out of the car. And she still mentions that particular lighthouse as soon as she sees anything even closely resembling it. Still in my opinion drizzle, wind and sunny intermezzo it’s typical UK and it goes with the territory. And the territory is great.
There are lots to do for everyone. History buffs (me) are covered by the magnificent castles along the shores such as the one in Caernarfon, or the beautiful medieval Conwy castle where you can just feel the stories it harbors. Nature lovers (my husband) get a kick out of Snowdonia national park. As it turned out the kids were asleep and we drove through this park peacefully staring through the window at the breathtaking scenery unfolding in front of us – mountains, waterfalls, small streams scattered over the mountains, cottages tucked away and dark lakes. For a brief moment we fantasized of spending a week here in one of those lodgings completely alone with no reception to let us check on the kids or for babysitters to reach us. But then what fun would that be.
Because if we were alone there’s so much to Wales we would miss. Like the time we spent in the best family attraction in Northern Wales – Greenwood Forrest Park. Where I was more of a kid than Stela. Set in the beautiful forest there are all sorts of attractions that kept us busy for hours as they are meant for toddlers like Stela. Then we also went to visit the Welsh Mountain Zoo in Colwyn Bay on our way to shopping in Liverpool. But Stela really got a kick out of Victorian Extravaganza which was held in Llandudno on the bank holiday weekend. It was a really fun festival with a tribute to Victorian times and Llandudno a beautiful seaside resort still has this old times feel to it. There were plenty of rides, food, people in costumes to entertain us the whole morning and with the sun brightly shining it was the perfect day.
So, Wales was amazing and it made me feel complete. When at night we put the girls to sleep, Nikica and I shared a strawberry trifle, watched Britain’s got talent and actually had some time alone to think what was next on the agenda. Yes, we had a wonderful time, as we always do as soon as we lock the door of our apartment – which we love as well. But it’s just something about getting away from the daily routine and stuff that keeps us grounded and unwinding, being carefree and spending great cool time with our cool kids.