Brain? Huh?

Never mind the title; I couldn't think of anything. Anyway, it's been like, a few days since I last blogged. I know, it's shocking. But I have returned. So all's good.

Since the last post, I've been to Belgium. It was fun. Well, it had its shitty parts - but doesn't every trip? Let's start with the bus. I don't know who these buses are meant for, but it's definitely not humans. Not grown humans, anyway. See, it's as if they've built the seat big enough to accommodate you, only an inch too small on all sides. So for the whole trip, I had the metal footrest of the seat in front stuck in my knees. There was no where to put my arm because I was sat where there's a column in the window. The seats were VERY uncomfortable, and there was barely enough room under the seat for my bag. See, the overhead storage was only meant for the baggage of the mystical little people the bus was built for. Not human luggage.

I tried to get some sleep on the bus. I didn't get much of it; there was no room to lean back, nor to lean forward. And for the most part of the trip, our seats wouldn't recline. After a while, I got annoyed and angrily tugged on the lever. After that, my seat reclined. Woo! (It didn't matter for Cerys and Myf who were sat behind me and Dan because they were sat by the Fire Exit, so they had loads of room. Lucky buggers. =P)

When I woke up, my hair was stuck to the velcro on the seat in front. I was like, "Wtf?!"

Ferry was fun. Room to walk, quiet to talk, and a nice games arcade to play Time Crisis II. Ahhhh....

But then we were back on the bus. Fun. It took us to Hill 62, which is one of the trenches from the war. I walked through it with my wellies on. Yes, I'm that cool.

Now, in the trench, it was like walking through one huge puddle. You can't see where the floor dips or anything. My luck being my luck, there were pot-hole type things in the trench. And my luck being my luck, my foot went straight into it. But oh no, not just the one, but another. And another. Totaling three holes my foot went down. Which left my jeans in a rather muddy state.

Following that, we went to the graveyard. That was the depressing bit. The teachers told us to notice the age of the soldiers written on the headstones. 19, 21, 18, 24, 32. 18year-olds died in WWI. That's a mere three years older than me; and only two years older than some of you. He was just a kid.

And then there's the 32 year old guy. He probably had a family; Wife, kids. Pets, even.

The worst of all were the 'unidentified' graves. All it said on them was,

"A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR

KNOWN UNTO GOD"

Can you imagine how much grief the families must have felt? Not even knowing where their children, husbands, fathers, were buried. That's if they were buried at all; they couldn't find the bodies of some of the people. Which is even worse.

After Iwan and Josh finished reading Englynion Coffa Hedd Wyn at Hedd's grave, a little cross with a poppy on it was placed onto it. After that, we were free to walk around the graveyard and look at the people's graves. I counted in one row; there were 50 graves to a row. About 20 of them were unidentified. If they were lucky, they knew what 'uniform regiment' they were in.

I know it's depressing, but I needed to blog about it. It's just one of those things. Not being one to leave you on a rather depressing note, I think I'll tell you about the chocolate shop. We went to the town in the morning to get breakfast. I think the town was called Ypres (pronounced "Eeps", apparently), and it was FULL of chocolate shops. We passed the one, and it had a special deal on because our school goes there every year. The woman said "You are Cwm Rhymni?" After some people said yes, she beckoned them inside. When I passed, she asked "You are Cwm Rhymni also?" I confirmed. She then said, "Come, come inside. We sell you chocolate." At which point, I ran away. Literally ran. You know on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? There's a guy with a candy cart and he steals children? I felt like she was the candy man, and that she was trying to kidnap me.

But I went back later on though. I wanted chocolate (who doesn't?). The guy there was cool. He referred to us as "the Welsh ones." Probably couldn't pronounce our school's name. =P
Anyway, he said "You get de milk-a bar, you get de box of chocolates, and you get two gifts from de wall." He continued, "If you get two deal, you get tree gifts from de wall." (It's written in his accent. It's not me making spelling mistakes, I swear!

So I bought chocolate. And then I bought ice cream. It was big, and it was chocolatey. Mmm... In all, 'twas a good trip. =]

I have some pictures that I might upload later if I can be bothered.

Have fun y'all!