Backpacking Trip: day number twelve

another long day. i had to wake up around 6:45 to get ready for my 5 day wales tour with haggis adventures. when i woke up i went to pimlico tube station and took it to victoria station where i checked in for my tour. shortly after we boarded the bus and headed to wales. we made a quick stop in reading and then continued on to chepstow which is the first city you reach in wales after crossing the river wye. when we were there we saw the chepstow castle and got some lunch in the city. moving on, we then stopped at tintern abbey where it began puring (and i mean pouring) rain once we got off the bus. luckily, it stopped and turned into blue skies about 15 minutes later. the abbey was really nice and i got some really cool pictures as u will see later. we left the abbey and then went to the "big pitt" coal mine in blaenavon. it was really neat - they fitted us out with some mine equipment and then descended 300 feet to the mine. we then went on a tour of the mine and had to duck through the tunnels most of the time while our guide (who was a former welsh miner) told us how the mine operated back in the day. after leaving the mine we made our way to the final stop of the day - cardiff - the capital of wales. it was nice because along the way i made a bunch of friends on the tour with me - and it was even cooler because i found a group of people who are alos going to be on my 10 day ireland tour next week. once we arrived at the hostel in cardiff we all went our for some food at the prince of wales pub town the street, and now we made our way back to the hostel. i've had a reallllly long day so i will probably call it a night soon. there is some bad news in that our guide said we will not have internet for the next 3 days so what i am going to do is type up a blog each day in microsoft word, and then i will post them all after my wales tour. so ill talk to you in a few days!....c ya! check out the pics!