here comes katie riding that pony - WALES

Since I was little, my parents would take me for pony rides at a nearby petting zoo.  I always enjoyed moseying around on the pony.  This weekend, I got the chance to ride a pony again.

In November, before we even left for London, Meagan asked me to sign up for a horseback riding weekend in Wales.  As an equestrian in high school, Meagan was looking forward to a chance to getting back on a horse and doing it with beautiful surroundings.  She thought she was going to have to beg me to sign up for the weekend but I quickly agreed to the weekend.  It was the first trip we booked.

Finally, the weekend arrived and we packed our bags and got on the train.  Because it was  BU sponsored trip, BU booked both the travel and housing arrangements for us.  So all we had to do was show up with the tickets we were given.  The train was a good 3 hours, the longest duration we have experienced since we have been here.  It seemed even longer because I had done a full day at work as well.

When we arrived in Wales, it was pouring rain.  We finally found our taxi bus and quickly piled in before we set out on a very Indiana Jones-esque drive up to the hotel.  When we arrived, we found out that our housing set up was a bed and breakfast type hotel.  There were 3 rooms: a 6 person, 5 person, and 3 person.  Sam, Skylar, Meagan, Meghan, and I grabbed the 5 person room and went and got settled.  The hostess provided us a small dinner before we quickly retired off to bed for our day of riding on Saturday.

Breakfast was at 8 am so we woke up and strolled into breakfast around 8:30 am.  We were served a traditional Welsh breakfast which was similar to a traditional English breakfast.  Then we headed out to enjoy the scenery.

And then the ponies arrived...

the ponies were beautiful. i was paired with one named lane. he had the most beautiful eyelashes.

Lane and I took the most romantic ride through the Welsh country side and had the most beautiful views. We took a two hour walk...

We stopped for lunch at a pub...

and then rode back... the sights were unbelievable but the ride was exhausting.  when we got back that night, we were so tired that we had a bottle of wine and crashed.

the next morning, we woke up again for breakfast and then spent the morning hanging out around the estate.  i played fetch with the dog

Overall, I had a great time in Wales.  Lane and I fell in love, and those views will forever be embedded in my mind.

Next stop, Madrid!!

Adios muchachos.

until next time,

katie