Wales Day 1 . . .

I had the pleasure of having 4 days off last week – 5 – 8th September. I decided to hire a car and hear to Wales – specifically, to the South West Coast of Wales. . . .via Hay on Wye.

Hay on Wye is my heaven. A small town, right on the border between England / Wales, it is known as the Second Hand Book Capital of the World. 35 or so bookshops, with thousands and thousands of books in less than a square mile radius. . . . up and down little streets. . books piled invitingly in windows, calling out to me . . . buy me buy me . . . .

I was looking for some specific books – I collect plays and Enid Blyton books – but also just wanted to get some new crime books and general fiction to add to my collection.

I spent around 4.5 hours there, wandering around, shopping to my hearts content. I wandered into all the bookstores I wanted too – which was about half of them! I was particularly impressed with Murder and Mayhem (specialists in Crime / Horror / Mystery) – it was a brilliant shop and I came out with loads of new titles.

Also impressed with Roses bookstore (specialists in Children’s Literature). I didn’t buy too many books in there – too many expensive first editions of Enid Blyton Books I already had. Gave me a good indication of how much my collection is worth though – Mum if you’re reading this – don’t ever throw out the ones at home!!!!!

I found some new plays – ironically Australian ones by Currency Press – in a little store. Not too many new ones though – my play collection is sitting around 500 at the moment so I keep coming across plays I already have.

I went back to the car laden with books, my purse lighter. The damage? 28 books in total . . . at a cost of less than £100. That was pretty damn good I thought.

I began the drive down to Cardiff, my resting point for the night, by getting spectacularly lost. After that, I decided to stick to the A roads for the rest of the drive down!

Travelling through the Brecon Beacon National Park, I was awed and inspired by the gorgeous scenery. Expansive rolling hills of different colours and shades of green. It was getting overcast and mist flowed around the hills, creating a slow enchanting atmosphere. My camera just couldn’t capture it correctly!