After spending two days in Pembrokeshire we had to start travelling north to reach Manchester since the airline connections from there were much better than from Cardiff. Our final stop before returning home was in Llangollen after 4 ½ hours drive from Harverfordwest.

We arrived there in the afternoon on a Sunday and the first chore was to find an accommodation. Fortunately the tourist information office was still open and they helped us find out a bunk house in a very central location in Bridge Street at Wynnstay Arms Hotel. For £20 per person we got a crammed 8 person bunk room with barely enough space to keep our luggage inside. The room had a bathroom but this was not necessarily an advantage since some digestive systems were at the end of their shift and their products were ready. Without an extractor in the bathroom the smells were pretty much trapped in the room. (I'm sure this scenario is not mentioned in their promotional flyers.)

Langollen looks, and probably is an old town. The main street has its fair share of souvenir shops which gave the opportunity to those of us who had previously disregarded their families, to make up. With no family to take anything to I got some Irish cakes for my work mates. Probably the most prominent thing in this street is the Irish war memorial cross in front of Barclays bank. Without being disrespectful for its purpose, a good use for this cross is use it as a landmark to locate the ice-cream shop directly opposite on the other side of the street. The number of people that gather in front of the shop are enough to support my claim.

In Langollen you can practice white water rafting, kayaking, climbing, and scrambling with that 4 wheel buggy bike that I can never remember its name. Unfortunately we didn't have time for any of this fun because we had to leave early for Manchester in the morning.

At the end of their holiday everybody thought that we deserved a good meal so we had dinner at the Chinese Restaurant in front of our pub. The set menu was the best value for money option so after excessive consideration and convincing everybody agreed on it. This was our last opportunity to make some fun of people without them understanding what we're saying. I'm sure our loud laughs, finger pointing and other non verbal cues gave us away, but then what does it matter.

The following morning after a good breakfast at the pub we left for Manchester. As soon as we started approaching, the weather starter turning grey not to betray all the claims I heard about the weather in this part of England. After some window shopping and a good bargain at TkMax we went to KFC for lunch and then we went to watch the world cup game between Switzerland and Togo on the big screen in the square.

Back at the airport I had to say goodbye to my friends once again and went to catch my first Ryan Air flight back to Dublin. I made an early check-in after one of my friends told me that she wasn't allowed on a flight because she arrived late for check-in. The flight was then about 20minutes late but I had just purchased "The Art of Travel" which was keeping me good company at the gate.

Once we boarded the flight I could experience the Ryan Air experience for myself. After getting out of the gate I had to walk to the aircraft and was nodded to by the expressionless air hostess on duty. The first thing I noticed was that the flight safety sheets fixed on the bright yellow headrests. I remembered somebody saying that in order to avoid having to check each seat for the loose sheet after all passengers have disembarked they fixed the sheets to the headrest. Throughout the whole flight the flight attendants weren't idle for a minute. They were constantly zapping to and fro selling everything from refreshments to Dublin bus tickets. The last task on the air hostess list was to go around with a black garbage bag collecting any passenger garbage to avoid having somebody clean the flight after – was it that a long time ago when an air hostess was regarded as a glamours job. In Dublin we probably arrived at the furthest gate possible because the walk to the luggage belt was never-ending. However at the end of the day all I paid for the flight was £0.01 so I might as well close an eye on these small insignificant things.

Skomer Island is the Welsh puffin capital city with 6,000 pairs of birds returning each year from late March until early August. The island is a nature reserve owned by the RSPB and is an excellent place to observe seabird colonies. I might have a biased judgement because I like bird watching, but my other friends who aren't into birds have enjoyed it too, and couldn't help not falling in love with puffins.

We arrived on the island by the boat service that operates from 1st April to 31st October (except Mondays) leaving from St. Martin's Haven near the tip of Marloes Peninsula. The boats depart between 10.00 and 12.00 every hour or more if there's demand and return back between 3.00 – 4.30 pm. After we landed on the island we were given a small brief by an RSPB guide and then were left to track along the marked footpaths on the island. It's great because you get lots of time to watch birds at your own pace and can spend as much time as you like taking photos.

The puffins are the main attraction on the island and during this time of the year they're feeding their young which live in burrows under the ground, so the activity is high. You can see puffins in rafts at sea, flying around the island, resting on the ground or even hastily crossing the footpath to get to their burrow. Nothing beats a puffin that's just returned to his chicks with a fresh catch of fish. We also saw herring gulls, kittiwakes, fulmars, lesser black-backed gull, some guillemots and a grey seal masterfully spotted by Y. (The seal spotting was confirmed after a long debate whether what he was seeing was a seal or a dead cow.)

On Skomer Island there are also colonies of Manx Shearwater who like puffins lay their eggs in burrows. Unfortunately the only Manx Shearwaters we saw were dead, victims of the black backed gull which preys on these birds. The shearwaters are best suited for a life at sea and to avoid the evil gull they only return on the island late at night when there's no moon. We didn't see Gannets either, which are best seen on Grassholm, 7 miles west of Skomer.

Theme parks aren't one of those things that I tend to seek out on holiday but I always end up liking them whenever I go. The Oakwood Theme Park was about 30 minutes away from the cottage and in an effort not to loose a single minute there we arrived at quarter to 10 just about 15 minutes before it opens. From the outside the park looked like it was in need of a new paint job as the years seem to be making their mark on the park. The plan for the day was to visit all attractions in the park which amount to about 44 including all the shops and children attractions, however the main attractions were:-

Vertigo – This is the best attraction by far. Basically you’re suspended from your feet at about 48 meters above the ground and once the pulley reaches the top you pull a strap to let go and dive towards the ground. In simpler terms it’s like a bungy jump from a crane but without a bungy, and instead of bouncing back on yourself in the air you swing back up. To tell the truth I was hesitant to try it at first as I’m not very fond of heights but after some quick convincing I joined my pals on the ride, as it’s possible to do it three at a time. The split second sensation of being suspended in the air as soon as you’re released is just indescribable – it seems like nothing is happening until all of a sudden you start seeing the ground approaching at a very fast rate, only to fly back up again. This is the only ride that requires you to pay an additional charge; the charge is £33 per ride but you divide the price by the number of people doing the ride at a go, so if you’re sharing the ride with another 2 people it translates to £11 each. This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to doing a bungy jump (video footage coming soon).

Speed – This is the biggest and newest rollercoaster of the park which has a 360 degree roll and some places where you end up upside down. Like some of the other rides you have pictures taken by strategically positioned cameras and these pictures are likely to serve both as memories of the places as well as laughing matter with really cool portraits of scary expressions. (B you know what I'm talking about)

Hydro – This is a smaller roller coaster in terms of size but definitely not in terms of fun. It's a water roller coaster were you shoot down in a pool of water to make a huge splash. On the ride up we met a group of Irish school girls who had an insatiable appetite to get wet as they were on their 9th ride up the Hydro. Chatting on a rollercoaster is a brief experience until you start the descent and all you can see (and feel) is water. The Hydro is guaranteed to soak you wet.

Bounce – This ride has the looks of a space shuttle launching pad and it basically shoots you up in the sky and bounces you back down again while you're tightly secured on the ride. Nothing particularly scary, although we saw a man scream his guts out while he was shooting down.

Megafobia – This is a wooden roller coaster which is probably one of the oldest of the park. As usual with the wooden roller coasters they tend to be bumpy and very noisy so one ride is enough here.

Pirate Ship – The usual pirate ship but my stomach was thankful that this attraction had engineering problems so we couldn't ride it.

On one of the other nights we went to the Huntsman Inn which is the local pub of the area. Everybody was ravenously hungry there and we heartily eat all the dishes that came our way. I had a large portion of chicken curry with rice and chips which filled me up enough to avoid needing breakfast the following morning. The other dishes were also quite large. The atmosphere was good with a dart competition going on and Mexico playing against Angola in a World Cup match. Mixed with the pictures of dogs and beer merchandise the walls had various signs and notices like "children are welcome but not allowed after 7", "cigarettes sold only to over 21", etc., all of which seemed to be there for vintage sake (mind you there weren't either any kids or people who looked under 21 in the pub)

When I think about a holiday my mind automatically thinks "location, location, location" but this time this short break wasn't about location it was about company. The principal aim of going to Wales was to go and meet my old village friends, make fun of everything, pass wicked comments and referee the never ending male vs female debate. The expectations about Wales were virtually none, and considering I barely knew in what part of England Wales was located there was very little I could expect. This self sought ignorance served two purposed; it allowed me to be positively surprised at the bird watching opportunities Skomer Island offered, and it avoid me knowing enough to want disrupt any pre-planned itinerary of my pals.

My phobia of getting caught in Dublin's traffic compelled me to catch the 6.20am bus to the airport and off course there wasn't any traffic and I arrived 2 ½ hours before the flight. I fought my morning blues trying to read about New Zealand but I ended up getting some quizzical looks when waiting at the Aer Araan gate to board the flight to Cardiff with a NZ Lonely Planet.

The flight lasted about 50 minutes on the propeller power aircraft which considering I still working in an Airline environment I ought to know what model the plan was. Cardiff's airport is very small and bare and where it not for the weather and some European touches I compared it to a local South American airport. The accessibility and transport options are much better though, as it was only a matter of minutes till I got the shuttle bus to take me to the airport train station that takes you to Cardiff Central Station from where I got the noon train to Haverfordwest. (I told you I did nothing for this holiday, in fact one of my friends had to find the train for me – Thanks).

As I got out of the train station and put my backpack on the floor I noticed two familiar faces approaching in a Ford 7-seater van and the honking soon confirmed my visual understanding - my pals came to pick me with perfect timing. The rest of the group was busy (frustrated & pissed) trying to find an accommodation after the cottage they had pre-booked was oversold with the effect of us losing our booking. At least because of the inconvenience this caused, the lady who owned the place gave us the contact of another cottage which had room for 7 people, and since the Tourist Information Office couldn't find any better alternative we decided to go there.

It was nice meeting my friends again even though I had seen them a few days before while I was on a short visit. In the two months I've been away thankfully nobody changed; nobody grew bald, turned into a pixie or matured into a boring old moron, and their laugher is still contagious. Before the holiday I told myself that I should try to observant of my surroundings, takes lots of picture and notes to be able to write a good blog post, but I preferred chatting and enjoying my friends than playing the reporter.

The name of the cottage was Church View in Rosemarket and it turned out to be a great comfortable cottage and on the cheaper side considering everything (at £20 per person per night). The owner Owen greeted us with his friendly nature and we soon made friends with him and his black cocker spaniel Cody.

The cottage was spacious with three bed rooms, a kitchen and a sitting room with a TV not to separate me from the World Cup buzz of the moment. Behind the main building detached from our cottage there was also a laundry room and a playroom lots of books, table soccer, table hockey, play station and garden sized games like dominos and tic-tac-toe. Since I'm now traveling alone and there was no room specifically for me I had to be a killjoy to another couple. They assured me that it didn't matter and I assured them that I sleep very quick and very deeply so a compromise was easily reached.

At the back of the cottage there was a big back garden with some sheep and mountain goats and an animal that generated lost of controversy - the Lamas (or something remarkably similar). Some of us were amused by the fury scruffy animals but most of the ladies were disgusted. The lamas become such a cult that when M was being naughty she was being sent to "watch the lamas", which she later re-created in her own inimitable way. At the back there was also a small photogenic graveyard which made a good picture …

We spent the rest of the evening chilling out in the cottage feasting on Tesco easy cooking foods like pre packed Sushi (@ £1.99 for pieces), Tesco Pizza and a variety of English beers.