Day 1 ....

To be honest I really don't enjoy anything these days... I am trying to find out what exactly I am in need of. Is it medication? or is it some body of something I am longing for?. I have no clue. Anyway when my best buddy asked me to plan a trip to wales I took interest in that only because she is one of the things which still makes me happy. As I have wrote down in the previous post I have made an extensive plan, there have been dynamic changes to that which were not unexpected, I am happy that we have decided not to go to climbing and try to utilise that time for some other splendid sights in North Wales.

The day started dull as the underground stations were going on a maintenance shutdown (at my station) which made my trip slow by 45 min and I had to go by bus to another station Which led me to the disaster I want to forget. while waiting in the unfamiliar station I just thought to check something in my camera bag, I didn't take out anything just opened the bag and looked for a strap, mean time the train came and I stood up!!! Damn! My Nikon D80 with 18-200mm VR lens (those who doesn't know how important that's to me - both of them together cost me 2000 USD 2 years back) fell out of the bag (thank god my 105mm micro stayed in the bag other wise another 800USD also would have gone for a toss) to the concrete floor of the station. Later figured out since the optics were solidly built - thanks to the metal barrel Nikon has put - didn't suffer much. But the focusing mechanism is not fully functional :( and fortunately the body is also OK. When I am writing this I am trying to see the positive side of it, I didn't wreck the lens and camera at least not to an extend that I was not able to take any pictures in the trip.

Though the trip started with a bang - I am telling you I was so moody and still moody because of this bang on my head, still some thing keeps yelling at me 'stupid stupid stupid' - my mood took a upturn when I got a look at the train I am going to travel from London Euston to Wellington Bank Quay (final destination was Glasgow in Scotland for the train) it was really like a snake, a state of the art train from Virgin Train fleet (Class 390 Pendolino). The huge lettering on the engine which said Virgin made it sexier to look at. It had a real sharp nose and the doors and all were touch sensitive and the door step flips out ward when the door opens etc etc.

After taking a change at Bank Quay to Arriva Trains Wales (I was not happy to part with Virgin though) finally I have reached our rendezvous point Chester. Where I have booked for an intermediate car from Europcar, which was cheap compared to Avis, but that came with a lot of sacrifice on time. The car I have booked for was a skoda octavia 1.6 or similar, the one I got was Vauxhall 1.8 which is more like van than a sedan. She gave me a GPS which didn't have a holder for which I had to go back (from the car park) to get another one. Then I had set off the journey to the station for which I have taken at least 3 wrong turns even with a GPS which was not healthy at all. But even then I didn't realise the speaker of the GPS is not working. Then I picked up my friends and tried to find a restaurant, that's when it really got on to my nerves. Until then I didn't have a round about to handle. I can take care of the round about only if some one says which exit (first, second, third or fourth exit from round about) I have to take. That's when I realised a GPS with out sound is utterly useless. I have been driving round to match the exit the GPS is showing me to take instead of telling me; believe me the picture will be legible only when you miss the one you are supposed to take, it never works unless you have the sound. So I have gone back to the old lady at the rental place to get a replacement. So with all these thing I have lost 2 hours at Chester. Strike 2

These two experiences and the rain in Chester didn't give me a good feeling. Then we head off to the Coernarfon - god knows how to spell it in Welsh - we have had our own welsh experience with words spelled worse than the volcano in Iceland. Trying to read out the words (which uses the same alphabet as English) indeed gave us good laugh. With little difficulty we arrived at our Welsh home (Bed and Breakfast) which was indeed very appealing and beautiful and absolutely value for money 65£ pr night for 2 people sharing room with a 5* hotel facilities and Welsh Break fast (Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, Scrambled egg and Tomato).

First day was more of settling down and everything. Still I could feel myself mourning for my lens. But may be it was time for me to get another lens. Since I do not have any problem in the lower zoom area I think I can live with this for now. And later I may get a longer lens like 70-300mm which would give me more range and would cover the lost range of my 18-200mm.

Rest of the trip was great fun and if I am about to write about that it would take lot of space. But I think I will write something from the trip later. Cheers guys!