Chester

Sorry for the delay, my life has been awfully crazy the past few weeks.  So, back to Chester,

Chester was marvelous.  I loved spending time with Drew and Saz, and I even got to see Mr. Robert Marshall!  The first morning there, we were awoken with quite a surprise: the fire alarm at 6am.  It was a drill, but we were up in the attic where there was no light, I couldn't find my glasses, and we had to climb down steep stairs to find a number of security personnel and other bleary-eyed confused college students (by that, I mean Saz's housemates).  We went back to bed and then got up to meet Drew for an early lunch.  We walked around the town, which is the last English town completely surrounded by a wall.  Cool, hey?  Drew was an excellent tour guide and explained the importance of various towers along the wall as well as the newly-found arena.  A family was digging in their backyard and found an old Roman coin.  So, they brought it to the historical center, and then they found more, and eventually the historical center starting digging and they found a gladiator atrium.  They could only uncover half of it, because otherwise, they would have to tear down a building built in the 800s, I think.  Such a young building comparatively!
After lunch, we did some touristy shopping, and I bought a book called "Six Creepy Sheep".  It's a kids' Halloween book about sheep who go trick-or-treating.  How could I pass it up?  That night, we had dinner with Saz and I ordered my first beer.  It was a Carlsburg's with black currant.  It wasn't bad, but I couldn't finish it.
The next morning, Saz and I took Camille and Jacqueline to the bus stop so they could go to London for the day.  After we dropped them off, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at Caffe Nero, and then Saz headed to class.  I spent the morning figuring out the Ireland itinerary and watching chick flicks.  So marvelous.  Drew and I met up to go to Wales for the afternoon, and let me tell you, that may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Here's a quick summary:
We started in Rome

Then, we hopped a train past some sheep

and ended up in a North Carolina beach town.

We then went to a carnival on a pier, which made me feel like I was in a Nicholas Sparks novel.

Then, we climbed a hill to go to Duidia.

and went further up the hill to Wonderland, complete with carved figures of the Cheshire Cat, the White Hare, and the tea party.

Further up, we found a door in a wall, so naturally we went through it and found ourselves at an Alpine ski lodge.

The line was too long to do the luge, so instead, we followed a goat we saw roaming around a hill.

We ended up in Narnia.

Filled with child-like energy, we sprinted down the hill and up another to find ourselves in the land of the free-roaming goats and sheep.

And this concluded our trip to Wales.  We had dinner in Llandudno (the Welsh town) and then headed back to England so I could catch an overnight bus to the airport to meet Camille and Jacqueline.