Has anyone here ever been to

[audi2.7t]

or ever heard of my home country of Wales ?. I've been travelling since I was 17 and can probably count on two hands the people I've met that have actually been there, could count on my hands and toes the amount of people who know where it is and can count with my nostrils the amount of people I've met that can speak Welsh... me being one of them.. is it that obscure a country ?.
Notables from Wales :-
Dylan Thomas
Anthony Hopkins
Tom Jones
Catherine Zeta Jones
Richard Burton

Note* Princess Diana was NOT Welsh neither is prince Charles

[bryanthompson]

Sorry, haven't been there. Not impressed.

[id10t]

Heard of it, know mostly where it is, but haven't been too far out of US terrirory. Oh, and I suffered thru a public education in Florida.

[cowtown]

Yes, I've been to Wales. I lived in Ireland for 6 months (I took Galic in school there, not Welsh, sorry), and traveled all around the area. Also lived in Italy for 2 years, and had my cheek touched by the Pope - seriously. Still, became an Athiest and Republican....

Anyway, I've been to your beautiful homeland, and as a 2nd generation Irishman, hope to retire/die in that general area.

Colin

[Oh Haha]

My ex-office manager was born and raised there. That's the closest i have come to it.
Tom Jones is still cool!
Heard an interview with him on NPR a few weeks ago. Interesting fellow.

[LeeH]

Been there. Our senior trip in high school (1982) was to England, Scotland, and Wales. I've got lots of photos from the trip, but can hardly tell one from the other... "Hmmm - cool cathedral. Wow, now that's a nice cathedral. Look at the pipes on the organ in THAT cathedral." At the time we dubbed it our ABC tour (Another Boring Cathedral).

[bigyagi]

yup, been there a few times. i have lived in many parts of the U.k. wales was once the heartland of coal-mining, and basically, coalmining was the major employer. whole towns relied on the coal-mine, and unfortuneately, back in "82", the then prime minister, maggie thatcher, decided to break the unions, and started with the coal-miners. very long strike, and very damaging. now, basically, coal-mining in wales is virtually non-existant, and they{U.K gov} actually import coal from other european country's. its sad to see so many community's utterly wasted, because there is nothing else there. U.K politics generally dictate, that all the major investment goes into england, and the net result is that the other country's like wales, ireland, and scotland, all suffer. been like that for ever.
how does that work you say? ok, i'll keep it simple, and short. general election time, to elect a new prime minister. in the U.K, there are approx 60 million people. in scotland, where i was born, there are only 5 million. northern ireland, about 2 million, and wales about 4 million.so 11 million people, but in england, you have 49 million, so you can see, it does'nt matter which way you vote, for the people of scotland/n.ireland, and wales, we never get the government we would want, and always end up with an english government, who obviously look after there own, and to be blunt, really do look down on the other area's of the U.K.
yes, i know scotland now has its own government, but its still controlled by whitehall, in london. they cannot make constitutional changes, and still have to abide by the ruling government.
out of all three, wales really has been handed the worst deal. there is little or no investment in the country, or its people.
very sad.

[Decolliber]

Spent a week driving around there in a Mini in 1973. Harlech Castle was my favourite site.

[audi2.7t]

Originally posted by bigyagi
yup, been there a few times. i have lived in many parts of the U.k. wales was once the heartland of coal-mining, and basically, coalmining was the major employer. whole towns relied on the coal-mine, and unfortuneately, back in "82", the then prime minister, maggie thatcher, decided to break the unions, and started with the coal-miners. very long strike, and very damaging. now, basically, coal-mining in wales is virtually non-existant, and they{U.K gov} actually import coal from other european country's.

Yep, we went from 32 working colleries in the early 80's to zero in the mid eighties, way to go Maggie... unfortunately, it appears Labor have continued the trend of the Tories with privatisation, reduced standards of social security, terrible mis-management of national health and shafting students.... I don't foresee myself ever living in the UK again, the radical Muslims seem to have taken root almost everywhere now so they might aswell keep the whole damn Island and I'll go live in the mideast when we're done... shame, trust the Brits to screw everything up. Wales is still very beautiful though and well worth a visit (just try to keep a blind eye on all the poor farmers pushed to hopelessness and suicide)

[Moses]

I've been to Wales. beautiful place. Generally awful weather. The small towns are fantastic, with old stone buildings and slate roofs all quarried at the same places. all the towns look different because the colors of the local stone changes.

Snowdonia is nice (In the summer!)

[1973911s]

I hope to visit there someday, as my last name is Snowdon. We have a map up in our living room from the 40's

Michael

[Joeaksa]

Been there several times. Like England and enjoy the people but wish they could cook better!

Joe A

[AFJuvat]

Been there, Cardiff and Cornwall - brought home some cornish rock and some tin pixies

AFJuvat

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

I've been there. People are really friendly, beautiful countryside. I had a lot of interesting conversations with the pub locals there...

[Karl2bdc]

been there

[Sarc]

Originally posted by audi2.7t
or ever heard of my home country of Wales ?

But of course! Wales is home to Bron-Y- Aur, the small cottage in southern snowdonia that produced much inspiration for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant when writing Led Zeppelin III.

And for a complete tangent, it's capital, Cardiff, is also home to model Lorna Morgan

[Saintly]

Been there.. installed a lot of WAN links for the BBC.. don't like the lack of mobile reception once you get 5 miles out of Cardiff. from Pembroke it's a nice drive up the coast through Cardigan (first snow I got in the UK) and Porthmadog was a nice place to stay with an interesting little bridge to get in to the town. Lots of charm but you have to have your wits about you to understand the locals.