Chocolate and Shops!

Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!! I visited Cadbury World today in Birmingham with the International/ERASMUS group. It was such a great tour of delicious treats and chocolate history. They had an interactive tour of how chocolate came about and how Morgan Anderson started Cadbury. The free chocolate samples were a definite plus!

Discovering cocoa trees.

Hernan Cortez with the Mayans and bringing chocolate back to his home.


Where Cadbury magic began: in a tea shop. Chocolate drink was an alternative to drinking alcohol.


Creme eggs!

Advertisements through the years.


Some interesting things all made out of chocolate.


Cadbury's largest chocolate shop!



A trip into Birmingham:
Bullring Markets. It used to be a place where people brought their livestock in to sell, hence bullring. Now it is a massive market full of many different shops. Two of the main buildings were three story malls. There was also a Chinatown, open flea markets, historic buildings, and lots of good food!

Everyone wants a picture with the bull!

Caramel coffee froppo!

Cathedrals:



Council House:


Art Gallery:

Friday Football!

Nothing like a Friday night watching some real football in an area that loves the sport! Aberystwyth Town Football Club won 4-0! A fight broke out near the end resulting in 5 yellow cards and one red card! An exciting night!





http://www.atfc.org.uk/

Aberystwyth Town FC are reflecting on a historic night at Park Avenue.

Club Officials knew that the launch of the new 3G Pitch was going to be a big night and a Launch Event in the John Charles Lounge at 6pm attracted 150 of the great and the good who have been closely involved in the development. University of Aberystwyth Students were also able to claim free entry to the game thanks to a Sponsorship deal. 

What the Club never anticipated was the huge crowd the match would attract. The Marketing Team were hoping for a crowd of around 750, but the crowds keep coming and coming until the ticker reached four figures - and with queues going round the block the crowd kept on growing until it reached the incredible figure of 1168.

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This is the 18th biggest attendance in the 23 year history of the Dafabet WPL and only 39 short of Aber Town's all time highest WPL attendance of 1207 set on 27th August 2000.

The game of course went fully to plan with an incredible 65 yard opener from Keeper Chris Mullock stunning the Dias Stand, followed by further strikes from Geoff Kellaway and Luke Borrelli (two) mean that Matthew Bishop's men truly rose to the occasion and thrilled the enormous crowd with some clinical finishing.

Look! We got our picture onto the page website!! My pink hat is very distinct! :)

Conquering Snowdon!

Snowdon is Wales' highest mountain at an elevation of 1,085 meters (3,560 ft.) above sea level. It is located in Snowdonia National Park. The mountain was formed by volcanoes in the Ordovician period and sculpted by glaciation to form the pyramidal peak. It is the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland and is one of three mountains climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge. There are multiple paths that lead to the top as well as the Snowdon Mountain Railway. At the top the cafe, Hafod Eryri, sells warm refreshments and souvenirs, ~Wikipedia

Yesterday I ventured to the top of Snowdon with Aberystwyth's Hiking Club. It was quite the adventure and definitely worth it even though my knees didn't appreciate the descent. There were three options of paths to follow: easy, medium, and hard. I chose to hike the medium path and wasn't disappointed in the challenges it presented. The views were absolutely gorgeous. I could have spent a couple days there just taking pictures. Farmers had their sheep out on the mountain so every once in a while we had to open and close gates. It was really neat to see some of the animals near the summit standing on thin ledges or laying on a rock shelf with not a care that they were a couple thousand feet up, just chewing their cud. One of the guys in the club that had hiked the summit before commented that the view of mountains and lakes inspired Tolkien when writing the Lord of the Rings and the elvish is derived from Welsh!

Beginning the climb:

Cairns! People will bring rocks from the bottom of the mountain and make these piles
to mark the paths. When there's a blanket of snow the path is still marked.

Nearing the summit!

Can you spot the sheep?

The top!

Traditional pasty and hot chocolate! Yum!

The descent:

The Snowdon Mountain Railway

And yes, more sheep!

After descending Snowdon, we walked to a small town at the base and got food. The houses were such vibrant colors! I loved it!