[Photos] UK 09 - Wales continued. This is mostly Snowdonia.

[moonvoice]

We drove into Snowdonia pretty much on a whim. On the way to Capel Curig we passed a small castle with peacocks in the dim gloom, we passed small shopfronts and many closed stores. We passed small, cared for houses, and I learned that 'araf' means 'slow' because I saw it everywhere.

Snowdonia was thrilling. I have never been in mountains before. I've only really seen them from a distance. Or skirted around the edges of them in Tasmania. Snowdonia was the first time we drove straight into them, and then drove up one, down another, and so on. It was also kind of terrifying to this person who literally lives in a giant state with zero mountains, and awe-inspiring, and reminded me a lot of my cancer, because the only instruction you're basically given re: this cancer is 'to not live at altitude.'

So I wondered if even visiting mountains for a day would make the tumours grow. I actually still don't know. I don't think so.



























I like the small wiggling lines of fencing you can see in this shot.










Next, the hilariously terrible experience that was Liverpool, visiting family, and then oh god, Scotland, I cannot wait to share Scotland, this is only the tip of the iceberg, we're not even a third of the way through the trip yet. x.x (I'm sorry everyone).

Comments

[silverjackal]

Wales looks lovely, and kind of like home. (Not here, I mean. Home-home.) Relative perspective is a funny thing because I don't consider those "mountains", really. I mean technically they are, but here they're foothills, with much taller mountains behind. When I showed people photos of my time in the Andes more than one jokingly told me I was a liar about having been to South America because obviously that photo was taken at X local spot. :D

[moonvoice]

Ahaha, well given I've never seen - and will probably never see - Real Mountains (TM) this happily suffices for me, these were intimidating enough!

[silverjackal]

Oh these are definitely real mountains, just lower, and ancient and worn down. It's just that I have a perceptual thing about "what is a moutain" because of where I live. The highest mountain in Wales is 1,085 m above sea level. Our average here is roughly twice that, and the highest point locally is 3,954 m above sea level. I just checked the altitude where I'm sitting (in a valley, I should add, and a deep one), and I'm at 1,159 m above sea level. It's all relative.

[elinox]

As someone who lives near mountains, the mountains of the UK were strange to me in that they were bald. Mountains where I come from have trees and are covered in them year round (even if many lose their leaves in the fall). But the mountains in the UK were huge and rocky and it was glorious!

[moonvoice]

Yeah, actually this was something I didn't expect either, they were all bald pretty much except in a few places in Aviemore (that we saw). They're so nakedddd. :D

[redsixwing]

What a beautiful area. I'm going to be scrolling through these multiple times today, i think.

So glad you got to see them. :D

I have lived my whole life in (younger, more aggressive) mountains. Being on flat land always weirds me out a little bit.

[moonvoice]

Oh boy you are gonna really like the Scotland photos I think, especially once we're out of Edinburgh into the more natural places <3 I wish I could send them to you! (Or that we had teleporters).

I'm the opposite, I find flat land really comfortable, but actually you're not the first person to say that you find flat land weird! Recently a friend in a chat was saying that they found flat land really uncomfortable because they'd grown up around mountains all their lives, and I'm the opposite where, I like mountains, but flat land and being able to see the horizon all the time is for me really soothing, heh. :D Geology is weird!

[redsixwing]

Ooooh! I'll look forward to seeing them here. (Teleporters, though. Please and thank you.)

... you know, I've often wondered if it went the other way? So that's really cool. I get out where the horizon is too low and immediately think, 'put me back in my bowl.'

Geology is weird and people are fascinating. :D